Type in your name and my free Japanese translation service will show you how to write your name in Japanese.
Added to that, you will be introduced in the 4 different ways for writing Japanese words.
Learn to write Japanese
There are 4 different ways of writing a Japanese name: 3 ways using Japanese writing and 1 way using the normal roman alphabet.
Japanese language courses become difficult when you want to be able to read and write Japanese.
If you want to speak Japanese fluently and quickly e.g. just before traveling to Japan, then follow or buy a course where they do use roman characters for writing Japanese words like this great audio Japanese course (only $99.95).
Today’s Japanese language class is based on snippets from Rocket Japanese.
How to write my name – Tanaka Yoshiko – in Japanese?
3 ways how to write my name – Tanaka Yoshiko – in Japanese
1. Writing your name in Kanji Japanese characters
Kanji Japanese characters are based on Chinese characters. They are like pictures representing a word.
For example, a Chinese character that means “mountain” would have originated from a drawing of a mountain:
Learn how to write Japanese kanji characters
My name : Ta Naka Yoshi Ko written in Japanese Kanji as below, translates as:
Japanese writing translation of this particular Kanji for the Japanese name Ta Naka Yoshi Ko: “A good child in the middle of a rice field”
Another Yoshiko, however, may use a different Japanese writing in Kanji like : 
The Japanese writing translation of these Kanji characters mean “beautiful child” and it still is reads as “Yoshiko.”
So when someone asks a Japanese person to translate their name, the translation only make sense when you see the Japanese characters used for that name!
2. Writing a Japanese name in Hiragana
Writing Japanese words in Hiragana is a way of using a combination out of 46 “Hiragana Characters”.
Each character represents a syllable. Unlike kanji, these characters do not have any meaning on their own.
When the Japanese first wrote down their language many centuries ago, they borrowed characters from the Chinese language. They still use them in today’s modern Japanese language.
As the Chinese characters alone did not fit the Japanese language very well, the Japanese invented hiragana and katakana.
There are 46 hiragana and katakana characters each and both are used to represent the same sounds.
- Hiragana came to be used mainly in the Japanese language in conjunction with kanji and
- katakana came to be reserved for foreign original words.
3. Writing a western name in Katakana
How to write the Japanese name “Tanaka Yoshiko” in katakana? Like in the picture above. Do note that a Japanese name is usually not written in katakana.
A foreign name, for example, will be usually written using katakana. Anything within the sound system of the Japanese language can be written down using them:
- The Japanese pronounce Jennifer as Jenifaa and write it in katakana as such:
How to write “Jenifaa” (Jennifer) in Japanese katakana characters
Writing Japanese in Romaji
The last way to write Japanese names is the “easy” way: using western letters.
This way of writing Japanese words is called romaji (or Romanized characters) which allows you to write down what you say using the letters you use in the English alphabet.
Tanaka Yoshiko is exactly that: writing a Japanese name in romaji – Romanized characters.
How to write your name in Japanese?
Please leave me a comment with your name, and I will add it in katakana Japanese writing for you 🙂
If you want to speak Japanese fast with lots of audio and romaji writing, then order Rocket Japanese now: only $99.95 to speak Japanese with money back guarantee!
Today’s Japanese language class is composed out of snippets from Rocket Japanese.
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