A system of
Japanese romanization that emphasizes consistency with the actual
Japanese phonology rather than imitating the correct
pronunciation with the
Roman alphabet. Simply put, JSL basically makes each
kana character equivalent to a particular
syllable in
English, whether or not that
syllable represents the actual pronunciation. The idea is more to form an
intermediate step between
English and written
Japanese than to make the
pronunciations exact. This contrasts with the more familiar
Hepburn system, which goes for easy
pronunciation over
linguistics.
For an example of the differences, take the romanization of a Japanese sentence in JSL versus the Hepburn equivalent:
Kyoo ame ga huru desyoo. (JSL)
Kyõ; ame ga furu deshõ (Hepburn)
It will probably rain today.
Why use the more confusing JSL system, then? The advantages of JSL can be illustrated by the following. Suppose you are using the Hepburn system, and you want to form the stems of the following consonant verbs:
kau --> kai (buy)
matsu --> machi (wait)
hanasu --> hanashi (speak)
kaku --> kaki (write)
You'd have to describe the procedure as the following:
Change the final u to i, but if u is preceded by ts, change ts to ch, and if u is preceded by s, add h after the s.
Look at the same thing written in JSL:
kau --> kai
matu --> mati
hanasu --> hanasi
kaku --> kaki
You can now just say "Change the final u to i." Much simpler, and more consistent. Matsu (Hepburn) and Matu (JSL) are both pronounced the same, and therein lies the problem. To use JSL, you need to know that the JSL representation "tu" is actually pronounced "tsu", with the "ts" as in "cats". Hepburn, however, requires no foreknowledge of Japanese phonology. JSL is often used in Japanese textbooks, as it makes discussing and teaching the language much easier, but Hepburn or some hybrid is found almost everywhere else, including anime subtitles, dictionaries, and quotations in English writing.