Japanese alphabet: hiragana and katakana charts, kanji and your name in Japanese

The Japanese alphabet isn't really an alphabet

When people look up the Japanese alphabet, they expect something like A, B, C: one letter for each sound. Japanese doesn't work that way. It uses three writing systems at the same time, and a single sentence often mixes all three:

• Hiragana: a syllabary. Each character is a full syllable, such as か (ka) or み (mi).
• Katakana: a second syllabary with the same sounds and straighter strokes.
• Kanji: characters borrowed from Chinese that stand for ideas or whole words.

That's why linguists talk about syllabaries rather than an alphabet. Everyday speech still calls them Japanese letters or the Japanese alphabet, and so do we here. The key point is that when you copy a Japanese letter, you're almost always copying a syllable, not a single consonant. The only exceptions are the five vowels (あ, い, う, え, お) and ん, which sounds like an n at the end of a syllable.

How many letters are in the Japanese alphabet?

Hiragana and katakana have 46 basic characters each. Add the versions with ゛ and ゜ and the combinations with small characters, and each syllabary goes past a hundred combinations. Kanji are a different story: there are thousands. The usual benchmark is the official list of kanji for general use, the jōyō kanji, which the Japanese government published in 2010 with 2,136 characters. It's the guideline followed by laws, official documents and newspapers.

Hiragana: the basic Japanese syllabary

Hiragana is the first thing every Japanese learner studies, and the first script Japanese children learn to read. Its strokes are rounded, and it's used for everything that isn't written in kanji: grammatical particles, verb and adjective endings, and words that have no kanji or whose kanji is rare. It also appears in small print above difficult kanji to show how they're read.

The chart is organized in rows by consonant (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w) and in columns by vowel (a, i, u, e, o). This order is called gojūon, "the fifty sounds", even though only 46 are used today. The hiragana chart in the tool follows the same order: type a syllable in romaji in the search box to find it right away.

Dakuten, handakuten and small kana

A few marks turn those 46 characters into every sound in Japanese:

• Dakuten (゛): two small strokes that voice the consonant. か (ka) becomes が (ga), さ (sa) becomes ざ (za), た (ta) becomes だ (da) and は (ha) becomes ば (ba).
• Handakuten (゜): a small circle that turns the h row into p. は (ha) becomes ぱ (pa).
• Combinations (yōon): a syllable ending in i followed by a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ makes sounds like きゃ (kya), しゅ (shu) or ちょ (cho).
• Small っ: doubles the next consonant, as in きって (kitte, postage stamp).

Three characters have a twist: when they work as particles, は is read "wa", へ is read "e" and を is read "o". That's why こんにちは is pronounced konnichiwa even though it ends in は.

Katakana: the syllabary for foreign words

Katakana has the same sounds as hiragana, written with straight, angular strokes. It's mainly used for:

• Words borrowed from other languages, such as テレビ (terebi, TV) or コーヒー (kōhī, coffee).
• Names of people, cities and brands from outside Japan. That's why your name is written in katakana.
• Sound effects, scientific names of plants and animals, and words that need to stand out, much like italics or bold in English.

For sounds Japanese doesn't have, katakana pairs a character with a small one: ファ (fa), ティ (ti), ディ (di) or ウィ (wi). The v sound is written with ヴ and its combinations (ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴェ), although many words use b instead. The long dash ー stretches the vowel before it: it's what separates コヒ from コーヒー. You'll find all these forms in the katakana chart in the tool, along with the small ァ, ィ, ゥ, ェ, ォ and ッ.

Kanji: Japanese characters with meaning

Kanji came to Japan from China, and each one stands for an idea rather than a sound: 山 is mountain, 水 is water and 人 is person. Many have two kinds of reading. The on'yomi comes from the Chinese pronunciation, and the kun'yomi is the original Japanese word. 山 is read san in 富士山 (Fujisan) and yama on its own. That's why some kanji in the tool show two readings separated by a slash.

Kanji combine to form words. 日 (sun, day) and 本 (origin) make 日本, Japan; 平 and 和 make 平和, peace. Many people searching for Japanese words with meaning want exactly this: a word with a nice meaning for a gift, a drawing or a profile. The kanji section of the tool lists basic kanji with their meanings and popular words such as 家族 (family), 希望 (hope) and 自由 (freedom).

