Subtitling · Japanese
Japanese subtitling services
Native Japanese subtitlers for corporate video, eLearning, streaming content, documentary, and advertising. Delivered to platform specification, correctly rendered. Part of a full Japanese language service: subtitles, transcripts, voice over scripts, and translation of any content you need.
About Japanese subtitling
Japanese subtitling does not scale down from European rules
Japanese subtitling does not work the way European language subtitling does. Japanese is written with three systems used together: kanji, hiragana, and katakana, and a single kanji can carry what English needs several words to say. Text contracts sharply against English in character count.
That sounds convenient until you look at reading speed. Japanese is also written without spaces between words, so line breaks follow their own conventions rather than falling at a convenient gap.
At GoLocalise, we work with native Japanese subtitlers and every file passes linguistic and technical QA before delivery.
Which do you need?
Open captions, closed captions or SDH
Three different deliverables that people often ask for by the wrong name. Here is the short version.
Open captions
Burnt inSubtitles burnt permanently into the picture. Nobody can switch them off, which is exactly what you want for social feeds that autoplay muted — and it fixes the line breaks and the typography at delivery.
- Always visible
- Breaks and rendering fixed at delivery
- Delivered as a finished video file
Closed captions
SwitchableA separate file the viewer can turn on and off, and that can carry several languages at once. The standard for YouTube, Vimeo and the streaming platforms.
- Viewer controls them
- Multiple languages from one video
- Indexed by search engines
SDH
AccessibilitySubtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: dialogue plus speaker IDs and the sound effects and music cues that carry meaning.
- Speaker identification
- Non-dialogue audio described
- Meets accessibility requirements
Subtitles or captions? The two terms are often used interchangeably. Strictly, subtitles translate the dialogue for viewers who can hear the audio, while captions are same-language and add speaker labels and sound cues for viewers who cannot. We produce either — translated Japanese subtitles or same-language Japanese captions and SDH — in whichever form your platform and audience require.
What we subtitle
Japanese subtitling for every kind of content
Japanese subtitling spans corporate, eLearning, streaming and entertainment work, and the politeness level shifts between them. These are the formats we handle most.
Corporate & training video
Internal comms, onboarding and product training subtitled for global teams and LMS delivery.
eLearning & online courses
Timed, readable subtitles for course platforms, MOOCs and instructional video.
Documentary & factual
Festival, broadcast and streaming documentaries, including interview clean-up and on-screen text.
Advertising & social
Burnt-in captions for muted autoplay on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and paid social.
Streaming & OTT
Platform-spec subtitle and caption files for VOD, OTT and broadcast delivery.
Accessibility (SDH & closed captions)
Same-language SDH and closed captions to meet WCAG and accessibility requirements.
Events, webinars & conferences
Recorded talks, town halls and webinars captioned for on-demand viewing.
E-commerce & product video
Short product and explainer videos captioned to lift conversion and reach.
How can we help you?
Your project manager has everything covered
One point of contact from brief to delivery, and both a linguistic and a technical check on every file.
Brief review
We review your video, your audience, and the level of formality the content calls for.
Template and translation
Where needed, we create an English subtitle template first, then send it to a native Japanese subtitler.
Timing and quality checks
Subtitles are timed against the video and checked for reading speed, line length, break points, and format compliance.
Delivery and display check
Files are delivered in the format you need, confirmed to render correctly.
Our standards
The specs we work to
Readable subtitles are a matter of measurable limits, not opinion. These are the defaults we apply to Japanese unless your style guide says otherwise.
Maximum per line
Japanese counts differently to Latin script
Maximum on screen
Bottom-weighted, breaks to Japanese rules
Reading speed
Well below Latin-script rates
Minimum duration
Seven seconds maximum
If Japanese is shorter than English, why does timing still matter? Because reading speed is measured in what a viewer can absorb, not in characters saved. Kanji carry more meaning per character and take longer to process than Latin letters, so the comfortable characters per second rate is lower. A line that looks short can still be too fast to read, which is why Japanese subtitling standards differ from European ones rather than simply scaling down.
Deliverables
Professional subtitle formats
We adapt your existing translations into subtitle format or create subtitles from scratch, in Japanese, English or any other language. And if the project needs a timed script or a plain document instead, we deliver that too.
