Add AnyDub to Chrome
One click, and no account for the first session.
Dub Japanese to English as it plays
Japanese in, English out, about a second later. Live streams, variety programming, conference talks and archive footage, none of which needed a subtitle track to begin with.
Up and running in three steps
Open the Japanese video
A stream, an archived broadcast, a lecture, or a file on your own drive.
Choose English
Subtitles in the player, a spoken English track, or both.
Word order is the latency problem
Japanese puts the verb last, and the verb is often where the negation lives. A system that translates as soon as it has a few words will confidently produce the opposite of what the speaker meant, then correct itself a beat later.
AnyDub waits for enough of the clause to commit safely. That costs a fraction of a second and buys you sentences that do not flip meaning halfway through, which on Japanese matters more than on most languages.
Install on ChromeKeigo and casual in the same broadcast
Formal keigo in an opening address and dropped-particle casual speech in the interview two minutes later are, to a transcription model, close to different languages. Working from audio rather than a caption file means the register shift is just more audio, not a broken assumption.
Install on ChromeKeep the original voice underneath
Delivery carries a lot in Japanese performance, and a flat English voice track throws it away. The mixer keeps the original at whatever level you want under the translation.
Install on Chrome
What stays untranslated in Japanese
Japanese media has an unusually large gap between what exists and what gets subtitled. Anime and a handful of prestige dramas are localised thoroughly. Everything else, which is most of it, is not: variety programming, regional news, technical conference talks, corporate briefings and decades of archive.
The professional and academic material is where the loss is sharpest. Japanese manufacturing, robotics and materials research is published and presented in Japanese first, and the English version is a summary written months later, if anyone bothers.
For meetings with teams in Japan the same engine runs live on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, and works best as two-way translation so nobody has to negotiate in a second language.
Questions about this language pair
Does AnyDub work on Japanese YouTube and live streams?
Yes, on any Japanese video or stream that plays in a Chrome tab, including ones with no subtitle track.
Does it handle both formal and casual Japanese?
Yes. It translates the speech in front of it, so a broadcast that moves between keigo and casual conversation is handled as it comes.
Why is there a slight delay on Japanese specifically?
Japanese puts the verb, and often the negation, at the end of the clause. Waiting for it prevents translations that state the opposite and then correct themselves.
Can I get an English voice instead of subtitles?
Yes. Turn dubbing on for a spoken English track, or run subtitles and dubbing together.
Can I go the other way, English to Japanese?
Yes. Select Japanese as the output language and the direction reverses.
Is it free to try?
Yes. The free tier includes a monthly allowance of translation minutes.
Also worth a look
Hindi to EnglishIncluding Hinglish, and videos with no captions at all.
Spanish to EnglishEvery accent, from Rioplatense to Andalusian.
French to EnglishFast conversational French, handled from the audio.
Chinese to EnglishMandarin and Cantonese treated as the different languages they are.
Translate YouTubeSubtitles inside the player and optional dubbing on any video.
Live meeting translationZoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex, translated as people speak.
Start watching Japanese video in English
Install the extension, pick a language, and you are live.
Install on Chrome