Japanese Word Counter
This Japanese word counter counts what Japanese is really measured in: characters (文字数), 400-character manuscript sheets and the mix of kanji, hiragana and katakana. Words are shown too, clearly marked as an estimate.
- Free, no sign-up
- Counted in your browser, nothing sent
- Opens .docx, .pdf and .epub
- Manuscript sheets included
- Characters (文字数, no spaces)
- 0
- Manuscript sheets (400字詰め)
- 0
- ≈ English words after translation
- 0
- Reading time (silent)
- 0 min
- Without punctuation
- 0
- Kanji
- 0
- Hiragana
- 0
- Katakana
- 0
- Latin letters and digits
- 0
- Words (estimated)
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Reading aloud
- 0 min
Japanese has no spaces, so characters are the real count. The word figure comes from your browser's dictionary and is an estimate.
Why Japanese is counted in characters
Japanese is written without spaces, so there is no single answer to "how many words". Tools that split on spaces see a whole sentence as one word. Dictionary-based tools disagree with each other:
| Text | Count | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| 日本人です | 5, 3 or 2 words | Microsoft Word, Scrivener and a Japanese parser, in a user test on the Literature & Latte forum |
| 選挙管理委員会 | 4, 3 or 1 words | The three split modes of the Sudachi analyzer, by its own documentation |
| 吾輩は猫である。名前はまだ無い。 | 9 words, 16 characters | Your browser's dictionary (ICU), which this counter uses for its estimate |
The counter's word estimate comes from the dictionary built into your browser (ICU). For short texts it shows exactly how it split them, so you can see where it differs from your teacher or client.
400字詰め原稿用紙: the manuscript sheet
Japanese manuscripts are measured in sheets of 20 squares by 20 lines: 400 characters. When a publisher says "30 枚", they mean thirty of these, and writers' fees are traditionally counted per sheet (原稿用紙, Japanese Wikipedia).
Dividing by 400 underestimates, because every paragraph starts a new line and leaves the rest of the previous one empty. The counter lays your text out line by line: each paragraph begins on a fresh line with a one-square indent. It does not yet move a 。 or 、 that would start a line back to the line before, so very long texts can come out slightly short.
Worked example, counted with this tool
Akutagawa's 羅生門 (Rashōmon, 1915), from Aozora Bunko with its reading aids removed: 5,682 characters, 1,605 kanji and 3,482 hiragana, and about 15 manuscript sheets. In English it would come to roughly 2,400 words. For a whole novel, the AI novel translator keeps names and chapters consistent from start to end.
Japanese to English: how long, and how it is priced
Translation in Japan is priced differently in each direction. The Japan Translation Federation's price guide quotes English to Japanese per English word and Japanese to English per Japanese character. For computer manuals, for example, it lists 28 yen a word and 20 yen a character. When you compare offers, check which side each one counts; our guide to comparing translation quotes covers the rest.
How many English words does a Japanese text become? Published figures range from 1.9 characters per English word (the IReST reading study) to 2.4 (Miyata and colleagues, 2012). We measured 2.14 across the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more than 230,000 sentence pairs from Tatoeba. The counter uses 2.14 for its English estimate. PageTranslate itself prices per 1,000 words; see how much it costs to translate a book.
Reading time uses 357 characters a minute read aloud (IReST, 36 native readers) and about 1,200 a minute read silently, measured for novels in Miyata et al. 2012.
Looking for Japanese counter words (助数詞)?
If you meant counting things in Japanese, that is a grammar question, not a text one. The most common counters: 本 (long thin things), 枚 (flat things), 冊 (books), 匹 (small animals), 人 (people) and つ (general things). Wikipedia's list of Japanese counter words covers the rest.
And if you write for X: kanji and kana count double there, so a Japanese post holds 140 characters, not 280. Tom Scott explains why, though his video is from before X adopted that weighting in 2017:
FAQ
Japanese word count questions
How do you count words in Japanese?
Usually you don't: Japanese is counted in characters (文字数), because without spaces different tools split words differently. This counter gives characters first and a word estimate second.
Do punctuation marks count as characters?
In Japanese convention, yes: 。 、 and 「」 each take a square on manuscript paper. The counter also shows a total without punctuation, for when that is what you need.
What is a 400-character manuscript sheet?
A 原稿用紙 sheet of 20 squares by 20 lines. Each paragraph starts a new line, so a text fills more sheets than its character count divided by 400.
Why does Word show a different number?
Microsoft doesn't document how it counts Japanese words, and users report it counting each character as a word. Character counts are the reliable number to compare.
How many English words is 1,000 Japanese characters?
Roughly 420 to 520 English words. We measured about 470, or 2.14 characters per English word, on two large sets of matching Japanese and English texts.
How is Japanese translation priced?
In Japan, Japanese to English is usually priced per Japanese character and English to Japanese per English word (Japan Translation Federation). PageTranslate prices per 1,000 words; upload a file to see its exact price.
Why does Japanese only get 140 characters on X?
X weights each kanji and kana as two units against its 280-unit limit, so a Japanese-only post holds 140 characters.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser, for pasted text and for files. Nothing is sent or stored.
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