Standard text-based
Compatible with most platforms and players.
Broadcast & professional
For broadcasters, post houses and streaming delivery specs.
Burnt-in video
A finished file with the subtitles baked into the picture.
Need a different format? Convert SRT, VTT and more with our free subtitle converter →
| Where it's going | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| YouTube, Vimeo & LMS platforms | SRT or VTT closed captions |
| Netflix, Amazon & broadcast | IMSC, TTML or EBU-STL to platform spec |
| Instagram, TikTok & paid social | Burned-in captions in MP4 (open captions) |
| Premiere, Final Cut & DaVinci Resolve | SRT / VTT that import straight into your edit |
Not sure which you need? Tell us the destination platform and we deliver to its exact spec.
Japanese specifics
Politeness levels, and where a line can break
Japanese encodes the relationship between speakers through politeness levels, and in subtitling that has to track what is happening on screen rather than follow a single house setting applied across the file.
In practice: colleagues, strangers and friends do not address one another the same way, and flattening that across a file removes information the dialogue is conveying. For corporate and instructional content a consistent polite register is usually right; for drama or dialogue-driven material, it should follow the speakers.
The other decision is where a line can break. Without spaces, Japanese follows typographic conventions rather than looking for a gap: there are established rules about which characters cannot begin or end a line, and a subtitler applies them the way an English subtitler avoids splitting a noun from its article. Software that breaks purely on character count gets this wrong constantly.
Since 2008
Subtitling & captioning
100+
Languages covered
ISO 9001 & 14001
Certified processes
24–48h
Typical turnaround
Subtitling rates
Professional Japanese subtitling
For single videos and straightforward content where accurate, well-timed subtitles are what you need.
- Native Japanese subtitler
- Politeness matched to the content
- Frame-accurate timing
For longer content and recurring projects, including transcription, SDH, burned-in subtitles, and multiple output formats.
- Everything in Standard
- Transcription and template
- SDH and burnt-in
- Multiple output formats
Every project is quoted individually and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us your video for an exact, no-obligation quote.
Trusted by global brands
We have used GoLocalise on a regular basis for projects in a number of languages. The service we receive is great. The team is always friendly and professional. The voiceovers we receive are of a very high quality and the turnaround is extremely quick. We are very happy to recommend GoLocalise to other businesses.
It was a pleasure to work with David and the team at GoLocalise. David gave me lots of help and advice, guiding me through my first subtitling project. He really knows his stuff! The experience was completely pain-free. I would not hesitate to recommend GoLocalise – outstanding work at a good price.
They're reliable, adaptive and obsessed with quality. And while you can never be 100% guaranteed of perfection, you can be sure GoLocalise will go the extra mile to get it right every time. We've worked with them now for over 5 years and we are truly thankful to have such a strong localisation partner for our business.
Related services
The rest of your Japanese project
Japanese voice over
Native Japanese voice actors, recorded in broadcast-quality studios.
Learn moreJapanese translation
Scripts, subtitles and on-screen text, at the register the material calls for.
Learn moreJapanese transcription
The transcript your subtitles start from, verbatim or clean read.
Learn moreSubtitling & captioning in more languages
Native subtitlers for corporate video, eLearning, streaming, documentary and advertising. Browse another language, or ask us about yours.
Most common questions
Because reading speed is measured in what a viewer can absorb, not in characters saved. Kanji carry more meaning per character and take longer to process than Latin letters, so the comfortable characters per second rate is lower. A line that looks short can still be too fast to read, which is why Japanese subtitling standards differ from European ones rather than simply scaling down.
Ready to subtitle your video in Japanese?
Send us your video and we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.
Professional voice over services for your audio and video productions
Voice over
- State-of-the-art studios
- Neumann microphones
- On-hand sound engineers
- 1,000+ voice actors
Translation
- 100+ languages covered
- Tailored to your needs
- Stringent quality control
- Dedicated project managers
Subtitling
- Experienced subtitlers
- Industry-standard software
- Burn-in and graphic editing
- Open and closed captions
Transcription
- Improve accessibility
- Reach a wider audience
- Boost SEO and video views
- Maximise video engagement