NAME
    Lingua::JA::Romanize::Japanese - Romanization of Japanese language

SYNOPSIS
        use Lingua::JA::Romanize::Japanese;

        my $conv = Lingua::JA::Romanize::Japanese->new();
        my $roman = $conv->char( $kanji );
        printf( "<ruby><rb>%s</rb><rt>%s</rt></ruby>", $kanji, $roman );

        my @array = $conv->string( $string );
        foreach my $pair ( @array ) {
            my( $raw, $ruby ) = @$pair;
            if ( defined $ruby ) {
                printf( "<ruby><rb>%s</rb><rt>%s</rt></ruby>", $raw, $ruby );
            } else {
                print $raw;
            }
        }

DESCRIPTION
    Japanese language is written with a mix of Kanji and Kana characters.
    Most of Kanji characters used in Japan were imported from China. Two
    types of Kana characters, called Katakana and Hiragana, were created in
    Japan. Kana characters are general terms for the syllabic Japanese
    scripts.

METHODS
  $conv = Lingua::JA::Romanize::Japanese->new();
    This constructer methods returns a new object with its dictionary
    cached.

  $roman = $conv->char( $kanji );
    This method returns romanized letters from a Japanese character. It
    returns undef when $Kana is not a valid Japanese character. The
    argument's encoding must be UTF-8. Both of Kanji and Kana characters are
    allowed.

  $roman = $conv->chars( $string );
    This method returns romanized letters from multiple Japanese characters.

  @array = $conv->string( $string );
    This method returns a array of referenced arrays which are pairs of
    Japanese chacater(s) and its romanized letters.

        $array[0]           # first Japanese character(s)'s pair (array)
        $array[1][0]        # secound Japanese character(s) itself
        $array[1][1]        # its romanized letters

DICTIONARY
    This module's Japanese to roman mapping table is based on the dictionary
    of SKK which is a Japanese input method on Emacs. It was designed by Dr.
    Masahiko Sato and created in 1987. SKK is an abbreviation of 'Simple
    Kana to Kanji conversion program'.

UTF-8 FLAG
    This treats utf8 flag transparently.

MODULE DEPENDENCIES
    DB_File module is required.

SEE ALSO
    Lingua::ZH::Romanize::Pinyin for romanization of Standard Chinese

    Lingua::KO::Romanize::Hangul for romanization of Korean

    http://www.kawa.net/works/perl/romanize/romanize-e.html

    http://linuga-romanize.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Lingua-JA-Romanize-Japan
    ese/

    http://openlab.jp/skk/

AUTHOR
    Yusuke Kawasaki http://www.kawa.net/

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2006-2008 Yusuke Kawasaki. All rights reserved.

LICENSE
    This dictionary is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
    Free Software Foundation; either versions 2, or (at your option) any
    later version.