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 is written with a mix of Kanji and Kana characters.

        $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 of 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.

        @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'.

MODULE DEPENDENCIES
    DB_File module is required.

SEE ALSO
    Lingua::ZH::Romanize::Kana

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

    http://openlab.jp/skk/

AUTHOR
    Yusuke Kawasaki <u-suke [at] kawa.net>

    http://www.kawa.net/

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2006 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.