How to Convert Hiragana and Katakana
When working with Japanese text you will sometimes need to switch between hiragana and katakana. A word or two can be retyped by hand, but converting longer passages or word lists one character at a time quickly becomes tedious. This converter swaps the kana form of every character in your text while leaving kanji, Latin letters, digits, and punctuation exactly as they are.
📌 Hiragana vs. katakana at a glance
| Script | Appearance | Typical uses |
|---|---|---|
Hiraganaひらがな |
Rounded, flowing strokes | Native Japanese words, grammatical particles, verb/adjective endings, furigana |
Katakanaカタカナ |
Angular, straight strokes | Loanwords, foreign names and places, onomatopoeia, emphasis |
Hiragana and katakana share the same phonetic system
— あ and ア, か and カ represent the same sounds.
Which script is used depends on the type of word and the context.
1. When to convert hiragana to katakana
Common reasons to convert hiragana to katakana include fixing loanword spelling, preparing furigana readings in the correct format, normalizing mixed kana data, and checking emphasis usage. Furigana fields on Japanese sign-up, reservation, and ticket booking pages often require katakana specifically.
For example, if a name was entered as やまだ in hiragana
but the form requires ヤマダ in katakana,
use Hiragana → Katakana to fix it instantly.
2. When to convert katakana to hiragana
A passage written entirely in katakana can be hard to read, especially for learners. Converting it to hiragana makes it easier to parse and study. This is useful when reading katakana vocabulary words, or when manga, game text, or novels use katakana for stylistic emphasis and you want a more familiar form.
For example, カタカナ becomes かたかな
and トウキョウ becomes とうきょう.
Note that the converted result reflects phonetic form only
— it does not guarantee that the output matches standard dictionary or furigana spelling.
3. What this converter does and does not change
Converted
- Hiragana → Katakana:
とうきょう→トウキョウ - Katakana → Hiragana:
カタカナ→かたかな - Only kana characters within mixed text are converted; everything else is left unchanged.
Not converted
- Kanji:
東京 - Latin letters:
abc - Digits:
123 - Symbols and punctuation
This tool converts the form of kana that is already present — it does not read or infer kanji.
東京 will not be converted to とうきょう or トウキョウ.
If you need kanji readings, a separate furigana (yomigana) tool is required.
4. Situations where kana conversion is useful
- Comparing hiragana and katakana forms while studying Japanese
- Matching a furigana field that requires hiragana or katakana specifically
- Normalizing kana in copied Japanese text to a single script
- Reading katakana dialogue in games, manga, or novels as hiragana
- Batch-converting kana notation during document editing or data cleanup
5. What about half-width katakana?
Half-width katakana like ｶﾀｶﾅ is a different character set
from standard full-width katakana カタカナ.
This converter handles standard hiragana and full-width katakana only.
To convert between half-width and full-width katakana, use the Full/Half Width converter.
🛑 Checklist before converting
- Check the conversion direction: hiragana → katakana, or katakana → hiragana?
- Text containing kanji will only have its kana portions converted.
- For half-width katakana conversion, use the Full/Half Width converter instead.
- For important fields like names, addresses, or bookings, review the result after converting.
FAQ
Q. Is my text sent to a server?
No. Your text is processed locally in your browser and is not sent to our server.
Q. Can I convert kanji to hiragana or katakana?
No. This tool does not infer kanji readings.
東京 will remain as-is
and will not be automatically converted to とうきょう or トウキョウ.
Q. Can I convert a long passage all at once?
Yes. Anything you can paste into the input box is converted in one pass. In longer text, only the hiragana and katakana characters are changed; kanji, Latin letters, and digits remain unchanged.