Romaji ⇄ Kana Converter
Romaji to hiragana and katakana, and back, exactly.
Type romaji or paste kana
It works out which direction you want, or pick one above. Everything runs on your device.
The kana chart
Click any character to add it to the box above.
This one is entirely offline. Kana map to sounds one-to-one, so conversion is a lookup rather than a guess — it is exact, and it needs no server. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere, and the page keeps working with no connection at all.
Private by design. This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your input is processed on your own device and is not uploaded by DO101.
About the Romaji ⇄ Kana Converter
Type romaji and get hiragana and katakana, or paste kana and get Hepburn romaji. It handles the parts that trip people up: small tsu for doubled consonants, contracted sounds like きゃ, the long-vowel mark, and syllabic ん. Includes a clickable kana chart and the keystrokes for typing each character.
How to use it
- 1Type romaji, or paste kana — the direction is worked out for you.
- 2Read the hiragana, katakana and romaji side by side.
- 3Check the keystrokes if you want to type it yourself.
- 4Use the kana chart to build text character by character.
What you get
- Romaji to hiragana and katakana, and kana back to Hepburn romaji
- Handles small tsu, contracted sounds, long vowels and syllabic ん
- Accepts the alternative spellings a Japanese IME accepts, such as si for し
- A clickable hiragana and katakana chart
- Keystrokes for each character on a Japanese IME
- Read aloud with your device's Japanese voice
- Entirely offline — nothing is sent anywhere
Frequently asked questions
Which romanisation does it use?
Modified Hepburn, the system used on Japanese road signs and passports and taught in most courses. So し is shi rather than si, and つ is tsu rather than tu.
Is the conversion exact?
Yes, for kana. Kana map to sounds one-to-one, so this is a lookup rather than a judgement. Kanji is a different matter and needs the translator tool, which says where its readings are approximate.
Why does typing "konnichiwa" give こんにちは and not こんいちは?
Because the converter follows the same rule a Japanese IME does: "nn" followed by a vowel makes ん and then starts a new syllable with the second n. That is why the word you type every day comes out right.
Does it work offline?
Yes, completely. The conversion tables ship with the page, so once it has loaded there is nothing to fetch.
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