Translating Japanese Online

Translating between Japanese and English can be a daunting task...luckily there are plenty of resources and tools online to 'ease the pain' a little. Most of these sites require you to be able to see Japanese on your system.


Dictionaries

There are tons of online dictionaries that deal with Japanese and English...but I'm not going to try and list them all here. These are a few that I use most frequently.

WWWJDIC Dictionary Server
Free online dictionary server. Arguably the best available if you can read some Japanese. (You'll have to be able to see Japanese on your system to use this.)

Rikai
Incredibly useful tool. Surf Japanese sites and hover your mouse pointer over kanji compounds, katakana words, and see the yomigana and English dictionary definitions.

Jeffrey's Japanese <-> English Dictionary
Online Japanese/English server. Much lighter than carrying around the real thing!

Jisyo.org
Similar to Rikai (above). Add Japanese or Chinese text, or enter a URL and the hover over the text with your mouse. You will get yomigana, English definitions, and a breakdown of the individual kanji.

Japanese <-> English Dictionary
This one is all in romanji, so you don't need Japanese on your PC to use it.

Other Japanese Dictionary Links

DMOZ Japanese Dictionary Links


Machine Translations

The following all produce Japanese/English translations of questionable value (they're done by a machine), but may be helpful if you want to try and get a ROUGH idea of what is on a Japanese site.

AltaVista BabelFish
powered by Systran
English interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input

Excite Translation
powered by AMiKAi
Japanese interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input + search with Japanese keywords and find English sites

@Nifty Global Gate
powered by AMiKAi
Japanese interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input

WorldLingo
English interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input

LinguaWeb
Part of cafeglobe.com - powered by AMiKAi
English interface | E <=> J | URL

Lycos Translation
powered by AMiKAi
Japanese interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input + search with Japanese keywords and find English sites

OCN Translation
NTT Communications' ISP service 'OCN' - powered by AMiKAi
Japanese interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input

Sister Cities International
powered by AMiKAi
English interface | E <=> J | direct text input

Bowne Global Solutions iTranslator
translation service for Microsoft Office customers (requires Microsoft Passport) formerly Lernout & Hauspie
Japanese interface | E <=> J | direct text input

T-Sail
English interface | E <=> J | URL

Arcnet Translation
English interface | E <=> J | URL & direct text input

zip-translator
from the National Institute of Agrobiological Resources at Tsukuba
English interface | E => J | URL

Posted by Bill at October 23, 2003 6:11 PM
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Comments

i really want an english to romanji translator. is this available?

Posted by: SavPixie at March 28, 2006 11:44 AM

i need to know how instruments in japanese is translated to english please

Posted by: julia at April 7, 2006 11:26 AM

i need a sentence to be translated from english to japanese please

Posted by: waterlilly.92 at October 15, 2006 12:55 PM

want the following names tattooed on me
Adam
Ronan
Ashton
in japanese
please help

Posted by: Adrian Woolley at February 25, 2007 8:29 PM

In katakana:
Adam = アダム
Ronan = ロナン
Ashton = アシトン

Posted by: bill at February 25, 2007 10:24 PM

Is there a translator that doesn't use Kanji for the Japanese? I really need to know...

Posted by: Knight at March 4, 2007 8:41 AM

The WWWJDIC Server I linked to above does have an option for entering romanized Japanese.

Posted by: bill at March 4, 2007 1:23 PM

looking for kanji compound for "my new life"

Posted by: katie at May 7, 2007 11:52 PM

how do u speel japan in japanese? :(

Posted by: ??????????? at May 17, 2007 7:46 AM

and its spell

Posted by: ??????????? at May 17, 2007 7:48 AM

Japan = 日本 = Nippon or Nihon

Posted by: bill Author Profile Page at May 17, 2007 1:58 PM

Can you translate the names BRIAH and JETT I would like to get tattoo's as these are my kids names.
Also can you translate the phrase " ONly God will judge me"

Posted by: jade at June 3, 2007 8:22 PM

My new life = 私の新生活
(watashi no shin seikatsu)

Posted by: Dave at June 23, 2007 8:24 AM

I need to know the translation for "crazy monkey girl" or just "monkey girl" in romanji. I wanna use it for me aim screen name.

Posted by: Beth G at July 17, 2007 4:21 AM

I want to spell the word 'Gemerald' in romanji, what are the characters in japanese for Gemerald?

Posted by: Ren at July 24, 2007 4:55 AM

Let me see if I can help:

Crazy Monkey Girl in Romaji is... "Crazy Monkey Girl".

Monkey Girl, likewise, is "Monkey Girl" in Romaji.

Beth G, you're never going to believe this, but Gemerald in Romaji is... wait for it... "Gemerald".

People, let me introduce you to your new best friend and a great way to avoid looking like idiots online or in real life: Wikipedia. Wikipedia could have told you that A) Romaji is the word you want, not Romanji, and B) Romaji is the use of latin characters (that is, these very characters you are looking at) to trans*literate*, not translate, Japanese words into characters we English speakers can read.

