Smartcat transcribes the Japanese speech, lets you fix name readings and formality once in an editable transcript, then delivers English subtitles, an AI dub, or a voice-over from the same upload.
1,000+ enterprise brands trust Smartcat for translation
Japanese video goes into Smartcat once and comes out as English subtitles, a dub, or a voice-over. A human Japanese–English reviewer can check any output before it ships. Depth on each output: SRT and subtitle translation, AI dubbing, and the AI video translator hub.
35
AI voice-over locales
AI voice-over is powered by ElevenLabs and available in 35 locales, English and Japanese among them. Japanese runs on the v2 engine, because v3 is documented as producing unstable results in Japanese and German — so review a Japanese dub rather than shipping the first render.
3
English outputs, one upload
Subtitles (SRT or VTT), an AI-dubbed voice track, or a voice-over — all generated from the same editable transcript, so you pick per channel instead of re-translating.
5
steps from upload to export
Transcribe the Japanese speech, fix the transcript once, translate to English with your glossary, export — and send it to a human reviewer when the stakes warrant it. Pricing is metered by transcript word count, not video length. Details: pricing.
Politeness is meaning, and literal translation destroys it. Japanese carries register in its grammar — keigo for a customer webinar, plain form between colleagues. Translate it word-for-word and formal Japanese becomes stilted English while casual Japanese reads as rude. Someone has to decide the English register; a raw pipeline never does.
The words aren't all spoken. Japanese video leans on on-screen text — captions, signs, name cards, vertical titles. Video translation, ours included, works from the spoken audio: text burned into the picture stays Japanese unless you handle it deliberately. We say exactly how below, because finding that out after export is the expensive way to learn it.
Names are a guess. The same kanji can be read several ways, so speech-to-text regularly gets people and place names wrong — and a name misheard once is then wrong in every subtitle that follows.
enterprise brands on Smartcat
translation languages
video formats supported (WebM is not)
maximum upload size per file
Bring a real file to a 1:1 walkthrough — transcript edit, English subtitles, and a dub, in one pass.
Smartcat translates Japanese video to English in five steps.
Transcribe — the Media Translation Agent turns the Japanese spoken audio into timed, editable cues. The workflow translates speech, not text burned into the picture.
Correct the transcript once — name readings, product terms, and the register you want the English to carry, fixed before anything is translated. A fix made here lands in every output.
Translate — the AI translates the cues into English using your glossary and translation memory, so recurring terms stay consistent across a video series.
Export — English subtitles (SRT or VTT), an AI-dubbed voice track, or a voice-over, all generated from the same transcript.
AI voice-over is available in 35 locales, English and Japanese among them, and is powered by ElevenLabs. Pricing is metered by transcript word count, not video length, so a long, quiet video costs less than a short, dense one.
Before export, you can assign the translation to a professional Japanese–English reviewer inside the same workflow.
1
Upload the video. MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV, MPEG, MPG, M2V, M4V, OGV, QT, 3GP, 3G2, TS and VOB are supported — sixteen formats in all. WebM is not supported.
Files up to 6 GB; split anything over 1 GB for faster processing. No maximum video length is published — the documented constraint is file size, not running time — and there is no cap on how many videos go into one project, on any plan.
2
Fix the transcript once. Name readings, product terms, and register notes — corrected in the Japanese transcript before anything is translated, so the fix lands in every output.
2
Translate to English. Your glossary and translation memory are applied, and you can edit any cue in the subtitle editor — including timing — before export.
3
Export subtitles, a dub, or a voice-over. All three come from the same transcript, so you can ship more than one format without re-translating.
4
Send it to a human reviewer when the stakes warrant it. Assign the translation to a professional Japanese–English reviewer inside the same workflow; their corrections also train your translation memory for the next video.
None of the figures below is Japanese–English specific — all come from published multilingual course and content localization work.
30%
More output, same team
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Save on translation costs
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2–3 days
eLearning turnaround, cut
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Fix the transcript once, choose subtitles, dub, or voice-over, and ship it with a human reviewer's sign-off when it matters. Free for 15 days with 15,000 Smartwords — full access to translation capabilities, no credit card.
Not directly — it has no video pipeline, so people screenshot subtitles or retype dialogue. A video translator transcribes the speech itself, keeps the timing, and gives you an editable transcript before translation — which is where name readings and register get fixed.
Upload the video, review the Japanese transcript, translate to English, and export an .srt or .vtt file — or a burned-in version for platforms that ignore caption files.
Subtitles are one of the formats where you can preview the translated result before you export, so you can check English line lengths and timing in context rather than after the fact.
Already have a Japanese subtitle file? Translate it directly at SRT translation.
Sixteen video formats are supported, and every documented limit is about file size rather than running time:
None of these limits vary by plan.
No. The workflow translates spoken audio. Text embedded in the picture — titles, lower thirds, signs, on-screen captions — cannot be extracted or translated automatically; you would need to edit the original video source files. Where the on-screen text matters, carry it in your English subtitles instead of in the picture.
Yes — podcasts, interviews, and recordings go through the audio translator, same transcript-first flow.
Yes — assign the project to a professional Japanese–English reviewer from Smartcat's Marketplace without leaving the workflow. Their corrections also train your translation memory for the next video.
Yes, the pipeline runs both directions — and the same register question applies in reverse, so the transcript-edit step matters just as much going into Japanese.
Japanese is one of the 35 AI voice-over locales, so a Japanese dub is available as well as Japanese subtitles.
Worth knowing: Japanese voice is generated with ElevenLabs' v2 engine, because the newer v3 is documented as producing unstable results in Japanese and German. Review the Japanese dub before it ships — ideally with a native reviewer — rather than treating it as final on first render.
Technically, yes — upload an episode and Smartcat will transcribe, translate, and subtitle it like any Japanese video. Whether you should depends on whose anime it is.
Legitimate uses:
Distributing fan-made subtitles of licensed anime infringes the rights holder's copyright, and running the translation through AI changes nothing about that.
On craft: anime dialogue runs on wordplay, honorifics, and cultural shorthand. AI output is genuinely good for comprehension, but it reads flat next to professional localization. That is what the human-review step is for — and on licensed work it is not optional.
Metered by transcript word count, not video minutes, and charged in Smartwords — the usage credits included with every plan. A 40-minute webinar with measured narration can cost less than a 10-minute rapid-fire product video. There is a 15-day free trial with 15,000 Smartwords and no card. Details: pricing.
Accuracy depends on the recording and on the transcript step more than on any headline number, which is why we don't print one. Clear single-speaker Japanese transcribes and translates well: you review the transcript before translation, and a human Japanese–English linguist can review the output.
What lowers quality:
Song and opening-theme lyrics translate literally — you will get the meaning, not singable lines.
Question not answered here? Book a demo — a 1:1 consultation, no commitment.