Pronunciation Guide

Here's a guide to pronouncing Japanese for the names. This is to avoid confusion about pronunciation. An example would be the American singer "Meiko" who mispronounces her own Japanese name as "Mee-Ko" when it is correctly pronounced "May-Ko." So, this guide is to prevent that. One of the lovely things about Japanese is that it is virtually straighforward in pronunciation with little or no variation.

Vowels:
Note: Each vowel is pronounced separately in Japanese. For example, the feminine Japanese name Saeko is not "Say-Ko" but "Sa-Eh-Ko."

A as the 'a' in Father
E as the 'e' Bet
I as the 'ee' in See
O as the 'o' in Go
U as the 'oo' in Moo

Dipthongs:
Note: While all vowels are pronounced separately in Japanese, it will sound more natural with these sounds.

AI as the 'y' in My
EI as the 'ay' in May
OU as the 'ow' in Mow
Note: OU in Japanese is sometimes romanized as Ô, Ō, O, or OO. In the case of OU, the sound is more of a prolonged O than O-U.

Consonants:

B as the 'b' in Bat
D as the 'd' in Dame
CH as the 'ch' in Chomp
DH as the 'd' in Dame
Note: DH when romanized from Japanese is only pronounced as a D sound. DH is to distinguish the character "でぃ/ディ" (Dhi) from "ぢ/ヂ" (Di) which can be written as Di.
F as the 'f' in Fine
Note: FU is sometimes romanized as HU.
G as the 'g' in Game
H as the 'h' in Help
J as the 'j' in Jet
K as the 'k' in Kit
M as the 'm' in Mat
N as the 'n' in Night
P as the 'p' in Pet
R as the 'l' in Light
Note: There is no difference between R/L in Japanese and the Japanese R is unique to the language. Roughly, it sounds like a cross between the two but can be substituted with the English "L" better than the English "R."
S as the 's' in Sack
SH as the 'sh' in Shack
T as the 't' in Team
TH as the 't' in Tame
Note: TH when romanized from Japanese is only pronounced as a T sound. TH is to distinguish the character "てぃ/ティ" (Thi) from "ち/チ" (Chi) in the romanization because they can both be written as Ti.
V as the 'v' in Vibe
Note: V does not traditionally exist in Japanese but with modern addition, has become apart of the alphabet. Traditionally, when V was used in Japanese, it was subsituted with B and despite the addition of V sounds to the alphabet, B is still a more popular translation tool. No Japanese names or words NOT taken from foreign influence have V in them.
W as the 'w' in Wake
Y as the 'y' in Yak
Z as the 'z' in Zoo

Non-Japanese Letters and Sounds
C is translated as K, S, SH, or CH
L is translated as R
Q is translated as K
Q + Vowels (English Pronunciation)
-'Qua' is translated as Kua or Kuwa
-'Que' is translated as Kue or Kuwe
-'Qui' is translated as Kui or Kuwi
-'Quo' is translated as Kuo or Kuwo

Note: The 'si' sound does not exist in Japanese. It is replaced with "(し/シ)" Shi.

Symbols:
"ー" prolongs the vowel before it and is written as a vowel with macron such as "ā." Often, "ā" will replace ER and AR in Japanese translations of foreign words.