EdCitation publishes this guide to Japanese citation styles; its tools find each reference in the publisher's record instead of composing one. Japan has no single rule for references across subjects and journals, as Hosei University Library (2022) says in so many words. What it has is SIST 02, a guideline from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), beside the house styles of learned societies and whatever a department asks for. Every rule below was read in its own source on 26 September 2026, and a translation of Japanese wording is ours unless it says otherwise.
EdCitation's Cite a source does not build SIST 02 or any Japanese society style. Verify references and Find sources work on Japanese-language references now, and our runs of all three tools are quoted exactly below, faults included. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper.
Is SIST 02 still the Japanese standard for references?
SIST 02 has not been withdrawn, but nobody maintains it. Its last revision is SIST 02-2007, 参照文献の書き方 (how to write references). In a notice of 21 December 2011, JST said the SIST programme would end at the close of its medium-term plan in March 2012, and that the website would stay online so the standards could still be used (Japan Science and Technology Agency, 2011b). The old SIST address now forwards to the National Diet Library's web archive, where the site is kept as captured in January 2022.
Libraries still teach it. Waseda University's library bases its model reference list on SIST and adds that "SISTの内容の更新は2011年度で終了しています" (updates to SIST ended in fiscal 2011) (Waseda University Library, n.d.). Hosei University Library (2022) uses SIST as its science example and notes that the programme ended in fiscal 2011 while its documents stay public.
What SIST 02 asks for
JST's handbook sorts the elements into four groups, in order: the author, the title, publication details (edition, publisher, year, volume, issue, pages, DOI) and notes (medium, where it was obtained, the date read). A full stop separates the groups and a comma the elements within one (Japan Science and Technology Agency, 2011a). SIST requires no italics or bold, though it allows them, and the year is always the Western calendar year.
The standard itself says an element is recorded in the language and script the source uses, so a Japanese article stays in Japanese (Japan Science and Technology Agency, 2007). All authors are preferably listed; past two, the first may be followed by ほか in Japanese or "et al." in a Western language. Western names go surname, comma, forename, separated by semicolons.
These two entries are the handbook's own examples, copied as printed:
- A journal article: 松原茂樹, 加藤芳秀, 江川誠二. 英文作成支援ツールとしての用例文検索システムESCORT. 情報管理. 2008, vol. 51, no. 4, p. 251-259.
- A book: 坂村健. グローバルスタンダードと国家戦略. NTT出版, 2005, 272p.
"p. 251-259" gives the pages cited; "272p.", with the p. after the number, is the whole book's length. A chapter title in an edited book goes in double quotation marks, “ ”, so it cannot be mistaken for the book's title.
Numbered or author-year?
Both are allowed. The handbook calls the numbered system バンクーバー方式 (the Vancouver system), with a raised number such as 7) in the text, and says scientific papers mostly use it. Its author-year system, ハーバード方式, puts (田中太郎. 2005) in the text and sorts the list in Japanese syllabary order, 五十音順, with Western names alphabetical.
What do Japanese society styles ask for?
Their own manuals, which differ from SIST and from each other; both are free on the societies' sites.
The Japanese Psychological Association's manual
The 2022 edition of the association's 執筆・投稿の手びき (writing and submission guide) governs its journal 心理学研究 (Japanese Psychological Association, 2022). A Japanese name is written surname, a half-width space, then given name, with no comma: 小林 哲郎. Co-authors are joined by a middle dot, 中黒. The year sits in full-width round brackets after the names, and there are no quotation marks or brackets round titles. The manual's example:
川上 直秋（2019）．指先が変える単語の意味─スマートフォン使用と単語の感情価の関係─ 心理学研究，91（1）, 23-33. https://doi.org/10.4992/jjpsy.91.18060
Check that year against the record. J-STAGE lists the article in volume 91 (2020), issue 1, and so does Crossref (Kawakami, 2020).
In a citation, a work with three or more authors is shortened to the first author and 他 at once, as in 井上他（2020）; two are joined by the middle dot, 池田・深谷（2020）. When an English-language paper for the association's journal Japanese Psychological Research cites Japanese work, the manual asks for the author's own romanisation, the English title, and a note such as "(In Japanese with English abstract.)".
