Japanese
日本語
Transcribe Japanese Audio to Text
Upload Japanese audio or video, or paste a public link, and get a transcript in kanji and kana with timestamps. Standard Japanese transcribes best, up to 99% accurate on clear audio. Start free with 120 minutes every week.
See It In Action
Here is a line of polite business Japanese, the transcript it produces, and its English translation.
"本日はご参加いただき、誠にありがとうございます。まずは来月のスケジュールについて確認させてください。"
"本日はご参加いただき、誠にありがとうございます。まずは来月のスケジュールについて確認させてください。"
Translation: "Thank you very much for joining us today. First, let me go over next month's schedule."
Kanji, hiragana and katakana, as Japanese is written
The transcript comes out in normal written Japanese: kanji for content words, hiragana for grammar, katakana for loanwords like ミーティング or プロジェクト, and Japanese punctuation. There are no spaces between words, just as in any Japanese text. Accuracy reaches up to 99% on clear audio of standard Japanese. Background noise, people talking over each other and distant microphones lower it.
Try Free NowHonest about dialects and mixed English
Standard Japanese transcribes best. Kansai and other regional speech mostly works when it is mild, but broad dialect produces more errors, and there are no dialect-specific models. Japanese recordings often contain English words and phrases; the language is detected once for the whole file, so short English terms usually come through, often in katakana, while long English passages may be transcribed poorly.
Try Free NowTranslate Japanese into English and 60+ languages
On the paid plan, a finished Japanese transcript can be translated into English or any of more than 60 languages; downloads from the web app stay in Japanese. That helps teams who share meetings with colleagues abroad and viewers who follow Japanese videos without subtitles. Keep the original Japanese next to the translation to check names and keigo nuance that machine translation can flatten.
Try Free NowStandard Japanese and regional speech
There is one Japanese model, not a model per region. It does best with standard Japanese; strong dialects, noise and fast speech lower accuracy.
Standard Japanese (hyōjungo)
Tokyo-based standard, nationwide
The Japanese of news, lectures and business meetings. This is where accuracy is highest, up to 99% on clear audio.
Kansai-ben
Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe
Light Kansai speech usually comes through well. Heavy dialect forms such as あかん or へん endings may be written in a more standard way or misheard, so check them.
Tohoku dialects
Aomori, Akita, Iwate and nearby
Strong Tohoku pronunciation is hard for the model, and older speakers in broad dialect will produce more errors. Expect to edit.
Kyushu dialects
Fukuoka, Kagoshima and nearby
Mild Hakata speech is usually fine; broad Kagoshima dialect is much harder and accuracy drops noticeably.
Hokkaido speech
Hokkaido
Close to standard Japanese, so it generally transcribes well. Local words like なまら may need a quick edit.
Okinawan speech
Okinawa
Japanese spoken with an Okinawan accent works. The Ryukyuan languages themselves are not supported and will not transcribe usefully.
From Japanese recording to text in four steps
Upload a file or paste a link. Japanese is detected on its own, so there is nothing to set before you start.
Upload or paste a link
Add a Japanese recording up to 500 MB and six hours, or paste a public YouTube or Zoom share link.
Japanese is detected and transcribed
The language is recognised automatically and the audio becomes kanji-and-kana text with timestamps, usually within minutes.
Check names and kanji
Click a timestamp to replay a line and correct names, homophones or dialect words in the editor.
Export or translate
Download TXT on the free plan; paid plans add SRT, VTT, Word, PDF and English translation.
Who transcribes Japanese with Hear2Text
Anyone who needs Japanese speech as searchable text: business teams, creators, students of Japanese and researchers.
YouTubers and podcasters
Paste a public YouTube link to a Japanese video and turn it into SRT or VTT subtitles on a paid plan, or into text for a blog post.
Meetings with Japanese colleagues
Transcribe recorded 会議 and client calls, keep the keigo intact, and on a paid plan translate the minutes into English for teammates abroad.
Researchers and journalists
Transcribe interviews recorded in Japan for quoting and coding, then search the transcript for every mention of a term.
Japanese learners
Read along with podcasts, lectures or news broadcasts in real Japanese script and replay each line from its timestamp. On a paid plan you can also translate the transcript into English.
What you get with a Japanese transcript
Up to 99% on clear audio
Clear standard Japanese from one speaker at a time transcribes best. Noise, crosstalk and broad dialect lower accuracy.
Loanwords in katakana
English terms spoken in Japanese usually appear in katakana, the way a Japanese writer would spell them.
Keigo kept as spoken
Honorific and humble forms are written exactly as said, so a client call reads the way it sounded.
Speaker labels
Every plan labels each voice as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on. Names are not detected automatically; on the paid plans you can add them.
Clean text, no furigana
Output is ordinary written Japanese without furigana or romaji. Replay any segment from its timestamp to hear how a word was read.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can it transcribe Kansai-ben and other Japanese dialects?
How does it choose the right kanji for homophones?
Does it handle keigo and formal business Japanese?
Does the transcript include furigana?
Can I translate a Japanese transcript into English?
What files and links can I use for Japanese audio?
Transcribe your first Japanese recording free
Upload a Japanese meeting, lecture or video and get kanji-and-kana text back in minutes, with 120 free minutes every week.
Get Started Free