Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Japan-related articles

To write and edit Japan-related articles, please follow these conventions. See:

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style for the general case;
• Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles)/Translation note for appropriate translation terms.

English words of Japanese origin

The en:Wikipedia is an English language encyclopedia. An English loan word or place name with a Japanese origin should be used in its most commonly used English form in the body of an article, even if it is pronounced or spelled differently from the properly romanized Japanese: use Mount Fuji, Tokyo, jujutsu, shogi, instead of Fujisan, Tōkyō, jūjutsu, shōgi. Give the romanized Japanese form in the opening paragraph if it differs from the English form (see below).

There are some Japanese loan words that are usually pluralized according to English usage (although this usage may sound odd to native Japanese speakers), such as tsunami, tycoon, and futon (which take the plurals tsunamis, tycoons, and futons). For more specialized Japanese words where English-language speakers are often familiar with Japanese word usage, such as koi, sushi, haiku, anime, ronin, or dojo, the word is usually the same for both singular and plural forms. For a few words, such as geisha and kamikaze, you can often find either form of pluralization used. When in doubt, it is probably best to check with a dictionary as a resource (for example, the Merriam Webster website for American English-usage).

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English).

Romanisation

Wikipedia uses the Hepburn romanisation because it is generally accepted by scholars and it gives a fair indication of Japanese pronunciation to the intended audience of English speakers. People who care about other romanization systems are knowledgeable enough to look after themselves. Macrons should be used in all cases outside of those specifically mentioned below.

Take care with these points regarding usage in article body text (anything that is not the title of the article):

1. Long o and u are written with macrons as ō and ū respectively. If you have difficulty typing these characters with your IME, you can now click on the special characters below the Wikipedia edit box. You can also enter the HTML entity ō for ō, and ū for ū. All other long vowels are written with without macrons: ああ → aa, いい → ii, and ええ → ee.
2. は, ヘ and を as particles are written wa, e, and o respectively.
3. Syllabic n ん is generally written n (see below).
4. Syllabic n ん is written n' when followed by a vowel or y but not when followed by another n.
5. Do not capitalize suffixes in the titles of historical periods and events, such as Edo period, Tokugawa shogunate, and Recruit scandal.
6. Names should be romanized according to common usage (see below), which includes unconventional romanizations by licensees (e.g., Devil Hunter Yohko and Tenjho Tenge).

The original version of Hepburn used m when syllabic n ん is followed by b, m, or p. While generally deprecated, this is still allowed in titles for cases where the official romanisation continues to use m (examples: Asahi Shimbun, Namba Station). Use Google to check popularity if in doubt, and create a redirect from the n version.

Article titles

Article titles should follow all of the points above, with the following exceptions:

1. Article titles should omit apostrophes after syllabic n.
2. Article titles should use macrons except in cases where the macronless spelling is in common usage in English-speaking countries (e.g., Tokyo, Osaka, Sumo and Shinto, instead of Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Sumō and Shintō).
3. Where macrons are used in the title, an appropriate redirect using the macronless spelling should also be created which points to the actual title (e.g., Tessho Genda pointing to Tesshō Genda).

Alphabetic order

Lists of romanized words in the English Wikipedia should be ordered in alphabetic order, A-Z, instead of the common Japanese ordering system which is based on the kana characters. In the case of names, alphabetize by surname, not by given name.

Japanese terms

Give the romanization for any name or term written in kanji or kana when the Japanese pronunciation is different from the English pronunciation. Use the pattern:

English (Japanese characters rōmaji)

Then you can use the English term in the rest of the article.

For example:

At 3,776 meters (12,388 feet) tall, Mount Fuji (富士山 Fuji-san) is the highest mountain on the island of Honshu …

Template

There is a template (Template:Nihongo) to help standardize the entries for Japanese terms.

Usage example:

{{Nihongo|New Meikai Japanese Dictionary|新明解国語辞典|Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten}}

appears as

New Meikai Japanese Dictionary (新明解国語辞典, Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten)

The first entry appears before the brackets, the second is the Japanese term in Kanji and Kana, the last is the reading in Hepburn romanization. The question mark ^? is a link to Help:Japanese.

Names

This section defines the proper way to write Japanese names on the English Wikipedia. If you are unsure of how to write a name after reading the information below, please post your question on the Talk page. Please note that in all cases, a redirect should be employed for any commonly-used romanization other than that indicated here in order to cover alternate usages.

Names of historical figures

For an article about a historical figure (a person born before the first year of Meiji (1868)), always use the traditional Japanese order of family name + given name. Names from Japanese mythology and folklore fall into this category. For example:

Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康, January 30, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate …

Macron usage in the name of an historical figure should adhere to the following, in order of preference:

1. Use name most commonly used in academic journals and texts;
2. Use the form found in a dictionary entry from a generally-accepted English dictionary;
3. If none of the above is available, use the macronned form.

Names of modern figures

For an article about a modern figure (a person born from the first year of Meiji (1868) onward), always use the Western order of given name + family name. For example:

Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎 Koizumi Jun'ichirō, born January 8, 1942) is a Japanese politician …

Macron usage in the name of a modern figure should adhere to the following, in order of preference:

1. Use the official trade name if available in English/Latin alphabet;
2. Use the form found in a dictionary entry from a generally-accepted English dictionary;
3. Use the form publicly used on behalf of the person in the English-speaking world;
4. Use the form publicly used on behalf of the person in any other popular Latin-alphabet-using language (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Dutch, or variations); or
5. If none of the above is available, use the macronned form.