The Japan Sociological Society's style guide
The third edition of the 社会学評論スタイルガイド, dated 2018, governs the society's journal (Japan Sociological Society, 2018). Here the brackets appear: 『』 round a Japanese book or journal title, 「」 round an article or chapter title. No space goes between surname and given name. Its examples:
- A book: 稲上毅，1981，『労使関係の社会学』東京大学出版会．
- An article: 佐藤嘉倫，1998，「合理的選択理論批判の論理構造とその問題点」『社会学評論』49(2): 188-205．
In the text the guide writes (見田 1979: 128): surname, a half-width space, the year, a colon and the page. Unlike SIST, which allows ほか, it names every co-author in the list, and it gives no place of publication for Japanese books.
How do the three styles compare, element by element?
Each cell below is copied from the style's own document.
| Element | SIST 02 (JST) | Psychology (JPA 2022) | Sociology (JSS 2018) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | 松原茂樹, 加藤芳秀, 江川誠二. | 齊藤 慈子・笹川 智子・鈴木 敦命（2020）． | 宮島喬・梶田孝道・伊藤るり，1985， |
| Year | After the journal or publisher: 2008, | After the names: （2019） | After the names: 1998， |
| Article title | Plain, ending in a full stop | Plain, then a full-width space | In 「」 |
| Book or journal title | Plain | Plain | In 『』 |
| Volume, issue, pages | vol. 51, no. 4, p. 251-259 | 91（1）, 23-33 | 49(2): 188-205 |
| Book's publisher | NTT出版, 2005, 272p. | 出版社 at the end, no place | 東京大学出版会 at the end, no place |
| DOI | Allowed after the pages | Required whenever one exists | No rule in the guide |
| Checking each entry | Verify references | Verify references | Verify references |
When do 「」 and 『』 go round titles?
In humanities and social science lists written in Japanese, not in SIST. Ritsumeikan University Library (2024) teaches SIST, MLA and APA, then notes that Japanese humanities and social science papers often put the article title in 「」 and the journal title in 『』, even under MLA or APA, in place of italics.
Hosei University Library (2022) sets the two traditions side by side: humanities lists bracket titles and put the year after the author, science lists use no brackets or italics and put the year later. The sociology guide adds that 「」 inside an article title become 『』.
Kyorin University Library (2025) calls the bracketed form 括弧方式, "the bracket method" (our translation). For APA it advises leaving Japanese titles out of italics, while noting that APA would normally italicise them.
How are Japanese names written in a reference?
Family name first, in the characters the source prints. SIST's own example is 森康夫, family name 森 and given name 康夫. Styles differ only in spacing and separators: a half-width space between the parts in psychology, none in sociology, and commas between co-authors in SIST where the societies use the middle dot.
Names and titles in an English-language paper
Romanise them. SIST 02 says a Japanese work cited in a Western-language paper is written in romaji, copying any romanised form the source prints (Japan Science and Technology Agency, 2007). The sociology guide sorts by Hepburn romanisation but respects an author's own spelling, and the psychology manual asks for the author's own romanisation.
Macrons are where students go wrong. Japan's Cabinet replaced the 1954 romanisation rules with a Hepburn-based notice on 22 December 2025 (Cabinet of Japan, 2025). It marks a long vowel with a macron, as in Tōhoku, or with the vowels written out, Touhoku, and allows a circumflex where needed. Its ninth note says the romanisation of a personal name should respect the wishes of the person concerned, and the Council for Cultural Affairs (2025) gives the reason macrons matter: without them, the names Ōno and Ono both come out as Ono. So copy the spelling the author publishes under: Sato stays Sato, though the Hepburn form is Satō.
Word order in English varies too. Since 1 January 2020 government documents write Japanese names family name first as a rule, with the family name in capitals where the two must be told apart, as in YAMADA Haruo (Relevant Ministries and Agencies of Japan, 2019). That binds government documents, not your paper: every style still puts the surname in the surname position.
For the title, APA's advice is to transliterate a title written in a non-Roman script and give an English translation in square brackets, or to keep the original characters where transliteration is not practical (Adams, 2021). Our guide to the Chinese GB/T 7714 style covers the same problem for Mandarin.
How do the year and the publisher go in?
The year is the Western calendar year: SIST's handbook says so twice, and the psychology manual files 令和元年版 犯罪白書 (the Reiwa 1, that is 2019, crime white paper) under 2019.
The publisher is the company, not the imprint. The sociology guide gives 筑摩書房 and 岩波書店, not the paperback series names ちくま新書 or 岩波文庫. SIST treats the place of publication as optional, and neither society style asks for it.
Where do universities disagree about the order of the list?
