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Cyrillization of Japanese

Cyrillization of Japanese is the practice of expressing Japanese sounds using Cyrillic characters. It is officially accepted in Russia.

Below is a cyrillization system for the Japanese language known as the Polivanov system.

Main table

Hepburn romanization to Polivanov cyrillization correspondence table, for single/modified kana.

あ - а	い - и/й	う - у	え - э	お - о
か - ка	き - ки	く - ку	け - кэ	こ - ко
が - га	ぎ - ги	ぐ - гу	げ - гэ	ご - го
さ - са	し - си	す - су	せ - сэ	そ - со
ざ - дза	じ - дзи	ず - дзу	ぜ - дзэ	ぞ - дзо
た - та	ち - ти	つ - цу	て - тэ	と - то
だ - да	ぢ - дзи	づ - дзу	で - дэ	ど - до
な - на	に - ни	ぬ - ну	ね - нэ	の - но
は - ха	ひ - хи	ふ - фу	へ - хэ	ほ - хо
ぱ - па	ぴ - пи	ぷ - пу	ぺ - пэ	ぽ - по
ば - ба	び - би	ぶ - бу	べ - бэ	ぼ - бо
ま - ма	み - ми	む - му	め - мэ	も - мо
や - я		ゆ - ю		よ - ё
ら - ра	り - ри	る - ру	れ - рэ	ろ - ро
わ - ва	ゐ - и/й		ゑ - э	を - о
ん - н/м

Supplemental table

For contracted kana.

きゃ - кя	きゅ - кю	きょ - кё
ぎゃ - гя	ぎゅ - гю	ぎょ - гё
しゃ - ся	しゅ - сю	しょ - сё
じゃ - дзя	じゅ - дзю	じょ - дзё
ちゃ - тя	ちゅ - тю	ちょ - тё
ぢゃ - дзя	ぢゅ - дзю	ぢょ - дзё
にゃ - ня	にゅ - ню	にょ - нё
ひゃ - хя	ひゅ - хю	ひょ - хё
ぴゃ - пя	ぴゅ - пю	ぴょ - пё
びゃ - бя	びゅ - бю	びょ - бё
みゃ - мя	みゅ - мю	みょ - мё
りゃ - ря	りゅ - рю	りょ - рё

Double consonants

In the Polivanov's system consonants are doubled exactly as they do in romaji: e.g. -kk- > -кк-.

Vowel length

In the Polivanov's system vowel length is marked with either a colon after the vowel or with a macron over it: tennô > тэнно: or тэнно̄. However, in most non-linguistic texts the Japanese vowel length is not marked at all. えい is usually transcribed as эй but can be written as э:. おう is transcribed as о: but おお as оо.

Syllabic -n

Before p, b, m the syllabic -n is transcribed as м according to pronunciation; before vowels and y it is transcribed as нъ in order to indicate syllable boundary; in all other cases it is transcribed as н.

Examples
Japanese	Romaji	Cyrillic
しんぶん	shinbun	симбун
さんか	sanka	санка
かんい	kan'i	канъи
ほんや	hon'ya	хонъя

Common errors

Most often, Japanese names come to Russians not directly, but via English. In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system. People then try to transcribe Japanese names as if they were English.

Very often people want to transcribe shi as ши and ji as джи. This is incorrect, because in Russian ши is pronounced as шы and джи as джы. The Russian sound /ы/ is in fact closer to Japanese /u/ than to Japanese /i/. It would probably be closer to Japanese to write щи, but Polivanov's system uses си and дзи. Actually, Russian щи is pronounced like Japanese sshi (e.g. zasshi - magazine).

Equally often people transcribe cha, chi, chu, cho as ча, чи, чу, чо. This is acceptable phonetically, but for reasons of consistency it is better to follow the rules and write тя, ти, тю, тё.

Sometimes э is replaced with е (but, ironically, not at the beginning of a word, even though there are Roman transliterations such as "yen" and "Yedo" which one might expect to be written as ен and Едо). This is tolerable only for the words that are in general use (e.g. kamikaze > камикадзе instead of камикадзэ). But one should never replace ё (yo) with е (ye) — it will change the Japanese word too much. The initial ё (yo) or after a vowel, is often written as "йо" (yo), which has the same pronunciation: Ёкосука -> Йокосука (Yokosuka), Тоёта -> Тойота (Toyota). Although, the spelling "йо" is not common in Russian words, these are more generally accepted for Japanese names than the transliterations using "ё".

Despite the rules, some Japanese words are now spelled without following Polivanov's system or have alternative spellling: Hitachi - Хитачи (not Хитати), Toshiba - Тошиба (not Тосиба), sushi is spelled "суси" and "суши", the latter is more common.

Exceptions

Some Japanese names, for historical reasons, do not follow the above rules. These are:

Exemplars
English (Rōmaji)	Russian spelling	Cyrillization	Japanese
Japan (Nihon, Nippon)	Япония	Нихон, Ниппон	日本 (にほん, にっぽん)
Tokyo (Tōkyō)	Токио	То:кё:	東京 (とうきょう)
Kyoto (Kyōto)	Киото	Кё:то	京都 (きょうと)
Yokohama	Иокогама (also Йокохама)	Ёкохама	横浜 (よこはま)
Yokosuka	Йокосука	Ёкосука	横須賀 (よこすか)
Toyota	Тойота	Тоёта	トヨタ (originally: 豊田)
jujitsu (jūjutsu)	джиу-джитсу	дзю:дзюцу	柔術 (じゅうじゅつ)
yen (en)	иена	ен	円 (えん)

etc. Also, many of the personal names beginning with "Yo" (or used after a vowel) are written using "Йо" instead of "Ё" (e.g. Йоко for Yoko). In general, for an unknown reason, letter "Ё" is not often used in Japanese Cyrillisation, as can be seen in the above examples, even when the correct pronunciation is affected.