Pseudonyms

In the case of an actor, athlete, author, artist or other individual who is more well known under a pseudonym, use the pseudonym as the article title, and note the additional names they may use (e.g., birth name, other pseudonyms).

If the individual is more well known by family name + given name, a redirect for that should be used as well, and the article should note the multiple ways the name is used.

Names of emperors

For Japanese emperors prior to Emperor Hirohito, including emperors from both the northern and southern courts during the Nanboku-cho Era, use the form [[Emperor {name}]], which is a partial translation of their posthumous name. Note that the word Emperor is an integral part of the name and not merely a title, so it should be capitalized and the article the should not appear before it. It is also acceptable to refer to a Japanese emperor using only the {name} portion of their name, so long as the first appearance of the name uses the above format. Be sure to create appropriate redirects so that the version of the name without the title will bring the reader to the correct location.

For Emperor Hirohito, although he too has been posthumously named Emperor Shōwa, it is also acceptable to refer to him as Emperor Hirohito, or just Hirohito, as that is the name by which he continues to be most widely known in the West. Similarly the current emperor may be referred to as Emperor Akihito, or just Akihito. Note that it is incorrect to refer to Emperor Akihito as Emperor Heisei, as he will not be renamed Emperor Heisei until after his death.

Names of fictional characters

For an article about or referring to a fictional character (i.e., a character from a movie, a novel, manga or anime), adhere to the following, in order of preference:

1. Use the romanization found in official English-language versions of the product.
2. Use the romanization found in official Japanese-language versions of the product;
3. If none of the above is available, use a direct Japanese-to-English transliteration of the name (e.g., ワラトルマン → Waratoruman).

Place names

For prefectures, use the form [[{prefecture-name} Prefecture]] without ken, fu, or to, for example, Tochigi Prefecture. As an exception, use the title Hokkaido Prefecture (as Hokkai Prefecture sounds quite awkward.)

For cities, use the form [[{city-name}, {prefecture-name}]]; for example, Otaru, Hokkaido.

For districts, use the form [[{district-name} District, {prefecture-name}]]; for example, Tosa District, Kochi.

For towns and villages, use the form [[{town or village-name}, {prefecture-name}]]; for example, Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi.

For wards in cities, use the form [[{ward-name}-ku, {city-name}]]; for example, Naka-ku, Yokohama.

For the 23 special wards in Tokyo, use the form [[{ward-name}, Tokyo]]; for example, Shibuya, Tokyo.

Suffixes

Capitalize suffixes in place names. For example, Tochigi Prefecture; Kashima District, Ibaraki; Ise Province; Himeji Castle; Tokyo Station.

Temples and shrines

Use the Japanese name and insert a hyphen before bō (坊), dō (堂), in (院), ji (寺), gū (宮), sha (社), taisha (大社) and tera/dera (寺). However, write the English word "Shrine" in place of jinja (神社) and jingū (神宮). Use common name instead of formal name (Kinkaku-ji, not Rokuon-ji; Yama-dera, not Risshaku-ji). All words are capitalized and place/personal names should be offset with a space. Use redirects liberally.

Do not add the word "Temple" into the title. Do not write English translations of names in article titles (where appropriate, they are welcome within the article, e.g. "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). Do not prefix -san names (山号) (e.g. do not write "Kinryuzan Sensoji"; simply write "Sensoji"), unless absolutely necessary to distinguish famous temples of the same name and provide a disambiguation page, for example, Kaikozan Hase-dera and Buzan Kagura-in Hase-dera.

Examples:

• Temples: Sensō-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Sanjūsangen-dō, Byōdō-in
• Shrines: Nikkō Tōshō-gū, Fushimi Inari-taisha but Meiji Shrine (Meiji-jingu), Oyama Shrine (Oyama-jinja)

Train and Subway stations

• The default name is X Station.
• When necessary, disambiguate by geographical location: Y Station -> Y Station (Prefecture) -> Y Station (Prefecture, City).
• Stations on private lines that have the same name as other train or subway stations in the same prefecture are disambiguated as PrivateCo Z Station. For example, the main JR station in Nara is at Nara Station while the Kintetsu station in Nara is at Kintetsu Nara Station.

Names of companies, products, and organizations

Honor the current spelling used officially by that party (i.e., Kodansha rather than Kōdansha, Doshisha University rather than Dōshisha University). If the entity no longer exists, use the most commonly used format. If this can not be determined, use the Hepburn romanization as defined here.

Names in titles

If the name in question is a title (i.e., of a book, an award, etc.), the name order within the title itself should not be changed. For example, the Ina Nobuo Award should not be changed to Nobuo Ina Award even though Nobuo Ina is a modern figure as defined below. However, a redirect pointing at Ina Nobuo Award should be put in place for Nobuo Ina Award in order to avoid any possible confusion.

Interwiki links

When linking to the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia, omit spaces from the page name. For example a page beginning

Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎 Koizumi Jun'ichirō, born January 8, 1942) …

must be linked as [[ja:小泉純一郎]].

Using Japanese characters on the English Wikipedia

Since the conversion of the English Wikipedia to the use of the UTF-8 character encoding, most characters used around the world can be directly used in Wikipedia articles. Since these characters are supported by the UTF-8 standard they are no longer converted to character references, with the exception of a few characters reserved for usage in HTML, such as the ampersand.

However, please be aware that many users from Western countries have not installed the fonts needed to display kanji and kana.

See also

• Glossary:Japanese film credit terms
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Martial Arts