# Japanese (ja-JP)
<a name="ph-table-japanese"></a>

Amazon Polly supports the Pronunciation Kana and Yomigana alphabets for Japanese. To make Amazon Polly use phonetic pronunciation with these alphabets, use the phoneme `alphabet="x-amazon-phonetic standard used"` attribute.
+ `x-amazon-pron-kana` – indicates that Pronunciation Kana is used. Pronunciation Kana are special Katakana characters used for phonetic transcription and can encode pitch accent.
+ `x-amazon-yomigana` – indicates that Yomigana is used. Yomigana can be conventional Katakana, Hiragana, and Latin alphabets interpreted as hepburn romanization. 

The following examples show how these are used:

Pronunciation Kana

```
<speak>
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-pron-kana" ph="ヒロカ'ズ">浩一</phoneme>です。
</speak>
```

Yomigana

```
<speak>
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="ひろかず">浩一</phoneme>です。
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="ヒロカズ">浩一</phoneme>です。
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="Hirokazu">浩一</phoneme>です。
</speak>
```

The following table lists the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) phonemes, the Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) symbols, and the corresponding visemes for the Japanese voice supported by Amazon Polly.


| IPA | X-SAMPA | Description | Example | Viseme | 
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | 
|  **Consonants**  | 
| ɾ | 4 | alveolar flap | 練習, **r**enshuu | t | 
| ʔ | ? | glottal stop | あつっ, atsu**'** |  | 
| b | b | voiced bilabial plosive | 舞踊, **b**uyou | p | 
| β | B | voiced bilabial fricative | ヴィンテージ, **v**inteeji | B | 
| c | c | voiceless palatal plosive | ききょう, **k**i**ky**ou | k | 
| ç | C | voiceless palatal fricative | 人, **h**ito | k | 
| d | d | voiced alveolar plosive | 濁点, **d**akuten | t | 
| d͡ʑ | dz\$1 | voiced alveolo-palatal affricate | 純, **j**un | J | 
| ɡ | g | voiced velar plosive | ご飯, **g**ohan | k | 
| h | h | voiceless glottal fricative | 本, **h**on | k | 
| j | j | palatal approximant | 屋根, **y**ane | i | 
| ɟ | J\$1 | voiced palatal plosive | 行儀, **gy**ou**g**i | J | 
| k | k | voiceless velar plosive | 漢字, **k**anji | k | 
| ɺ | l\$1 | alveolar lateral flap | 釣り, tsu**r**i | r | 
| ɺj | l\$1j | alveolar lateral flap, palatal approximant | 流行, **ry**uukou | r | 
| m | m | bilabial nasal | 飯, **m**eshi | p | 
| n | n | alveolar nasal | 猫, **n**eko | t | 
| ɲ | J | palatal nasal | 日本, **n**ippon | J | 
| ɴ | N\$1 | uvular nasal | 缶, ka**n** | k | 
| p | p | voiceless bilabial plosive | パン, **p**an | p | 
| ɸ | p\$1 | voiceless bilabial fricative | 福, **h**uku | f | 
| s | s | voiceless alveolar fricative | 層, **s**ou | s | 
| ɕ | s\$1 | voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative | 書簡, **sh**okan | J | 
| t | t | voiceless alveolar plosive | 手紙, **t**egami | t | 
| t͡s | ts | voiceless alveolar affricate | 釣り, **ts**uri | s | 
| t͡ɕ | ts\$1 | voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate | 吉, ki**ch**i | J | 
| w | w | labial-velar approximant | 電話, den**w**a | u | 
| z | z | voiced alveolar fricative | 座敷, **z**ashiki | s | 
|  **Vowels**  | 
| äː | a:\$1" | long open central unrounded vowel | 羽蟻, h**aa**ri | a | 
| ä | a\$1" | open central unrounded vowel | 仮名, k**a**n**a** | a | 
| eː | e:\$1o | long mid front unrounded vowel | 学生, gakus**ei** | @ | 
| e | e\$1o | mid front unrounded vowel | 歴, r**e**ki | @ | 
| i | i | close front unrounded vowel | 気, k**i** | i | 
| iː | i: | long close front unrounded vowel | 詩歌, sh**ii**ka | i | 
| ɯ | M | close back unrounded vowel | 運, **u**n | i | 
| ɯː | M: | long close back unrounded vowel | 宗教, sh**uu**kyou | i | 
| oː | o:\$1o | long mid back rounded vowel | 購読, k**oo**doku | o | 
| o | o\$1o | mid back rounded vowel | 読者, d**o**kusha | o |