For instance, this is a translation:
"馬鹿なアメリカ人" means "Stupid American".
^^^^^
(this part shows this is a translation)

While this is a transliteration:
One Japanese word for 'idiot' is あほ (aho)
^^^
(this part is the Romaji, or latin characters)

Take this sentence:
「馬鹿なアメリカ人は自分で日本語を学ぶべき」
the *transliteration*, written in *romaji*, is
"Baka na Amerikajin wa jibun de Nihongo wo manabubeki", while the *translation* is:
"Stupid Americans should study Japanese on their own."

Capischi?

Posted by: Sleet01 at July 26, 2007 11:25 AM

Do you know what is "Sword that breathes fire" in Romaji?

Posted by: Nyssa at August 1, 2007 2:52 PM

could anyone please translate this into romaji please? i would be ver ygrateful. thank you :)


"We have lots of animals. We have kangaroo’s. They are big and brown. We have koala’s. They are small and grey. They sleep a lot. In Australia we play Afl. Afl means Australian football League. It is fun. Australia has beaches. In australia we have barbeques a lot."

Posted by: ??? at August 9, 2007 9:30 AM

i need to know the translation of "don't talk to me" and "your ugly" in romaji please...oh, i almost forgot i would also like the translation of the name "ven" in japanese. thank you so much. im looking forward to it.

Posted by: venczaree at August 24, 2007 8:39 PM

I would like to convert hiragana and kanji into romaji. I used to use www.j-talk.com/nihongo but it seems to have been removed. I have been searching for hours and I can't find anything. Do you know a good link?

Posted by: Bethany at September 24, 2007 5:58 PM

can someone translate this for me please?
it has slight slang i think
someone will not tell me what they mean. because its embarrasing? so. help would be apprecieted =]x

kiki no koto ga (tabun?! tabun) suki dakedo, kono hito wa shoujo ga arunda yon nen~ yadaaaaaaaa

Posted by: joe at October 3, 2007 5:54 AM

konbanwa! watashi wa no namea Angel Hey, mez gonna write a song at home its tough and rite now i jus wanna write this song i need to find a english translater into romangi i would really appreciate if u would help me out i do know a little japanese but its not enough to translate this song tanx so much for eveythingy mez really really appreciate ur help - Sayonara

Posted by: Angel at December 25, 2007 12:04 PM

I just want to know how to say Rox the Fox in Japanese, with the katakana version and the romanji spelling just to know how to say it please !!!!

Posted by: Roxane at February 13, 2008 11:13 AM

First of all Joe, Konban wa is two words. Watashi wa namae angel Hey desu. is the correct way if i am not mistaken. And what hope do you have to transliterate a song into japanese if you can't type english? I'm not mez. thanks not tanx. right not rite. just not jus.

Posted by: Allyson (Kiri) at February 17, 2008 2:35 PM

Ren, you made me laugh. Really you did. I'm a stupid englishwoman because I've been trying to find out how they do the japanese in other characters for ages. I know pinyin's for chinese, but I'm too stupid.

Wikipedia couldn't help me with the transliteration... Maybe my brain's just too small XD

Posted by: Sabre2997 at February 18, 2008 6:36 PM

can someone please translate this to english please

"ara, meppou naisu.

nanto hinshu?


Posted by: court at December 29, 2008 5:59 PM

Hello,
I am doing Japanese at school and am having a few trouble converting these and questions sentences to English.
-The golf course is at the Gold Coast
-I wish i went
-It wasn't the same without you
I would appreciate the help as these phrases are meant to be said in a telephone conversation we are writing in school. If you would like to help me could you please write the sentences in romaji because i do not think my computer shows the kanji,
Thankyou

Posted by: Jess at March 15, 2009 6:41 PM

Hello
where can i get all Power points files in Japanese translated to English. I need it soon. This is for my business.

thanks

Karma

Posted by: Karma at May 10, 2009 4:58 AM

i really want to self-study nihongo but my problem is, there's no exact website here in the internet that can give exact translation from english to japanese romanji on simple sentences and phrases. please help me so that many of the foreigners living here in japan that will/can benefit such website.

Posted by: ces at May 19, 2009 8:43 AM

Heey :)

watashi haanata laureeen wo itoshi teimasu

can you translate this for me :)?

Posted by: Sceneeee at July 24, 2009 1:03 AM

baka o iuna

Posted by: SHuji at November 21, 2009 8:16 AM

Hello I've just started learning Japanese. So I don't know much yet. I really want to create a new DeviantArt account with the name 'Lone Black Wolf' in Japanese Katakana with it's romaji in brackets. I looked everywhere to find out what it is in romaji (because i've already found the katakana translation).

All I know is that 'Black Wolf' is Kuroi Ookami in romaji, I just need the lone part sorting out please.

If anyone could help me out, I would be very grateful. Thanks so much everyone! =]

Posted by: Abbey at January 19, 2010 6:01 AM

さびしい or さみしい means solitary.

Posted by: Bill Author Profile Page at January 19, 2010 4:48 PM

I need help translating Japanese words written in photo , here is link for the photo http://www.mediafire.com/?yzn49qvkehescrw

Posted by: Omran at June 1, 2011 2:20 PM

can someone help to translate beautiful jade in romaji? thanks!

Posted by: ariesa at October 8, 2011 3:25 PM

I need help with the same.

Posted by: morris at December 22, 2011 1:07 PM

Can someone please translate these photos from japanese to english please.

Posted by: Britney at September 11, 2012 11:45 PM

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