Katakana Converter

A katakana converter takes English text, romaji, or hiragana and rewrites it in katakana — the Japanese script used for foreign loanwords, names, scientific terms, and emphasis. Type a word like "computer" and the converter returns コンピューター. Type romaji like "ramen" and it returns ラーメン.

Type any English word into the input box and the converter applies Japanese phonetic rules to produce katakana. Sounds that do not exist in Japanese are mapped to the closest equivalent — for example "L" becomes "R" (Laura → ラウラ), "V" becomes "B" (David → デビッド), and consonant clusters get extra vowels inserted (Smith → スミス). The result is the standard way that English words are written in Japanese.

Type romaji syllables exactly as you would pronounce them in Japanese — for example "ramen", "tokyo", or "konnichiha". The converter maps each romaji syllable to its katakana character. Use double consonants for the small tsu (gakkou → ガッコウ) and double vowels for long vowel marks (oneesan → オネーサン).

Paste any hiragana text and the converter switches it to katakana using the one-to-one mapping between the two scripts. Each hiragana character has a fixed katakana equivalent, so the conversion is exact. For a dedicated hiragana ↔ katakana switch tool, use the Hiragana to Katakana converter linked below.

Katakana is one of three Japanese writing systems alongside hiragana and kanji. It is reserved for words and names of foreign origin (コーヒー = coffee), foreign personal names (マイケル = Michael), scientific and technical terms, onomatopoeia (ドキドキ = heartbeat), and emphasis in advertising or manga. If a word came from outside Japan, it is almost always written in katakana.

Japanese has a smaller sound inventory than English, so some sounds are approximated. Common substitutions include L → R, V → B, TH → S or Z, and F → silent F or H sounds. Japanese also requires nearly every consonant to be followed by a vowel, so consonant clusters get extra vowels inserted. This is the standard convention used by Japanese speakers when writing or saying foreign names.

Yes. This tool is free, requires no signup, has no character limits, and works on mobile, tablet, and desktop. All conversion happens in your browser, so your text is never sent to a server.

Katakana is not "for foreigners" — it is one of three writing systems that every Japanese reader uses. But it is the system used to transcribe words that came from outside Japan, which means foreign names, foreign place names, and foreign loanwords always appear in katakana. That is why learners often encounter katakana first when they look up how to write their own name in Japanese. If you want a tool focused specifically on personal names, the linked "My Name in Japanese" converter below handles the capitalisation and romaji quirks of English names better than the generic converter.

Most learners find hiragana slightly easier because it appears far more often in everyday Japanese, so the characters get reinforced every time you read a sentence. Katakana is the same size vocabulary (46 basic + 25 voiced + 33 combination sounds) but appears less often, so individual characters can feel less familiar even after you have learned them. The characters themselves are roughly the same difficulty to write — katakana is more angular and geometric, hiragana is more curved. Tools like this converter help close the recognition gap by letting you type any English or romaji input and see the katakana equivalent instantly, which accelerates katakana recall far faster than flashcards alone.

Google Translate does not expose a direct "English to katakana" mode. The usual workaround is to translate English → Japanese, then manually convert any resulting kanji or hiragana to katakana. That extra step is exactly why dedicated converters like this one exist: type your English or romaji text once, get clean katakana back immediately, and skip the round-trip through translation. If you are transliterating a name specifically, use the My Name in Japanese tool below — it handles capitalisation and double-vowel rules automatically.