Polivanov system

Diphthongs

It is permitted to use й instead of и in diphthongs (e.g. shinjitai → синдзитай, seinen → сэйнэн). However, и is always used on a morpheme clash: Kawai (kawa + i) → Каваи.

Yevgeny Polivanov recommended (but not prescribed as mandatory) to use й for Sino-Japanese (on'yomi) words, and и for native Japanese (kun'yomi) words. Another Polinanov's recommendation is to spell the diphthong ei as a long vowel э:, but this recommendation is almost never followed in practice. Instead, long vowel ē in the name ending -bē is often transliterated as -эй, e.g. Gonbē → Гомбэй.

Geminate consonants

Consonants are geminated exactly as they are in romaji: e.g. -kk- > -кк-.

Long vowels

Long vowels may be marked by macron as in Hepburn, but since letter ё has a diacritical mark already it is permitted and much more common to mark long vowels by using a colon (e.g. сё:гун). The sequence ei may be written э:, эй or эи. In regular texts long vowels are usually unmarked.

Vowel omission

Normally, vowels in the Polivanov system are always spelled, even if they are not pronounced. However, the voiceless u in the name ending -suke may be omitted:

Ryūnosuke → Рюноскэ.

Some translators tend to omit voiceless u in all cases when su (and, less often, tsu) is followed by a k-syllable, e.g. Akatsuki → Акацки, Daisuki → Дайски. However, this omission is considered non-standard.

Another non-standard (if not controversial) practice is omitting the voiceless u at the end of words, mostly in desu → дэс and masu → мас. This spelling can be found in some learning materials, but most professional translators oppose it, because native speakers may pronounce su at the end of the word with a distinctive u sound (especially in "feminine" speech).

Common mistakes and deviations

In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system. Attempts may be made to transcribe these as if they were English, rather than following a dedicated Japanese Cyrillization scheme.

A common example of this is attempting to transcribe shi (Polivanov: си) as ши and ji (Polivanov: дзи) as джи. This is inadvisable for use in Russian, because ши is actually pronounced like шы in Russian, and джи like джы, thus making the vowel () closer to Japanese than to Japanese . Whereas, щи would have a correct vowel sound, but be pronounced more like Japanese sshi.

Equally often, people transcribe cha, chi, chu, cho as ча, чи, чу, чо. This is phonetically correct, but does not conform with the Polivanov scheme (тя, ти, тю, тё), which more closely resembles the Kunrei-shiki romanisations (tya, ti, tyu, tyo) for these particular characters.

Sometimes е, rather than э, is used for e, despite е being pronounced ye in Russian (though not in other languages). This is typically not done in the initial position, despite older romanisations such as "Yedo" doing so. In any case, it does not conform with the Polivanov scheme, although it is seen as more acceptable for words that are in general use (e.g. kamikaze > камикадзе instead of камикадзэ). Replacing ё (yo) with е (ye) is incorrect, however, as it will change the Japanese word too much.

The sound yo (Polivanov: ё), when in the initial position 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". "Ё" is not often used in Japanese Cyrillization due to its facultative use in the Russian language (and possible substitution with the letter "Е" which would affect the pronunciation), but for professional translators, the use of ё is mandatory. Some personal names beginning with "Yo" (or used after a vowel) are written using "Ё" (e.g. Йоко for Yoko Ono, but Ёко for Yoko Kanno and all other Yokos).

Exceptions

Some proper names, for historical reasons, do not follow the above rules. For example, the geographical names of Japan in Russian are transmitted according to special instructions for the transfer of geographical names (other language names, for example from the Ainu language, do not fall under the Polivanov system). Other Japanese names and concepts were adapted into Russian from other languages (for example, under the influence of Hepburn or other transliteration systems). Those include but are not limited to: