The is a radiotelephony spelling alphabet, similar in purpose to the NATO/ICAO radiotelephony alphabet, but designed to communicate the Japanese kana syllables rather than Latin letters. The alphabet was sponsored by the now-defunct Ministry for Posts and Telecommunications.
Each kana is assigned a code word, so that critical combinations of kana (and numbers) can be pronounced and clearly understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone, especially when the safety of navigation or persons is essential.
There are specific names for kana, numerals, and special characters (i.e. vowel extender, comma, quotation mark, and parentheses).
Every kana name takes the form of a . For example, means "ri of ringo". Voiced kana do not have special names of their own. Instead, one simply states the unvoiced form, followed by "ni dakuten". /p/ sounds are named similarly, with "ni handakuten". Thus, to convey, one would say "". To convey, one would say "". As no word begins with the syllabic n, the word, meaning end, is used for .
| Kana | Spelling | Kana | Spelling | Kana | Spelling | Kana | Spelling | Kana | Spelling | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| あ/ア | Asahi no "a" | い/イ | Iroha no "i" | う/ウ | Ueno no "u" | え/エ | Eigo no "e" | お/オ | Ōsaka no "o" | |
| か/カ | Kawase no "ka" | き/キ | Kitte no "ki" | く/ク | Kurabu no "ku" | け/ケ | Keshiki no "ke" | こ/コ | Kodomo no "ko" | |
| さ/サ | Sakura no "sa" | し/シ | Shinbun no "shi" | す/ス | Suzume no "su" | せ/セ | Sekai no "se" | そ/ソ | Soroban no "so" | |
| た/タ | Tabako no "ta" | ち/チ | Chidori no "chi" | つ/ツ | Tsurukame no "tsu" | て/テ | Tegami no "te" | と/ト | Tōkyō no "to" | |
| な/ナ | Nagoya no "na" | に/ニ | Nippon no "ni" | ぬ/ヌ | Numazu no "nu" | ね/ネ | Nezumi no "ne" | の/ノ | Nohara no "no" | |
| は/ハ | Hagaki no "ha" | ひ/ヒ | Hikōki no "hi" | ふ/フ | Fujisan no "fu" | へ/ヘ | Heiwa no "he" | ほ/ホ | Hoken no "ho" | |
| ま/マ | Matchi no "ma" | み/ミ | Mikasa no "mi" | む/ム | Musen no "mu" | め/メ | Meiji no "me" | も/モ | Momiji no "mo" | |
| や/ヤ | Yamato no "ya" | ゆ/ユ | Yumiya no "yu" | よ/ヨ | Yoshino no "yo" | |||||
| ら/ラ | Rajio no "ra" | り/リ | Ringo no "ri" | る/ル | Rusui no "ru" | れ/レ | Renge no "re" | ろ/ロ | Rōma no "ro" | |
| わ/ワ | Warabi no "wa" | ゐ/ヰ | (W)ido no "(w)i" | ゑ/ヱ | Kagi no aru "e" | を/ヲ | (W)owari no "(w)o" | |||
| ん/ン | Oshimai no "n" | ゛ | Dakuten | ゜ | Handakuten | |||||
Digits are identified with "" (sūji no.../Number X) followed by the name of the number, analogous to English phrases such as the number five.
When a number can be named in multiple ways, the most distinctive pronunciation is used. Thus 1, 7, 4 are pronounced hito, nana, yon rather than ichi, shichi, shi which could easily be confused with each other.
| Digit | Spelling | Digit | Spelling | Digit | Spelling | Digit | Spelling | Digit | Spelling | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sūji no hito | 2 | Sūji no ni | 3 | Sūji no san | 4 | Sūji no yon | 5 | Sūji no go | |
| 6 | Sūji no roku | 7 | Sūji no nana | 8 | Sūji no hachi | 9 | Sūji no kyū | 0 | Sūji no maru |