You are probably an anime fan, or need to translate Japanese from an image to English for the purpose of business or study. Then, you need to do Japanese OCR.
Compared with Western alphabet, Japanese language is a complex script that includes thousands of unique characters, there are specific challenges like diffcult characters, script and text may be written in vertial or horizental.
Japanese OCR tools can help you overcome this challenge. Here, we’ve tested the top 10 Japanese OCR software (both free and paid options) for you. With these tools you can easily OCR vertical Japanese text or OCR horizontal Japanese.
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR
Free Download macOS 10.14 or later 
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
One of the biggest challenges for OCR software is languages and fonts. OCR software relies on a database of character patterns to learn and recognize text.
The Japanese language is written in a script that differs from the Western alphabet, it have many more characters: about 2,800 common characters out of a total set of more than 50,000.
Furthermore, Japanese languages have 3 scripts - Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana. and it can be written horizontally or vertically.
The process of a Japanese OCR requires an OCR tool to recognize the Japanese texts first, then export the whole file as editable or copyable text for translation.
To overcome challenge in recognizing Japanese characters in PDF and images. you can use OCR software which specifically designed for Japanese.
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is the most comprehensive PDF converter with OCR capability to perform conversion on PDF files. It can convert native PDF to 10+ formats, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ePub, Text, etc,. also can make scanned PDF or image in searchable PDF, or in editable Word, Excel, PPT and so on. Cisdem can auto detect a scanned file and perform OCR on it, it recognizes 50+ languages, Japanese is one of them.
Free Download macOS 10.14 or laterFree Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Where Cisdem Japanese OCR Excels?
Cons of using Cisdem
Do not support do editing before OCR.
Adobe Acrobat also supports languages like Japanese, German, French, Danish, etc. It can be used easily for Japanese OCR. Though it costs a lot of money.
Here are the simple steps to do Japanese OCR on a scanned file and edit it in Adobe Acrobat:
Where Adobe Acrobat Excels?
Cons of using Adobe Acrobat
Capture2Text is an open source OCR tool to recognize Japanese screenshots, it is the best Japanese OCR freeware overall, in part because it is handy and unlimited. Users don’t have to launch the program every time they want to copy Japanese texts from an image, this free OCR app lives in Windows toolbar and we can use hot keys to perform OCR on the go. Also, you can OCR unlimited Japanese screenshots.
At the same time, many users are still looking for some online free services to do Japanese OCR, such as i2OCR, ocrconvert, ocrspace, as showed in Google top results, also you shouldn’t miss Google Japanese OCR. Here, we are going to test and verify if these online free Japanese OCR are worth a try.
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tips: Is Online Free Japanese OCR Worth A Try?
According to the test results above, we noticed that the OCR accuracy of online free OCR tools is quite mediocre, which well reflect the OCR performance of existing online OCR services. Yet, this is quite understandable, free service always comes with limited features or average performance. Does this mean online free Japanese OCR is a waste? No, they are still worth a try, if:
1. You are working on some simple Japanese or other files, the OCR accuracy will be satisfactory if the file itself is not complicate in layout, format or content elements. Also, don’t upload vertical Japanese files for OCR, online tools does bad in OCR vertical Japanese files
2. You are not working on highly private files. We should be aware of the possible risks caused by using online free services
3. You understand Japanese a little. In this case, if there is any OCR error, you can manually adjust
One-click reading image (OCR) is a free extension for Chrome that does exactly what it says: OCR screenshot and uploaded picture in 10 languages. You can copy the recognized Japanese texts to clipboard. There is extended settings available, so you can OCR and copy according to your preference.
But if the free version quota is used up, you will have to switch to its Pro version and pay for it.
Scan&Translate from AISBERG LLC is a iOS app to recognize image text, then translate to your target language, this is extremely convenient for users who need real-time translate when travelling in Japan. All you need to do is, take a picture of the Japanese information, then scan and translate with this app, even it can read the text for a better communication.
It has an excellent support on OCR language and target translated languages:
Yomiwa, a Japanese OCR app with Dictionary, is really a great tool for users who want to study Japanese anytime and anywhere.
It can recognize text from uploaded images, from files captured under your camera, even handwritten text you input by drawing/radical search/keyboard. Once the OCR finishes, each Japanese word and Kanji will be provided with detailed information, such as pronunciation, conjugation or definition. Also, it supports OCR vertical Japanese files. Besides OCR, it can translate your Japanese contents into more than 10 languages.
However, Yomiwa can only translate single Japanese word or Kanji, it is not capable of translating a complete sentence. To translate the whole file, you will need to copy the text, then paste to a 3rd party translator.
Platform | OCR Accuracy | Extended Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR | macOS, Windows | High | Batch OCR, Customize output, Create PDF |
| Adobe Acrobat | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | High | Create PDF, Edit PDF |
| Capture2Text | Windows | Medium | None |
ocrconvert | Online | Medium | Support image and PDF OCR |
ocr.space | Online | Medium | Support image and PDF OCR |
i2OCR | Online | Medium | Recognize 60 languages |
| Google OCR | Online | Medium | Recognize 200+ languages, edit file |
| One-click reading image (OCR) | Google Extension | Medium | Display picture |
Scan&Translate | iOS | High | Translate |
Yomiwa | Android | Medium | Build in Dictionary |
Japanese OCR apps make copying texts from Japanese images simple and hassle-free, it seems we have many choices on a Japanese OCR tool, but test one by one is really time consuming. Here, we’ll provide you with a list of our recommendations for the best Japanese OCR software:
In conclusion, If you want high quality, you’d better try a desktop Japanese OCR software, which is designed to make Japanese OCR accurate and professional.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7Free Download macOS 10.14 or later
Carolyn has always been passionate about reading and writing, so she joined Cisdem as an editor as soon as she graduated from university. She focuses on writing how-to articles about PDF editing and conversion.