The kanji for love and other popular words

The kanji for love is 愛 (ai), one of the most popular Japanese symbols. It's part of 愛してる (aishiteru), the strongest way to say "I love you". Other popular picks are 心 (heart, mind), 力 (strength), 夢 (dream), 龍 (dragon) and 和 (harmony). If you plan to use one on something permanent, read the section on tattoos first.

Romaji: Japanese written with English letters

Romaji is Japanese written in the Latin alphabet. You see it on station signs, brand names and textbooks for learners. It's also how you type Japanese on a computer: you type in romaji and the system turns it into kana or kanji. The most widely used romanization outside Japan is Hepburn, which writes shi, chi, tsu, fu and ji.

The "From romaji" tab of the converter accepts Hepburn and also keyboard-style romaji (si, ti, tu, hu, zi), so you can type whichever you're used to. A few tips for clean results:

• For a small っ, double the consonant: kitte gives きって.
• To lengthen a vowel in katakana, type a hyphen: ko-hi- gives コーヒー.
• If ん comes before a vowel, separate it with an apostrophe: kin'en gives きんえん.
• For a single small character, type an x first: xtsu gives っ and xya gives ゃ.

This tab works syllable by syllable. It doesn't translate or pick kanji: it gives you the hiragana and katakana spelling of what you type. If you want your name in Japanese as it sounds, the "Name or word" tab does the adaptation for you.

How to write your name in Japanese the right way

English names aren't translated into Japanese. Instead, their sound is adapted to Japanese syllables and written in katakana, with a middle dot (・) between the first and last name. Emma becomes エマ (ema) and Michael becomes マイケル (maikeru). There's no single correct version: two people can adapt the same name slightly differently and both be right. These are the basic rules behind it:

• Sound matters, not spelling. Sarah and Sara are both サラ (sara), and Christopher becomes クリストファー (kurisutofā).
• There's no L in Japanese. The r row is used instead: Emily becomes エミリー (emirī) and Daniel, ダニエル (danieru).
• Lone consonants need a vowel. After a final consonant Japanese usually adds a u, or an o after t and d: Mark becomes マーク (māku) and David, デイビッド (deibiddo).
• Long vowels take a dash. The ー in エミリー or ジェニファー (Jennifer) stretches the vowel before it.
• V usually turns into b. Kevin becomes ケビン (kebin) and Oliver, オリバー (oribā).

Japanese name converter: how the tool spells your name

The "Name or word" tab works as a Japanese name converter. It first looks up your name in a dictionary of about 260 English, Spanish and Catalan names with the spelling used in Japan, like Jessica ジェシカ, Charlotte シャーロット, Ashley アシュリー or José ホセ. If your name isn't there, it spells it by sound with basic pronunciation rules plus a few English ones (a silent final e, ee and oo as long vowels, ph as f), and it tells you the result is an approximation. Short, regular names usually come out well, like Smith スミス (sumisu), but less common spellings may differ from the one used in Japan. First and last names are separated by the middle dot: テイラー・スウィフト (Taylor Swift).

If it's for a tattoo, a gift or a document, check the result against another source or ask someone who speaks Japanese, especially if your name is rare. To adjust a syllable, type it your way in the "From romaji" tab. A name with an accent or ñ, like José or Begoña, is read the Spanish way.

The fake Japanese letters A to Z chart

A chart that matches a Japanese symbol to each English letter has been going around social media for years: a = ka, b = tu, c = mi... If you write your name with it, the result means nothing and no Japanese reader will see your name in it. Japanese has no letters for a single b or c; it has syllables. The right way is the one described above: split the name into syllables by sound and write each one in katakana.

Japanese phrases: greetings and common words with meaning

The tool also has a group of Japanese phrases to copy: 36 greetings and useful phrases and 39 common words, each with its Japanese spelling, romaji reading and meaning. They're written the way a Japanese speaker would write them, mixing all three scripts: 友達 (tomodachi, friend) is in kanji, アメリカ (amerika, America) in katakana and ありがとう (arigatō, thank you) in hiragana.

In Japanese, the same idea changes with the level of politeness, so it helps to know when to use each phrase:

• ありがとう (arigatō) is "thanks" among friends; ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) is the polite form you'll hear in stores and restaurants.
• こんばんは (konbanwa) means "good evening" when you arrive, and おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai) is "good night" before going to bed.
• すみません (sumimasen) works as "excuse me", "sorry" and even "thanks for the trouble"; ごめんなさい (gomen nasai) is a more personal apology.
• いただきます (itadakimasu) is said before a meal and ごちそうさまでした (gochisōsama deshita) after it.

