Japanese pronunciation generator: hear kanji and kana read aloud
Paste Japanese in kanji, hiragana or katakana and hear it read aloud in Standard Japanese. Free, no sign-up.
Join the teams making the switch to Cartesia
How to pronounce Japanese words
For longer Japanese audio and more voices, see Japanese text to speech. To spell out an English word by sound, use the phonetic spelling generator.
Type Japanese
Type or paste up to 500 characters in kanji, hiragana or katakana, or pick a sample. Write in Japanese script rather than romaji.
Press play
Listen to the whole phrase, then pick a sample to hear one hard sound on its own.
Compare voices
Pick another voice from the menu and press play again to hear the same Japanese from a different speaker.
Japanese sounds that trip up learners
Japanese has few sounds, and most are easy for English speakers. Length and pitch are where meaning changes.
Pitch accent
Japanese words rise and fall in pitch, and the pattern can tell two words apart. In Tokyo Japanese, 箸 (hashi, chopsticks) starts high and falls, while 橋 (hashi, bridge) starts low and rises.
箸 [haꜜɕi] · 橋 [haɕiꜜ]
Long vowels
A long vowel lasts about twice as long and makes a different word. おばさん is aunt; おばあさん is grandmother.
おばさん [obasaɴ] · おばあさん [obaːsaɴ]
Small tsu
A small っ doubles the next consonant, with a short stop before it. 来て (kite) means come; 切手 (kitte) means stamp.
来て [kite] · 切手 [kitːe]
The r
Japanese r is a light tap of the tongue, somewhere between English r, l and d.
ありがとう [aɾiɡatoː] · ラーメン [ɾaːmeɴ]
Quiet vowels
Between voiceless consonants, and at the end of です and ます, i and u are often whispered or dropped. です sounds close to dess.
です [desɯ̥] · 好き [sɯ̥ki]
Custom Japanese pronunciation for developers
Brand and product names written in Latin letters inside Japanese text need a reading. A pronunciation dictionary maps each one to the katakana you use, so Notion is always ノーション.
A pronunciation dictionary is a list of words and how to say each one. Cartesia swaps every match for its sounds-like spelling before the text is read, on sonic-3 and newer.
Pronunciation in other languages
Explore more voice tools
Japanese pronunciation FAQs
How do you pronounce Japanese words correctly?
Give every mora the same length, hold long vowels and the small っ for an extra beat, and listen for the pitch. Paste the word into the generator above and repeat it after the audio.
Is there a free Japanese pronunciation tool?
Yes. The generator on this page reads up to 500 characters of Japanese aloud, in kanji, hiragana or katakana, free and with no account.
Does Japanese have pitch accent?
Yes. Japanese marks words with pitch rather than stress, and some pairs differ only by it. In Tokyo Japanese, 箸 (chopsticks) falls after the first mora and 橋 (bridge) rises. Play the 箸と橋 sample above to compare.
How do you say thank you in Japanese?
ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu), said [aɾiɡatoː ɡozaimasɯ̥]. The ō is a long vowel and the final u is nearly silent. Press the sample above to hear it.
Can I download the Japanese audio?
Yes, with a free Cartesia account. Make an MP3 or WAV of the same text in the Cartesia Playground, or request it from the text-to-speech API.
Can Cartesia read longer Japanese text?
Yes. Cartesia's text-to-speech model speaks 44 languages. For Japanese voiceovers and apps, see the Japanese text to speech page.
Get started today
Talk to an expert.
Connect with a member of our team and learn how Cartesia can help you build world-class voice experiences.
Start building.
Access our models via API and bring a voice agent into production in minutes.