Japanese video translator

Japanese

Japanese is selected when you start from this page. Add any other language in the same job; each is priced on its own.

Lip sync, on or off

On, the speakers' mouths are rendered again to match the Japanese lines. Off, your picture stays exactly as it was and only the voice changes.

Proofread the Japanese script

Read the transcript beside its Japanese translation, line by line, and correct it before anything is voiced. Or upload your own Japanese .srt or .vtt and the dub says exactly those lines.

Japanese subtitles in the picture

When the dub comes back with its Japanese script, style the subtitles and export a copy with them burned in, set in Noto Sans JP unless you pick another font.

Choose the level of politeness

Japanese changes with the relationship between speaker and listener. Brand videos, tutorials and business content usually use the polite desu and masu forms; casual vlogs and gaming content can use plain forms. Decide which fits your speaker, and read the translated script once to make sure every line agrees.

Timing needs a careful read

A Japanese sentence often needs more syllables than its English original, and the verb comes at the end, so a long line can feel rushed or cut short. While you proofread, simplify the densest lines and drop words that Japanese would leave unsaid anyway, such as repeated you and I.

Names in katakana

Foreign names, brands and product terms are written in katakana, and an established brand usually has one agreed spelling. Check every name in the script against how your company writes it in Japanese, and keep technical terms that Japanese professionals use in English.

Respect the details

Japanese viewers notice small mistakes: a wrong honorific on a name, an unnatural greeting, a price in the wrong format. Have a native speaker read the proofread script before you render if the video is for customers, and quote prices in yen where the offer applies to Japan.

Software and B2B companies

Japanese companies expect onboarding, demos and webinars in Japanese. Translate the English versions, proofread the product terms carefully, and use the polite register throughout.

Consumer brands and online stores

A product video in Japanese reaches shoppers who read every detail before buying. Translate the demo, check prices and specifications, and download the Japanese cut for your store and social accounts.

Games and entertainment

Game trailers, developer updates and animated shorts reach Japanese players best in Japanese. Lip sync helps live action presenters; for animation you can keep the original picture and replace only the voices.

Creators and educators

Channels about travel, cooking, technology or language learning can reach Japanese viewers with the videos they already have, translated one job at a time and corrected where a phrase needs it.

The soundtrack stays

Sonilo keeps the original background music and sound effects and replaces only the speech, with lip sync on or off.

The speaker’s own voice

Sonilo keeps the speaker’s own voice in the new language, so the translated speech sounds like the person in your video, not a stock voice. There is no voice to record or set up.

Lip sync, when you want it

On: mouths are re-rendered to match the new language. Off: your original picture stays untouched and only the voice is replaced.

You approve the words

The translation is a script you can read and correct first. A product name, a joke, a line of dialogue: fix it before it is spoken.

Your subtitles, spoken

Upload an .srt or .vtt for a language and the dub says exactly those lines, instead of a machine translation of them.

Music for the new cut

Sonilo also adds music to video. If a translated version needs its own soundtrack, add music to it in the same account.