How to say hello, thank you and I love you in Japanese

These are three of the most searched phrases. Hello is こんにちは (konnichiwa), used mostly during the day; thank you is ありがとう (arigatō); and I love you is 愛してる (aishiteru), although people in Japan rarely say it and prefer 大好き (daisuki) in everyday life. You don't have to look for them in the grid: type "thank you" or "I love you" in the "Name or word" tab and you'll see the translation with its reading. The converter recognizes about 75 common words and phrases, plus the kanji with meanings, but it isn't a full sentence translator: for a long text or anything you plan to publish, use a professional translator.

Beautiful Japanese words to copy

The Japanese words in the group include everyday vocabulary, like 猫 (neko, cat), 犬 (inu, dog) or 家 (ie, home), and words people pick for what they convey, for a note, a dedication or a profile name: 星 (hoshi, star), 海 (umi, sea), 笑顔 (egao, smile), 命 (inochi, life) or 世界 (sekai, world). The kanji group adds others with a strong meaning, like 希望 (kibō, hope), 自由 (jiyū, freedom) and 幸せ (shiawase, happiness).

Japanese letters for tattoos, logos and social media

Plenty of people look for Japanese letters for a tattoo, a T-shirt, a business logo or a profile name. Copying them from here guarantees each character is correct, but not that the word or phrase is. Before you put something on your skin or on a product:

• Check with a native speaker or a professional translator. One extra stroke changes the meaning, and machine translation struggles with short phrases that have no context.
• Pick the script on purpose. A kanji carries an idea (愛, love), katakana reads as foreign and hiragana feels softer.
• Choose the direction. Japanese can be written horizontally, left to right, or vertically, in top-to-bottom columns read from right to left.
• Mind the typeface. A brush font and a sans serif font look nothing alike.

If you use the name converter, check the note under the result: it tells you whether the spelling comes from the dictionary or is an approximation by sound that you should confirm.

For logos, signage or packaging with Japanese characters, professional graphic design makes the difference: the font, weight and spacing are what make the text look authentic rather than pasted on. On Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp, copy and paste is enough, because current phones display these characters without trouble.

Japanese symbols and kaomoji explained

Besides its letters, Japanese has its own punctuation. The full stop is a small circle (。) and the comma slants (、). Quotation marks are corner brackets: 「 」 for regular quotes and 『 』 for titles of works or quotes within quotes. The middle dot ・ separates foreign words, such as a first and last name in katakana, and 々 repeats the previous kanji, as in 人々 (hitobito, people). There are everyday symbols too, like 〒, which goes before a postal code, and ￥, the yen sign.

Kaomoji (顔文字, "face characters") are text emoticons that started in Japan. Unlike the classic Western :-), you read them straight on without tilting your head: (^_^) is a smile and (T_T) is crying. They're built from characters of different scripts, so they work anywhere you can paste text. If you'd rather have full-color pictures, you'll find nearly 1,900 emojis to copy and paste in another DigiAcción tool.

How to copy and paste Japanese characters without empty boxes

Every Japanese character has its own code in Unicode, the standard used by all computers and phones. Hiragana takes up the block from U+3040 to U+309F and katakana the block from U+30A0 to U+30FF; you can see it in Unicode's official hiragana chart. When you click a character in the tool, that exact character is copied, not an image, so you can paste it into a document, a message or a search bar.

If you see empty boxes or question marks after pasting, the problem is almost never the character but the font: the app doesn't have a typeface with Japanese characters. Change the font or update your system. If you write in Japanese often, it's worth turning on the Japanese keyboard; Microsoft covers its options and shortcuts in its guide to the Japanese IME for Windows.

On a website, whether these characters display properly depends on how it's built: UTF-8 encoding, fonts that include Japanese and the language declared correctly in the code. We take care of these details in every web design project, especially multilingual ones.

A free romaji to hiragana converter by DigiAcción

This Japanese alphabet tool is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser with nothing to install, on desktop and mobile. It was built by DigiAcción, a digital marketing agency in Andorra based in La Massana that works with companies in Andorra, Spain and other countries.

Our day-to-day work is web design, SEO, GEO or AI search optimization, Google Ads and Meta Ads campaigns, video, graphic design and online stores. We publish free tools like this one to handle specific tasks without downloading software: copying the Japanese alphabet, looking up a kanji, finding how to say thank you in Japanese or writing your name in katakana in a few seconds.