Japanese Transcription Apps: International Services, Yen-Priced Tools, Offline
Data checked:
Japanese is well covered, but the right tool depends on where the recording happens and who bills you. There are three routes: international cloud services that list Japanese among many languages, services built and priced in yen for Japanese workflows, and offline apps that run Whisper on your own computer. Language lists below come from vendor pages; we have not tested recognition quality for Japanese on any tool.
International services that list Japanese
| Tool | Paid from | Languages | Max length per file | Trains on your data? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notta Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | $13.49/mo $8.17/mo billed yearly (Pro) | ENJAZH 58 languages | Free: 3 min Paid: 5 h | Unclear |
| TurboScribe File transcription | $20/mo $10/mo billed yearly (Unlimited) | ENJAZH 98+ languages | Free: 30 min Paid: 10 h | No |
| Sonix File transcription | $25/mo $22.92/mo billed yearly (Core) | ENJAZH 54+ languages | Paid: Not verified | No |
| Happy Scribe File transcription, Meeting notes | £17/mo £8.50/mo billed yearly (Basic) | ENJAZH 150+ languages | Paid: Not verified | Only if you opt in |
| Otter.ai Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | $16.99/mo $8.33/mo billed yearly (Pro) | ENJAZH 6 languages | Free: 30 min Paid: 4 h | Yes |
| Fathom Meeting notes | $20/mo $16/mo billed yearly (Premium) | ENJAZH 38 languages | Free: Not verified Paid: Not verified | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Fireflies.ai Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | $18/mo $10/mo billed yearly (Pro) | ENJAZH 100+ languages | Free: 150 min Paid: 150 min | No |
| Rev File transcription, Meeting notes | $29.99/mo $25.49/mo billed yearly (Essentials) | ENJAZH 37+ languages | Free: Not verified Paid: Not verified | Yes |
- Notta leads with Japanese support: 58 languages including Japanese and Mandarin, meeting bots for Zoom, Meet, Teams and Webex, and paid recordings up to 5 hours. Its free plan transcribes only 3 minutes per recording.
- Sonix lists Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese among 54+ languages and sells pay-as-you-go hours at $10 an hour.
- Happy Scribe lists Japanese among 150+ languages.
- Otter.ai lists 6 languages including Japanese, capped at 90-minute conversations on Pro.
- Fathom includes Japanese in its 38 languages (no Chinese).
- Fireflies.ai advertises 100+ languages, with most labelled beta.
- Rev puts its 37+ language list on the Pro plan ($59.99 a month); the free 45 minutes a month are English only.
Services priced in yen
| Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Languages | Speaker labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rimo Voice Meeting notes, File transcription | No free plan Free trial offered (terms not stated on the pricing page) | ¥4,950/mo (プロ) | ENJAZH 60 languages | Yes |
| toruno File transcription, Meeting notes, Live transcription | Personal free plan includes 3 hours in total, not a monthly allowance. | ¥1,650/mo (パーソナル 有料プラン) | ENJAZH | Not verified |
| AutoMemo Recorder device, File transcription | 1 hour of transcription per month; transcripts viewable for 7 days | ¥1,480/mo ¥1,233/mo billed yearly (プレミアム) | ENJAZH | Not verified |
| Texter File transcription, Live transcription, Offline / on-device | Basic features are free with time and usage limits; the transcription allowance was not quantified. | ¥1,800/mo ¥733/mo billed yearly (Premium) | ENJAZH 99 languages | Paid plans |
| YOMEL File transcription, Meeting notes, Live transcription | No free plan 10-hour free trial; no recurring free plan was verified. | ¥28,000/mo (STARTER) | ENJAZH | Yes |
- Rimo Voice positions itself around Japanese accuracy, with unlimited transcription on paid plans (Pro at ¥4,950 a month tax included; Team at ¥6,600 per account), recordings up to 5 hours, bots for Zoom, Meet, Teams and Webex, and “no AI training” (AI学習なし) listed on every plan. Its guides disagree on language count: “20+ languages including English and Chinese” in one place, “60+ besides Japanese” in another.
- toruno (Ricoh) includes 3 free hours in total on its personal plan, then charges by length, for example ¥1,650 for 8 hours; personal-plan transcription is Japanese only, with English and Chinese limited to its business AI summary. Its terms have excluded AI training since March 2024.
- AutoMemo is a recorder-plus-service from Sourcenext: 1 free hour a month (transcripts visible for 7 days), then ¥1,480 a month or ¥14,800 a year for 30 hours. Its pricing page lists no other languages.
- Texter is an app with a free tier and Premium at ¥1,800 a month (¥8,800 a year); Premium files run up to 2 hours with Whisper or 4 hours with Amazon Transcribe, and some on-device recognition works on Apple devices.
- YOMEL targets teams: from ¥28,000 a month before tax for 30 hours with unlimited user IDs, Japanese and English, and terms that prohibit training on customer data.
- Otolio（旧：スマート書記） quotes setup fees plus monthly AI credits, with no public price.
Offline apps
Whisper’s language list has 100 entries including Japanese, so on-device apps cover Japanese with no uploads and no monthly allowance: MacWhisper (Mac, free version plus a €64 one-time Pro licence), Vibe and Buzz (free, open source, Mac/Windows/Linux) and Aiko (Mac and iPhone, $24 one-time). Speed depends on your hardware. See offline transcription software.
Notta’s Japanese strength is the reason it often wins the Notta-vs-Otter comparison; see Notta vs Otter. For Mandarin, see Chinese transcription apps, or filter the directory by the Japanese flag.