Translate English to Japanese, whole files at once
Read the first chapter in Japanese before paying. Casual, polite and honorific speech follow each relationship, foreign names keep one katakana spelling, and EPUB files can use vertical text.
Source · English, detected
On the morning the ferries stopped, Mara Ellison walked the length of the Lantern Quay and counted the boats that would not leave. Eleven.
Preview
Freeフェリーが止まった朝、マーラ・エリソンはランタン埠頭を端から端まで歩き、出航できない船を数えた。十一隻。
- 31 names and places in the glossary
- Layout kept
- 24 chapters
At a glance. English to Japanese
- $22.50 for a 90,000-word novel
- Chapter one is free
- EPUB, MOBI, FB2, DOCX or PDF · up to 300 MB
- Chapters, footnotes, images and styles
One glossary for the whole file. Names read the same in Japanese on every page.
Pick a name to find it in both versions.
On the morning the ferries stopped, Mara Ellison walked the length of the Lantern Quay and counted the boats that would not leave. Eleven. Somewhere behind the fog, the Tidewardens were counting too.
フェリーが止まった朝、マーラ・エリソンはランタン埠頭を端から端まで歩き、出航できない船を数えた。十一隻。霧の向こうのどこかで、潮守りたちもまた数えていた。
Japanese takes 47% fewer characters than English. Measured on our sample.
| Measure | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Characters, without spaces | 388 | 207 |
Japanese is written without spaces between words, so the comparison counts characters.
You pay for the words of the English original, not for the length of the translation.
What changes in Japanese. Handled for you, adjustable before you pay.
- Casual, polite and honorific speech levels follow each relationship in the book.
- Foreign names are written in katakana the same way in every chapter.
- EPUB output supports vertical text for publishers who need it.
What a book costs. Pick an example or set your word count.
Free preview: chapter one. No account or card needed.
Questions. Short answers.
How much does it cost to translate a book from English to Japanese?
A one-off translation costs $0.25 per 1,000 words for reading or $0.60 with glossary, style guide and review. A 90,000-word novel is $54 in Publish mode. You see the exact price before paying.
Will names stay the same in the Japanese translation?
Yes. The whole file is read first and every person, place and invented word gets one Japanese form. You can change any of them before translation starts.
Can the EPUB use vertical text?
Yes. Ask for vertical writing in the notes for the translator and the Japanese EPUB is laid out top to bottom, right to left.
How are English names written in katakana?
Each name gets one katakana spelling in the glossary, such as マーラ・エリソン for Mara Ellison, with a middle dot between given and family name. You can change it before translation starts.
More language pairs. Same file, other languages.
Every format you work with. Layout kept in each one.
English to Japanese translation: katakana, speech levels and vertical text
One katakana spelling per name
English names have no fixed spelling in Japanese. Mara Ellison could be マーラ・エリソン or マラ・エリスン, and a translator working chapter by chapter can drift between them. Transleaf fixes one spelling in the glossary before translation starts, with a middle dot between given name and family name.
You can change any spelling on the names and style step. The new form applies to every chapter, including the table of contents.
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Casual, polite and honorific speech
Japanese grammar changes with who is speaking to whom. A fisherman talking to his granddaughter, a clerk talking to a customer and two old friends all use different verb endings and pronouns. English shows none of this, so the translation has to infer it from the relationship.
The address setting guides that inference. Per relationship is the usual choice for fiction, and formal throughout suits business documents and manuals.
Horizontal or vertical EPUB
Japanese novels are often printed top to bottom, right to left, and EPUB supports this. Ask for vertical writing in Notes for the translator and the EPUB comes back laid out that way.
Why the Japanese text looks so short
Japanese packs more meaning into each character than English does into each letter, so the same chapter takes far fewer characters. This affects layout more than reading time. In documents, text boxes and table cells sized for English have room to spare; the layout is kept, and the Japanese simply fills less of each box.
Dates, numbers and counter words
Japanese dates run year, month, day: 2027年1月1日. Objects are counted with counter words that depend on what is counted, so eleven boats become 十一隻, with the counter for ships. In horizontal text numbers are usually written as digits; vertical layouts usually use kanji numerals.
How Japanese translation is priced
The price is based on the English word count. 92,400 English words cost $23.10 in Read mode and $55.44 in Publish mode, however many Japanese characters the result has. Pro includes 200,000 English words a month.
What to look for in the free chapter
Check how characters refer to themselves. Japanese has several words for I, and the choice tells the reader a lot about a person. If someone sounds too polite or too young, describe them in the translator notes, for example: Teodor is gruff and speaks plainly. Then run chapter one again.