I think it makes sense to use Hepburn romanization (based on English pronunciation), and that’s not just because I’m from the United States. English is, for better or worse, an international standard; all students in Japan and China learn (some) English, for instance, and it’s the default language for aviation and other settings where international communication is required. It’s the most-spoken language in the world by a wide margin. I think this change makes sense: as the article notes, people are already using Hepburn romanization in practice.
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If this was my own language I was talking about I’d be extremely skeptical about “standardizing” my language to any other languages specification, especially one not used in my own region. Not that I’m saying this change isn’t reasonable, but I’m not sure if someone who comes from a “big” language can really empathize with efforts to keep ones own language alive. In the end, we might all just speak English, but for now I cherish the diversity.
Language is important. It’s important that it makes sense to all speakers, and not everyone in Japan speaks English. Policies that make people who don’t speak English less able at communicating can create inequality. As such, it really makes sense that it took this long for the government to reluctantly agree to this. I’m certain much more thought was put into it than is readily apparent.
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when I went to Kumamoto, it was odd to see Musashi written as Musasi.
Is it something related to these writing and pronunciations?
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Yes, it’s related.
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I googled “Titibu” and all the image results are blurred 
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Blerg. I find this impossible to understand. Romanization used to be intuitive to me from the start. This not so. >_>
Well, it’s a standardization of something used principally by foreigners. It doesn’t really change how native speakers use the language. Japanese is notoriously difficult for foreign visitors and residents to read; it’s not just a matter of learning another alphabet or pronunciation scheme to be able to identify things like train stations and warning signs.
I understand that, but this isn’t about other languages. This is about foreigners interacting with Japanese. It would make no sense to use, for example, written
pronunciation because the number of Irish speakers interacting with Japanese is small. If we look at something like tourism, which is relevant to romanization schemes because it may affect things like signage, we can see that English has significant representation. The top 10 nationalities visiting Japan are
- South Korea (English is the most popular foreign language, according to the SCMP)
- Taiwan (English is the most popular foreign language and English will be an official language according to the 2030 Bilingual Nation policy)
- China (English is very prominent; see Wikipedia, which says “English is used as a lingua franca in several fields, especially for business settings, and in schools to teach Standard Mandarin to people who are not Chinese citizens”)
- Hong Kong (English is an official language)
- United States of America (English-majority)
- Thailand (relatively low English usage)
- Philippines (English is an official language)
- Australia (English-majority)
- Singapore (English is an official language)
- Vietnam (English is the most popular foreign language, according to Statista)
In this context, it absolutely makes sense to use English pronunciation as a matter of practicality.
I am not saying that the globalization of English is ideal, which is why I added
to my original post. I agree that the longevity of local and endangered languages is important, but this is a very complicated issue. The convergence on a relatively small number of global languages gives people mobility in education and work, so I think both the positives and negatives must be considered.
I also think globalization and linguicide are very different topics and I personally do not believe the propagation of English is detrimental (at least, its effect is not a net detriment). The growth of English is largely due to business, entertainment, and tourism. I think this is entirely different than topics such as forced cultural assimilation of Native Americans (forbidding the use of native languages, among other things) and Japan’s ban of the Korean language during its imperial period, which I would absolutely decry.
Of course, I’m not the best person to comment on this because I am a native English speaker. I acknowledge that I don’t share your perspective as someone who knows a language with relatively few speakers. I do think, though, that if I didn’t speak English natively, I’d be learning it (even if it weren’t an obligation and if it weren’t taught in schools). I definitely take it for granted that I can navigate through virtually any airport or train station in the world without too much difficulty, and that I can visit countries like Singapore and the Philippines without spending thousands of hours learning another (local) language. English is an incredibly useful language.
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Mmm, but the cited reason for the change is “in practice many people (including Japanese people in Japan) are using the version that’s not officially blessed” – that massive sign in the article reads “Shibuya station”, not “Sibuya”, and it wasn’t an American company that put it up.
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Oh, I might have been a little bit unclear, I’m not arguing this wasn’t the best course of action, merely pointing out that there are likely facets to this debate that we as foreigners are probably not entirely privy to, or entirely understand. I’m perhaps equally underqualified to comment on this specific language policy.
Absolutely! And I’m sure they have done that and weighed the positives heavier, in this case. I’m also excited for a world where everyone speaks the same language, don’t get me wrong, but there will be difficult questions to tackle first.
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This is another reason why I’m glad they’re changing it. I have a hard time remembering which is which. Thank you!!
Today I came across this video that describes the situation from a Japanese perspective:
What I find really hilarious is that they katakana-ize “Hepburn” as ヘボン 
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Yeah, I wonder where that came from – it doesn’t seem to be because the man himself pronounced his name in an unusual way, at least if the Wikipedia article on him is to be trusted.
I did find this from the introduction to his dictionary:
The printing has been accomplished under many difficulties, especially from the want of accented vowels and a proper supply of capital letters which could not be procured in Shanghai
Capital letter shortage!
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That’s actually quite close. TIL Japanese pronounce Hepburn more correctly than me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Ut45QeFvE&t=14
EDIT: @pm215 Maybe this is the british pronounciation? I’ve definitely been pronouncing it hep-burn instead of “hebbon” like in the video I linked.
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That video sounds like “Hep-burn” to me, with the usual British non-rhotic pronunciation. Hepburn the inventor of the romanisation system was American, though.
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Yeah, but the Japanese don’t probably care 