Four free tools run on this site. None of them requires an account, sends your input anywhere, or costs anything. This page explains what each one does, how it works underneath, and — the part most converters skip — where it stops being reliable.
Your name in Japanese
Type an English name, get it in katakana, the script Japanese uses for foreign words. Each name also has its own page with the syllable breakdown, a vertical writing sample, suggested ateji kanji, and audio.
Underneath there are two systems, and the tool tells you which one answered:
- The checked database. Around 900 common American given names with spellings verified by hand against the forms Japanese media actually use. Michael is マイケル, José is ホセ, Katherine is キャサリン. These aren’t calculated; they’re established usage, looked up.
- The rule engine. Anything not in the database gets converted by rule: English spelling to sounds, sounds to kana, then the adjustments Japanese makes — long vowels, the small ッ, an inserted vowel after a consonant that would otherwise stand alone.
We tested the rule engine against 61 names with well-established Japanese spellings. It got 77% exactly right, and about 87% right if you count spellings that are used but aren’t the most common choice. That is roughly the ceiling for rules applied to English, because English spelling doesn’t reliably encode pronunciation: ch alone is three different sounds in Michael, Charles, and Charlotte, and nothing in the letters tells you which.
So: if the tool says the answer came from the checked database, it’s solid. If it says the answer was calculated, treat it as a good first draft.
Chinese zodiac calculator
Enter a birth year — or a full date — and get the animal sign and the associated element, plus a page for each sign and each year.
The detail that matters here is the one most calculators get wrong. The zodiac year does not begin on January 1. It begins at Lunar New Year, which falls somewhere between January 21 and February 20 depending on the year. If you were born in that window, a calculator that only asks for your year will give you the wrong animal roughly half the time. Ours asks for the date and uses the actual Lunar New Year for your year.
One cultural note: Japan officially moved the zodiac to the Gregorian calendar in 1873, so a Japanese eto year and a Chinese zodiac year can differ for January births. We show the Chinese reckoning by default and flag the difference where it applies.
Phrasebook
Everyday Japanese organized by situation rather than by grammar: arriving, eating, shopping, trains, trouble. Each phrase has its own page with kana, romanization, a literal gloss, and audio.
Politeness level is marked on every entry, because it’s the thing English speakers most often get wrong. Japanese doesn’t have one “please” or one “thank you” — it has a register that shifts with who you’re talking to. A phrase that’s warm with a friend can be rude to a hotel clerk, and the stiff textbook form can be strange in a bar. We mark each phrase as casual, standard polite, or formal, and say where it fits.
Japanese era converter
Converts between Western years and the Japanese era system — Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, Heisei, Reiwa — in both directions. You’ll need this for any Japanese document: official paperwork, older records, and plenty of forms still use era years only.
The tool also gives two ages for a birth date: the Western count you’re used to, and kazoedoshi, the traditional count in which you’re one at birth and gain a year at New Year rather than on your birthday. Kazoedoshi still shows up in temple ceremonies and traditional age-related customs, and it can put you a full two years above your Western age.
Transition years need care and the tool handles them: an era changes on a specific date, not on January 1, so 1989 is both Shōwa 64 and Heisei 1, and 2019 is both Heisei 31 and Reiwa 1.
Please read this before relying on any of it
These tools can be wrong. They’re built from openly available sources, published reference material, and established usage, and they’re maintained by a small team. Language is irregular, sources disagree, and automated conversion involves judgment calls that won’t suit every case. We make no guarantee that any result is correct, complete, or appropriate for your particular purpose, and we accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of what a tool here outputs.
This matters most for anything permanent. Tattoos above all. A name or a kanji that reads perfectly well on a screen can be unidiomatic, dated, or unintentionally funny in Japan, and no converter — ours included — can tell you how a character will land with a native reader. Before you put Japanese on your body, on a business logo, or on anything engraved, have it checked by a native speaker who can see the exact design in context. We’re glad to be your starting point. We’re not a substitute for that check.
The same goes for official use. If you need your name in Japanese for a visa, a bank account, a residence card, or a contract, use the spelling the issuing institution specifies. Passport and immigration romanization follow their own rules, and they don’t always match ordinary usage.
How we source and correct everything on this site, tools included, is set out on the fact-checking page. If a tool gives you a result you believe is wrong, please tell us — corrections from readers are how the checked database gets better.