Over whether Japanese and English works share one list. The psychology manual and the sociology guide both sort every entry, Japanese or not, alphabetically by the romanised surname of the first author. Hosei University Library (2022) says the usual practice is the opposite: Japanese works first in 五十音順, then Western works alphabetically. Kyorin's bracket-method example puts English sources first and Japanese after them, and Ritsumeikan's SIST example sorts by 五十音順.
Osaka University Library (2013) calls its own models "あくまでも一例です" (just one example) and puts a teacher's instruction first. That settles every disagreement here: your department's guide or the journal decides, and one list keeps one style.
How do I build and check a Japanese reference list?
Take each element from the source, set it in your style's order, and check every entry.
- Find out which style your department or journal names.
- Look for literature in EdCitation's Find sources: about 300 million published works, and it accepts a Japanese query.
- Take names, title and year from each article's own page, on J-STAGE for many Japanese journals.
- Copy names as the source prints them, with the spacing your style uses.
- Add 「」 and 『』 only if your style uses them, and use one form throughout.
- For an English-language source with a DOI, build the entry in EdCitation's Cite a source, then rearrange it into your style's order.
- Check the finished list with Verify references, and check by hand, in the National Diet Library's catalogue or the publisher's, any entry it could not check.
What can EdCitation do for Japanese references?
Check them and find them, yes; build them in a Japanese style, no. EdCitation looks every reference up in a record and never writes any part of a paper.
Building an entry from a Japanese DOI
Cite a source makes entries in six styles, APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, free and without an account; no Japanese style is among them. For the DOI 10.4992/jjpsy.91.18060, the Kawakami article, APA came back as:
Kawakami, N. (2020). 指先が変える単語の意味: スマートフォン使用と単語の感情価の関係 [The flick effect: Smartphone use with flick movements changes the meaning of words]. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 91(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.4992/jjpsy.91.18060
And Vancouver as:
Kawakami N. 指先が変える単語の意味: スマートフォン使用と単語の感情価の関係 [The flick effect: smartphone use with flick movements changes the meaning of words]. Shinrigaku Kenkyu. 2020;91(1):23-33. doi: 10.4992/jjpsy.91.18060.
The year matches J-STAGE, and Shinrigaku Kenkyu is the National Library of Medicine's own abbreviation for the journal (National Library of Medicine, n.d.). The record holds the title in both languages, and both entries give the Japanese first with the English in square brackets, as APA asks for a work in another language. If your department wants a romanised title instead of characters, give the romanisation in place of the Japanese; for the psychology society's English journal, add "(In Japanese with English abstract.)" if the article has one.
The SIST handbook's example, DOI 10.1241/johokanri.51.251, came back in characters, as its record holds them:
松原茂樹, 加藤芳秀, & 江川誠二. (2008). 英文作成支援ツールとしての用例文検索システムESCORT. 情報管理, 51(4), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.51.251
For APA, romanise the names and title and add the English translation in square brackets, as above.
Verify references on a Japanese list
Verify references is the best free check for this list, because it looks every entry up rather than guessing, and never shows "could not check" as "not found". We pasted five entries in Japanese forms. The SIST example with its DOI came back verified: "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." The sociology article and the sociology book, written in characters without a DOI, came back "could not check": "This entry is written in characters the search cannot match yet. Check it in the publisher's or a national library's catalogue, or add its DOI."
Two answers say what the check could not compare. The psychology article, with its DOI, came back "could not check": "The DOI resolves to a record titled "The flick effect: Smartphone use with flick movements changes the meaning of words", in another script or language from your entry, so the titles could not be compared. Check that it is the work you mean." Its record holds only the English title; the sociology article with its DOI got the same answer. The SIST book, with its ISBN written as the handbook does (ISBN4-7571-4100-9), came back "could not check" too: the catalogue titles it "Gurōbaru sutandādo to kokka senryaku", romanised, "so the titles could not be compared". Written in romanised form, both came back verified. Read the reason before changing anything; our guide to checking a reference is real shows how.
Find sources in Japanese
A search in EdCitation's Find sources for スマートフォン依存 (smartphone dependence) returned 28,057 works, the first ones by relevance mostly Japanese-language conference papers. Some names were shown given name first, as in 勇介 清野, so take the order from the paper. All three tools are free; Pricing lists what Pro adds at $8 a month.
Quick questions
Is SIST 02 still valid?
SIST 02 was never withdrawn, but JST ended the programme in March 2012 and the 2007 text is the last. University libraries still teach it.
Do Japanese references use italics?
