Free English to Japanese translator with a formal or informal register and names kept exactly as you wrote them.
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Type, paste or upload a document. The source language is detected automatically. Select a name or term and tap Keep to leave it untranslated.
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Translation
Your translation will appear hereChoose the target language, add your text, then press Translate. Click any sentence in the translation for alternatives.
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English to Japanese translator
English to Japanese translation with the register set first
Paste English and get Japanese back with the register set the way you want it. Japanese has a graded politeness system rather than two forms of 'you'. The selector decides the vocabulary and sentence shape before the translation is made, and any name or term you mark as kept is passed through untouched.
How to translate English to Japanese
Three steps. The second is the one most translators skip.
1
Paste or upload the English
Type, paste or drop in a document. English is already selected as the source on this page; if the text turns out to be something else, the detector says so above the editor and you can change it.
2
Set the register and mark the names to keep
Pick Formal or Informal from the register selector beside the language names, or leave it on Match source tone to follow the English original. Select any name, brand or product term and press Keep so it is passed through as written.
3
Translate, then check it
Read the Japanese if you can. If you cannot, back-translate it: run the result through Japanese to English and compare the meaning, sentence by sentence, with what you started from.
What changes between English and Japanese
The differences that decide whether a translation reads as written by a person.
Script and directionEnglish is written in Latin; Japanese in kanji, hiragana and katakana. Names cross between scripts by sound, which is why freezing them matters.
Word orderEnglish is subject-verb-object; Japanese is subject-object-verb. Sentences are rebuilt, not mapped word for word, and long sentences are where a weak translator loses the thread.
How politeness is markedJapanese has a graded politeness system rather than two forms of 'you'. Plain form is for friends and inner thought, the '-masu / desu' form is the neutral polite default, and keigo adds honorific and humble verb forms for customers, seniors and formal writing.
Formality in EnglishEnglish has no separate polite and familiar 'you'. Register lives in vocabulary and sentence shape instead: 'Could you let me know' against 'Tell me', 'purchase' against 'buy'.
Where translation into Japanese goes wrong
Three things Japanese readers notice at once, and a machine has to be told about.
Dropped subjects
Japanese drops the subject whenever it is understood, so a translation that keeps every English 'I' and 'you' as 私 and あなた reads as stilted or rude.
Names go into katakana
Foreign names and loanwords are written in katakana by sound; a system that tries to 'translate' a brand name instead produces nonsense.
Counters
Counters change with what is counted (三人, 三本, 三枚); the wrong counter is a mistake every Japanese reader catches.
What has to be read correctly in the English first
Errors that start on the source side, before a single Japanese word is chosen.
'You' is ambiguous
'You' is ambiguous: one person or several, a friend or a stranger. Translators guess, and a guess in the wrong direction is the single most common way an English original lands badly.
Stacked nouns
English piles up nouns ('customer data retention policy'); most languages need those unpacked into phrases, and a literal rendering is unreadable.
Phrasal verbs and idioms
Phrasal verbs ('put up with', 'look into') and idioms are translated word by word by weaker systems.
Who translates English to Japanese here
1
Business emails with Japanese partners, where keigo is expected.
Yes. Translate English to Japanese without an account, within the per-run word allowance shown beside the editor. Signing in raises it, and Pro removes the guest limits and the ads. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.
How does the register selector work for Japanese?
Japanese has a graded politeness system rather than two forms of 'you'. Plain form is for friends and inner thought, the '-masu / desu' form is the neutral polite default, and keigo adds honorific and humble verb forms for customers, seniors and formal writing. The selector still matters: Formal produces the vocabulary and sentence shapes a Japanese reader expects in official or business writing, Informal the everyday ones, and Match source tone keeps whatever the English original was doing.
Will it translate names, brands and product terms?
Not unless you want it to. Select a name or a term in the editor and press Keep, and it is passed through exactly as written. This matters for English to Japanese because names are otherwise re-spelled in kanji, hiragana and katakana script by sound, and two runs can spell the same name two ways.
How accurate is machine translation from English to Japanese?
Good enough to understand a document, answer an email or draft a reply, and it improves when you set the register and mark the names as kept first. It is not a substitute for a human translator on a contract, a medical document or anything with legal weight. The reliable way to check a translation you cannot read is to back-translate it: paste the Japanese result into a new run set to English and see whether the meaning survived.
Can I translate a whole document from English to Japanese?
Yes. Drop in a .docx, .pdf or .txt file, or paste the text; the output keeps the paragraph structure and can be copied, edited in place or exported.
Can I translate Japanese to English as well?
Yes. Use the Japanese to English translator, or press the swap button between the two language names on this page. Either way the register and the kept terms come with you.
After the translation
Check the English before you translate it, or shift the register of the result once it is in Japanese. One plan covers every tool.
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