Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles)

This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus. Shortcuts:
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Please follow these conventions when writing and editing articles related to Japan.

For more general guidance on editing conventions, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style. For standardized translations of some common Japanese terms, see Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles)/Translation note.

English words of Japanese origin

The English Wikipedia is an English-language encyclopedia. An English loan word or place name of Japanese origin should be used in its most common English form in the body of an article, even if it is pronounced or spelled differently from the properly romanized Japanese; that is, use Mount Fuji, Tokyo, jujutsu, and shogi, instead of Fuji-san, Tōkyō, jūjutsu, and shōgi. However, the romanized Japanese form should always be listed in the opening paragraph.

Pluralization

Some Japanese loan words are usually pluralized according to English grammar rules, although this usage may sound odd to Japanese speakers. A few examples are tsunami, tycoon, and futon, which take the plurals tsunamis, tycoons, and futons. In the case of more specialized Japanese words such as koi, sushi, haiku, anime, ronin, manga, or dojo, English-language speakers are often familiar with Japanese word usage, and the words usually lack distinct plural forms. For a few words, such as geisha and kamikaze, both forms of pluralization are acceptable. When in doubt, it is probably best to use a dictionary for reference. Helpful tools include the Merriam Webster website for American-English usage and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary for British-English usage.

Capitalization of words in Roman script

Titles of songs, and the names of singers, companies and so forth are often capitalized when written in Roman script within a Japanese-language context or (in flyers, posters, etc.) for a Japanese audience, and the relevant publicity departments or fanbases may vehemently insist on the importance of the capitalization. However, these names and name elements are not excluded from the guidance provided by the main manuals of style for English-language Wikipedia, listed above. Words should not be written in all caps in the English Wikipedia. For example, although the title of the manga Bleach is always written as "BLEACH" in Japanese (e.g. in its article within Japanese-language Wikipedia), it should be written as Bleach within the English-language Wikipedia.

Using Japanese in the article body

WikiProject Japan (Talk)

Founded
March 18, 2006
(4 years, 5 months and 16 days ago)

Shortcuts
WP:JA • WP:JP • WP:JPN • WP:WPJ • WP:Japan • WP:JAPAN

Project parentage
Countries, Geography

Generally, Japanese script for a word can be added to the text the first time it is introduced, provided that the word is not linked to another article on the English Wikipedia. In that case, the linked article should be edited to show the Japanese script in the opening line, if the text is not already there. Japanese script should only be added once per word in an article, and not added when it already exists in a separate linked article, with exceptions noted below.

If the word is linked to an article which includes the Japanese script, then, Japanese characters are unnecessary in the original article, unless they appear in the context of a list or glossary, such as Glossary of sumo terms, or Tōkaidō Main Line#Station_list. In those cases, having several Japanese words appear together in context may be beneficial to some readers, and the script should not be deleted.

Japanese text should be marked with the {{Nihongo}} or {{Nihongo2}} templates.

Linking to Japanese Wikipedia

Use interwiki links to link to the equivalent article on the Japanese Wikipedia. Additionally, there is generally no need to use inline links to the equivalent Japanese Wikipedia article for any words in an article. If a word is important enough to warrant a link, it will have an article here, in which case a standard link is sufficient.

When interwiki linking to the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia, omit spaces from the Japanese page name. For example a page beginning

Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎, Koizumi Jun'ichirō^?, born January 8, 1942) …

must be linked as [[ja:小泉純一郎]] (no space between 小泉 and 純一郎).