Kunrei

Kunrei-shiki rōmaji (訓令式ローマ字) is a Cabinet-ordered romanization system to transcribe the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. It is abbreviated as Kunrei-shiki. Its name is rendered Kunreisiki using Kunrei-shiki itself.

Kunrei-shiki is sometimes known as the Monbushō system in English because it is taught in the Monbushō-approved elementary school curriculum. The ISO has standardized Kunrei-shiki, under ISO 3602.

Kunrei-shiki is based on the older Nihon-shiki (Nipponsiki) system, which was modified for modern standard Japanese. For example, the word かなづかい, romanized kanadukai in Nihon-shiki, is pronounced kanazukai in standard modern Japanese and is romanized as such in Kunrei-shiki.

Kunrei-shiki competes with the older Hepburn romanization system, which was promoted by the authorities during the Allied occupation of Japan, after World War II.

Before World War II, there was a political conflict between supporters of Hepburn romanization and supporters of Nihon-shiki romanization. In 1930, a board of inquiry, under the aegis of the Minister of Education, was established to determine the proper romanization system. The Japanese government, by cabinet order (訓令 kunrei), announced on September 21, 1937 that a modified form of Nihon-shiki would be officially adopted as Kunrei-shiki. The form at the time differs slightly from the modern form. Originally, the system was called the Kokutei (国定, government-authorized) system.

The Japanese government gradually introduced Kunrei-shiki, which appeared in secondary education, on railway station signboards, on nautical charts, and on the 1:1,000,000 scale International Map of the World. While the central government had strong control, from 1937 to 1945, the Japanese government used Kunrei-shiki in its tourist brochures. In Japan, some use of Nihon-shiki and Modified Hepburn remained, however, because some individuals supported the use of those systems.

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