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The Agency for Cultural Affairs is soliciting public comments about its plans to change romanization rules of the Japanese language for the first time in about 70 years.

A subcommittee of the Subdivision on the Japanese Language of the Council for Cultural Affairs, an advisory panel, proposed using the Hepburn romanization system, in principle.

The system, adopted by American missionary James Curtis Hepburn in the late 19th century, uses spellings close to English.

It has been widely used in Japan, such as on station and road signs as well as passports.

However, a different method, called Kunrei-shiki, is defined as the standard romanization system under a Cabinet notification issued in 1954.

The education ministry’s curriculum guidelines call for Kunrei-shiki to be mainly taught at elementary schools.

Kunrei-shiki, originally established by a Cabinet decree issued in 1937, uses regular combinations of a consonant and a vowel.

For example, Kunrei-shiki uses “si” and “ti” where Hepburn uses “shi” and “chi.”

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A sign of Toei Subway Tsukijishijo Station includes a name romanized based on the Hepburn system. Kunrei-shiki spells it as “Tukizisizyo,” with “o” capped by a circumflex.

While the advisory panel’s revision plan is based on Hepburn, the council proposed certain differences.

In Hepburn, a long vowel sound is often indicated with a macron ( ¯ ), or it may not be accompanied by any diacritic.

The revision plan calls for adding a macron, as a standard practice, but allows for using a combination of two vowels instead.

For example, “okami” (wolf) would be written as “ōkami” or “ookami.”

The latter option was included because it may be burdensome to add a macron on electronic devices.

Hepburn uses “m” if the consonant “n” is followed by “b,” “m” or “p,” as in “shimbun” (newspaper).

However, the revision plan calls for using “n” as a standard practice.

Agency officials said they will not ask for immediate changes to the proposed romanization system.

The revision plan allows for not using any diacritic for a long vowel, as in “judo,” or adding “h,” as in “Ohtani” for the Los Angeles Dodgers star. Both are widely used internationally.

In addition, Nihombashi, a district of Tokyo, has long been spelled with “m,” instead of “n,” although the consonant is followed by “b.”

Agency officials emphasized they have no intention of determining that the proposed romanization system is better than other popular methods.

Public comments to the revision plan are being accepted in Japanese at the agency’s website until Jan. 13.

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