Japanese Audio to Text
Upload Japanese audio or paste a link and get an accurate, timestamped transcript – kanji, kana and katakana set down the way they were spoken.
Accepts Japanese audio or video – MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4 and more, or a link · returns a clean, timestamped transcript in mixed kanji and kana.
60 min free · no card required · we never train on your audio
How do I convert Japanese audio to text?
Drop in a Japanese recording or paste a link, and Pepys converts the speech into clean, timestamped text written in natural mixed kanji and kana. It reads run-on Japanese with no word spacing, picks the right kanji for homophones from context, and auto-detects Japanese among 99+ languages. Your first 60 minutes are free, no card.
How japanese audio to text works
Upload or paste a link
Drop in a Japanese voice memo, interview, or lecture – any format, nothing to install.
Get your transcript
Pepys writes the speech out in natural kanji-kana, timestamped, in minutes.
Edit and export
Fix a kanji choice or a name inline, then export to TXT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, or JSON.
Japanese sounds deceptively tidy and writes anything but. There are no spaces between words, so a transcriber first has to decide where one word ends and the next begins, then choose which of several identical-sounding kanji is meant – はし alone can be 橋, 箸, or 端 depending on what the speaker had in mind. On top of that, real recordings mix all three scripts in one breath: kanji for the content words, hiragana for the grammar, katakana for the borrowed コーヒー and ミーティング. Pepys is tuned for exactly this, so a voice memo or an interview comes back reading the way a Japanese person would actually write it down.
It is just as comfortable when the speaker drifts off standard 標準語 into Kansai-ben, Hakata-ben, or the softened vowels of Tohoku, and it keeps keigo intact instead of flattening polite forms into plain ones. Meeting minutes – 議事録 – and quick voice memos are the two things people transcribe most in Japan, and both land cleanly. Japanese is auto-detected among 99+ languages, you can translate the finished transcript in a click, your first 60 minutes are free, credits never expire, and we never train on your audio.
Clean paragraphs. No more um's and ah's.
The left is what Pepys hands back – logical paragraphs with the filler stripped out, punctuated and readable. The right is the raw, one-line-per-segment dump most transcribers leave you with.
um so yeah everyone keeps telling you to like lead with your best line right but uh honestly if you give away the whole answer in the first second you know there's basically no reason for anyone to keep watching so the hook isn't kind of the smartest thing you say it's like a loop you open that they need to close and um that's the part that actually keeps people around
RawRun-on Japanese split into real words and written in natural mixed kanji, hiragana and katakana
Context-aware kanji for homophones, keigo preserved, timestamps and speaker labels throughout
Translate the finished Japanese transcript into another language in one click
99+ languages including Japanese, auto-detected · we never train on your audio · credits never expire
Any language – 99+ detected automatically
- English
- 中文
- Español
- العربية
- हिन्दी
- Français
- 日本語
- Português
- Русский
- Deutsch
- 한국어
- Italiano
- বাংলা
- Türkçe
- فارسی
- Tiếng Việt
- தமிழ்
- Polski
- ไทย
- Українська
- Nederlands
- עברית
- Ελληνικά
- తెలుగు
- Bahasa Indonesia
- اردو
- Svenska
- मराठी
- Română
- Magyar
- Čeština
- ગુજરાતી
- Kiswahili
- ქართული
- Tagalog
- አማርኛ
Works with the platforms you live in.
Paste a link from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts – or drop in any audio or video file. We transcribe it once, then you export it however your workflow needs.
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- or any file
Export to any format
- TXT
- Markdown
- DOCX
- SRT
- VTT
- JSON
Timestamps, speaker labels, and subtitle timing carry through to every export.
Japanese audio to text – questions, answered
How do I convert Japanese audio to text?
Upload your Japanese recording or paste a link on this page – the first 60 minutes are free, no card. Pepys writes it out in timestamped, natural kanji-kana in minutes.
Does it pick the right kanji and handle dialects?
Yes. It chooses kanji for homophones from context and follows Kansai-ben, Hakata-ben and other regional speech, not just 標準語. Any kanji choice or wording is yours to correct inline before exporting.
What actually makes Japanese hard to transcribe?
Two things: there are no spaces between words, so the audio has to be segmented before it can be written, and many words sound identical, so the right kanji has to be inferred from meaning. Pepys handles both, then lets you edit anything inline.
What can I export?
TXT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, or JSON, all with timestamps preserved.
Is my Japanese audio private?
Yes. We never train AI on your audio or transcripts, and you can auto-delete your files after processing.
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Don't just take our word for it.
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity what Pepys is and who it's for. One click, and your favorite AI does the homework.
Japanese audio to text – free to start
Pay as you go – credits never expire, nothing to cancel. Or start free with 60 minutes, no card.