Japanese translation services

Japanese translation is priced per word or per character for text and per minute for audiovisual, depending on volume, subject and turnaround. Send your files for a free, itemised quote, backed by our Price Match Promise.

Yes. Native Japanese linguists translate at the right level of politeness (keigo) and a second reviews every text, so it reads naturally for your audience.

Yes — Japanese translation, subtitling to Japanese conventions and voice over from one team, so your whole project stays consistent.

Yes. We spot to Japanese character-count limits and line-break rules (kinsoku), mixing kanji, hiragana and katakana correctly — not English characters-per-second norms.

It depends on the relationship the content implies. Business correspondence and official announcements call for a formal register, product interfaces and consumer marketing generally use a politer neutral form, and internal material can sit lower still. The choice affects the whole document rather than a few phrases, so we confirm it at the brief stage.

Usually, in character count. That sounds convenient and creates its own layout problems: text sized for English can look sparse, and headings lose their visual weight. Japanese also breaks lines differently, since it is written without spaces. Send us the working files and we will flag where the design needs adjusting.

We can run them together, but they are separate translations rather than adaptations of each other. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are unrelated languages with different scripts, grammar, and conventions, despite being grouped commercially. Where a project covers several, we manage them centrally so terminology stays aligned across versions.

It is one of the weaker pairs with English. The grammar is structured very differently, subjects are routinely omitted and inferred from context, and politeness levels are applied inconsistently by machine output, which frequently produces text that is comprehensible but reads as unmistakably foreign. Our Japanese translations are produced by native linguists and reviewed by a second.

Most short documents are delivered within 24 to 48 hours. Word count, subject complexity and turnaround all move the date, and your project manager will confirm the timeline at the start.

Less than people expect: the document, script or subtitle file, its word count, what the text is actually for, and the date you need it by. A draft is fine — we would rather quote on what exists than wait for a final version that eats your deadline. A named project manager comes back with an itemised quote, normally within four working hours.

More than half of enquiries get a reply within thirty minutes during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time), and the itemised quote normally follows within four working hours. After that you have one dedicated project manager who owns the job from brief to final file — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email. If it is easier, call +44 207 095 5730 and ask for them by name.

Yes, and it is one of the commonest reasons people get in touch. Tell us it is for a pitch and you get a figure you can put in front of your own client, itemised so it stands up to being picked apart, with no obligation and no follow-up sales calls if the pitch goes elsewhere. If it lands, the quote still holds and we already know the project.