Japanese text to speech
Turn Japanese text into natural speech, kanji and kana included. Listen while you follow the highlighted text, or download the MP3.
- Natural Japanese voices, female and male
- Read-along highlighting for learners
- Slow it down to 0.75× for practice
How to convert Japanese text to speech
- Paste your Japanese text above. The language is already set to 日本語.
- Pick a voice and press ▶ to preview it.
- Press Read it aloud. Follow the highlight, or download the MP3.
For learners of Japanese
Listening while you read the same sentence links the written form to its sound, which matters more in Japanese than most languages because kanji don't show pronunciation. Paste a graded reader passage or your textbook's dialogue, set the speed to 0.75×, and replay each line until you can shadow it.
Questions
Is Japanese text to speech free?
Yes. Guests get 3,000 characters a day and a free account gets 10,000 plus the HD voices. Japanese is dense, so 3,000 characters is several minutes of speech.
Which Japanese voices are there?
Yui (female) and Haruto (male) for everyone, plus six HD voices (Sakura, Hina, Aoi, Ren, Sota and Yuto) with a free account.
Does it read kanji correctly?
Common readings are handled well. Names and rare words can have several readings; if one is read wrong, write it in hiragana.
Can I use it to learn Japanese?
Yes. The passage being spoken is highlighted, you can tap any passage to replay it, and the speed goes down to 0.75×.