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JAPAN STYLE SHEET: THE SWET GUIDE FOR WRITERS, EDITORS AND TRANSLATORS
TOKYO: SOCIETY OF WRITERS, EDITORS AND TRANSLATORS Revised edition
Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 1998
80 pages. $11.95
The production of English-language publications dealing with Japan poses special problems that general reference works do not adequately cover, such as how to romanize Japanese words, when to use hyphens, and how to handle personal names and place names. This sensible Japan Style Sheet compiled by the Tokyo-based Society of Writers, Editors and Translators (SWET) will ease a lot of troubled minds.
According to the preface, the Japan Style Sheet "is mainly aimed at the needs of editors and writers without specialized knowledge of Japan or the Japanese language." Considerable space is devoted to basic matters about transliterating and pronouncing Japanese. There is also an appendix containing a chart of the standard (Hepburn) romanization system. The chart includes the original...