Abstract: A method of automatically determining a reading of a Japanese word includes for each character determining whether the character is a kanji, hiragana 520, or katakana 530 character. For a hiragana or katakana character the only one reading associated with the character is chosen in step 525, 535. For a kanji character it is determined in step 540 whether or not the immediately preceding character and/or the immediately succeeding character is also a kanji character. If so, for the kanji character an on-reading associated with the kanji character is chosen in step 550. If not, a kun-reading associated with the kanji character is chosen in step 560.