How well does it handle Japanese?
This is one of the engine’s strongest languages — expect clean, publishable text from clear audio.
Output is written Japanese with kanji/kana chosen from context — not romaji.
Sentence segmentation works despite Japanese not using spaces; word-level timestamps still map each token to the audio for subtitles.
What you get
Speaker labels
Every voice in the recording is separated and labelled — works in Japanese the same as in English, because speaker labels follow voices, not words.
Word-level timestamps
Each word is timed to the audio, which is what makes accurate Japanese SRT and VTT subtitle files possible.
Search & quote
The transcript is searchable in Japanese — jump to the exact second something was said and copy it with its timestamp.
Every export
TXT, SRT, VTT, DOCX and JSON on every pack — no format paywall.
Who transcribes Japanese audio here
Meeting notes, podcast show notes, lesson archives.
Transcribe Japanese by recording type
Japanese audio to text · Japanese interview · Japanese lecture · Japanese podcast · Japanese meeting · Japanese youtube video · Japanese voicemail
Questions people ask
Do I need to tell it the audio is Japanese?
No — the language is detected from the first seconds of audio automatically. If a recording mixes Japanese and English, each part is transcribed in the language actually spoken.
Can I get English text from Japanese audio?
No. The transcript comes back in the language that was spoken, so Japanese audio produces Japanese text. Captions and every export stay in the source language; translation is not something Whipscribe does.
Does it work on Japanese video, not just audio?
Yes — upload MP4/MOV/WebM or paste a link; the audio track is extracted automatically and transcribed the same way.
How much does it cost?
A pack from $4 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. Preview any transcript instantly with no signup; a pack from $4 opens the full transcript, no account needed. After that, one-time credit packs: $8 for 1,000 minutes, $12 for 2,000 minutes or $24 for 5,000 minutes, and credits never expire.
Is this live captioning?
No — Whipscribe transcribes recordings, not live speech. Upload a file that already exists and the Japanese transcript is typically ready in about a minute per half hour of audio.
Related: Audio to text · Subtitle generator · Interview transcription · Bulk transcription