Name in Japanese J Jesus

Jesus in Japanese

ヘスス
Katakana
ヘスス
Hiragana
へすす
Romaji (Hepburn)
Hesusu

This is the established spelling used for Jesus in Japanese dictionaries, books and media.

How Jesus sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

He
Su
Su

Full reading: Hesusu

Do more with Jesus in Japanese

Why Jesus is written in katakana

In Japanese, foreign names are written in katakana — the angular script reserved for words borrowed from other languages. So on a form, a name tag, a delivery slip or a news article in Japan, Jesus appears as ヘスス. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ヘスス and immediately reads it by its sound, Hesusu.

Katakana is a syllabary, so English sounds are fitted to the nearest Japanese syllables and every consonant (except ん) is followed by a vowel. That is why Jesus becomes ヘスス rather than a letter-for-letter copy. More than one katakana spelling can be reasonable for the same name, which is why we flag whether a spelling is a long-established one or a natural default.