SIST 02 specifies none. Humanities and social science styles use 『』 for book and journal titles and 「」 for article titles instead, and some libraries advise 『』 even under APA or MLA.
Should Japanese names be family name first in an English paper?
In the reference list, the surname goes where the style puts surnames, as in Kawakami, N. Copy the author's own romanisation, macrons or none.
Can EdCitation build a SIST 02 reference?
No. EdCitation's Cite a source offers six Western styles, none of them Japanese; its entry from a DOI supplies the elements, which you put into SIST order yourself.
Where does the year go in a Japanese reference?
After the journal title in SIST 02 (情報管理. 2008), and straight after the authors in the psychology and sociology society styles. It is always the Western calendar year.
References
- Adams, A. (2021, August 23). When and how to transliterate titles in references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/transliterated-titles-references
- Cabinet of Japan. (2025, December 22). ローマ字のつづり方 [Romanisation of Japanese] (Cabinet Notice No. 4) [PDF]. Agency for Cultural Affairs. https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kijun/naikaku/pdf/94303201_01.pdf
- Council for Cultural Affairs. (2025, August 20). 改定ローマ字のつづり方（答申） [Revised romanisation of Japanese: Report] [PDF]. Agency for Cultural Affairs. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/sokai/pdf/94261201_01.pdf
- Hosei University Library. (2022). 参考文献の書き方 [How to write references] [PDF]. https://www.hosei.ac.jp/application/files/7016/4869/0056/57f01bc902853ea2840cccc4301c5281.pdf
- Japanese Psychological Association. (2022). 執筆・投稿の手びき 2022年版 [Publication manual, 2022 edition] [PDF]. https://psych.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/The-JPA-Publication-Manual.pdf
- Japan Science and Technology Agency. (2007). SIST 02 参照文献の書き方 [SIST 02: Description of bibliographic references]. Archived by the National Diet Library. https://warp.ndl.go.jp/20220119/20220113214833/jipsti.jst.go.jp/sist/handbook/sist02_2007/sist02.htm
- Japan Science and Technology Agency. (2011a). 参考文献の役割と書き方: 科学技術情報流通技術基準（SIST）の活用 [The role and writing of references] [PDF]. Archived by the National Diet Library. https://warp.ndl.go.jp/20220119/20220113214526/jipsti.jst.go.jp/sist/pdf/SIST_booklet2011.pdf
- Japan Science and Technology Agency. (2011b, December 21). SIST(科学技術情報流通技術基準)事業の終了について [On the end of the SIST programme] [PDF]. Archived by the National Diet Library. https://warp.ndl.go.jp/20220119/20220113214526/jipsti.jst.go.jp/sist/pdf/news20111221.pdf
- Japan Sociological Society. (2018). 社会学評論スタイルガイド 第3版 [Japanese Sociological Review style guide, 3rd ed.] [PDF]. https://jss-sociology.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/jsr_guide3.pdf
- Kawakami, N. (2020). 指先が変える単語の意味: スマートフォン使用と単語の感情価の関係 [The flick effect: Smartphone use with flick movements changes the meaning of words]. 心理学研究, 91(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.4992/jjpsy.91.18060
- Kyorin University Library. (2025). 引用・参考文献の書き方 [How to write citations and references] [PDF]. https://www.kyorin-u.ac.jp/univ/center/library/guide/Inokashira_lib_citation.pdf
- National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Shinrigaku kenkyu: The Japanese journal of psychology (NLM ID 413571). NLM Catalog. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/413571
- Osaka University Library. (2013). 参考文献の書き方 [How to write references] (Pathfinder) [PDF]. https://www.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/doc/2013_Writing_references.pdf
- Relevant Ministries and Agencies of Japan. (2019, October 25). 公用文等における日本人の姓名のローマ字表記について [Romanising Japanese names in official documents] [PDF]. Agency for Cultural Affairs. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/kokugo/kokugo/kokugo_72/pdf/r1422554_13.pdf
- Ritsumeikan University Library. (2024). 引用・参考文献の書き方 [How to write citations and references] [PDF]. https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/pub/d08/010/14_quote.pdf
- Sato, Y. (1998). 合理的選択理論批判の論理構造とその問題点 [Logical structures of criticisms of rational choice theory and their defects]. 社会学評論, 49(2), 188–205. https://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.49.188
- Waseda University Library. (n.d.). 09. 参考文献リストの見方 [How to read bibliographies]. Research Navi. https://waseda-jp.libguides.com/research-navi/howto_sanko