Japan Changed How Romaji Is Spelled: “Shi,” Not “Si”
— Cabinet Notification No. 4 of 2025

1. Is it si or shi?

Seven spellings change.

The remaining kana do not change. ぢ and づ are written ji and zu, the same as じ and ず, and を is written o, the same as お.

2. Kunrei-shiki and Hepburn

There was never only one way to write Japanese in roman letters. There are two main ones.

Kunrei-shiki writes si, ti, tu, hu, zi. This is what Japanese elementary schools have been teaching. The name comes from a cabinet directive of 1937.

Hepburn writes shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji. This is what you see on station signs, in passports and on road signs.

The same place name, 新宿, is Sinzyuku in Kunrei-shiki and Shinjuku in Hepburn.

The 1954 notification carried the two separately, as Table 1 and Table 2. Table 1 was Kunrei-shiki, described in the report as the way “to write the national language in general.” Table 2 held the Hepburn spellings that differ from Table 1, together with the Nippon-shiki spellings.

Schools taught Kunrei-shiki while the streets were full of Hepburn. That went on for 70 years. The report of the Council for Cultural Affairs puts it this way.

Table 1, which was supposed to be the principle, never took root. The present revision follows that reality.

3. One table instead of two

The new notification drops the division into Table 1 and Table 2. In the words of the summary of the report:

It is made up of a preface, the main table, supplementary notes and an (appended) comparison table. The Kunrei-shiki spellings have left the main table and remain in the comparison table.

At the end of the new notification stands the line “Cabinet Notification No. 1 of 1954 is hereby abolished.”

4. Not quite Hepburn

The spellings on station signs and in passports did not simply move in. They differ in two places.

ん is n even before b, m and p

Hepburn has a convention of writing ん as m before b, m and p — the shimbun and Gumma forms. The new notification does not take it.

The supplementary notes state that ン “is written n, as shown in the examples.” かんぱい is kanpai, あんまん is anman. You write n without minding the sound that follows.

っ is written by doubling the consonant letter

てっぱん is teppan. So far the same. The difference is before ch: Hepburn has a convention of writing にっちょく as nitchoku, but the new notification gives nicchoku.

5. Long vowels

The supplementary notes say a long vowel is “shown by placing a mark (‘¯’) over the vowel letter.” おかあさん is okāsan.

There are many settings where the mark cannot be typed. The summary of the report says that “where the long-vowel mark is not used, the method of writing the vowel letters in a row is to be made known,” so okaasan remains open as well.

Which one you use depends on the setting. A printed worksheet can carry the mark; an email address or a search box cannot. With children I think it causes less confusion to say at the start that either is fine.

Personal names and organization names are a separate matter. The summary says this.

If Mr. 大野 has been writing Ohno, that stays as it is.

6. What becomes of Kunrei-shiki

The Q&A from the National Language Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (February 2026) asks it directly.

Open the third-grade learning material published by Mitsumura Tosho and the し in the romaji table appears as shi (si) — the new spelling with the old one beside it in parentheses. ち, つ, ふ and じ are the same. It is built like the (appended) comparison table of the notification.

Passports and road signs

Question 54 of the Q&A says: “For romaji rules that are used and have become established in each field, such as passports, immediate change is not being asked for.” The spelling in the passport you hold stays as it is.

Romaji input

How you type does not change either. The summary says it “asks for no change whatsoever to input methods and the like.” Question 46 of the Q&A notes that input uses a method following Nippon-shiki, and that to produce ぢ, づ and the particle を you type di, du and wo.

7. Schools and textbooks

Romaji is covered in third-grade Japanese language. On school education, the summary of the report says this.

No timing is specified. The actual movement is coming from the textbook publishers. Three major publishers have released their guidance for the 2026 school year, and are providing replacement and supplementary materials free of charge.

The one that states the timing plainly is Tokyo Shoseki.

The second-term volumes change over first. The first-term volumes are covered by the supplementary materials, with worksheets bridging the gap until the books are reprinted.

Grades are treated differently

Mitsumura Tosho’s guidance says this about grades 5 and 6.

Grades 3 and 4 have learning materials prepared; for grades 5 and 6 it is not required. The older the children, the more places are left where they finish with the old spelling.

Question 24 of the Q&A also records that some elementary Japanese-language textbooks based on the old notification write 兄さん as nîsan. Forms using the mark have been in actual use as well.

8. Telling which spelling a worksheet uses

Look for the five kana し・ち・つ・ふ・じ. If si, ti, tu, hu, zi appear, it follows the old Table 1. If shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji appear, it matches the new main table.

The reverse does not hold, because the old notification allowed shi too by way of Table 2. Read it together with the date the material was issued.

Closing

It is the first replacement in 70 years, but what changed is the standard for writing from now on. The passport you hold, the signs, the business cards are all fine as they are. Textbooks change over from the second-term volumes of October 2026 onward.

What I have written here is one way of organizing what the notification and the Q&A say. How it is handled in schools varies by region and by textbook, and the worksheets being handed out differ from school to school. If something conflicts with the textbook in front of you, that is what is actually happening on the ground.