Translate Japanese PDFs & documents to English scanned or digital — without breaking the layout
From product manuals and spec sheets to academic articles and official forms, scanned Japanese is a frequent translation need. Reglyph OCRs the Japanese, clears it from the page, and rebuilds the English so diagrams, captions, and tables line up exactly as before.
Working from paper? Scan and translate Japanese to English — how to get a usable scan, and what happens to it.
Mixed scripts, hanko and dense tables
Japanese mixes kanji, hiragana, and katakana in the same line, and forms pack them into narrow ruled cells next to a hanko. Reglyph reads the mixed scripts and keeps figure callouts and table cells anchored to the right place after translation.
Common scanned Japanese documents we translate
These are the Japanese-language documents people most often translate to English — each keeps its original layout, seals, and tables.
- Product & equipment manuals
- Technical spec sheets
- Academic articles & papers
- Family register (koseki)
- Business contracts
- Patent documents
How to translate a scanned Japanese document
Upload your PDF
Drop in a scanned Japanese PDF (one from your phone's scanner app works) or a digital PDF. Image-only PDFs are fine — no text layer needed.
We read & translate
OCR extracts the Japanese text, then it's translated to English while the original text is erased from the page.
Download, layout intact
Get a clean PDF where tables, figures, stamps, and numbers sit exactly where they were.
Japanese → English — frequently asked
Can it translate a scanned Japanese manual with diagrams?
Yes. Diagrams and their callout labels stay in position while the surrounding text is translated to English.
Does it read kanji, hiragana, and katakana together?
Yes. All three Japanese scripts are recognized in the same document.
Is furigana handled?
Furigana is read as part of the text; the English output focuses on the main meaning rather than reproducing reading aids.
Is this a Japanese PDF to English converter?
Effectively, yes — it converts a Japanese PDF into an English PDF. Unlike a format converter, it OCRs the pages, translates the text, and rebuilds each page, so the output is a translated document with the original layout, not just a re-saved file.
Is this a Japanese document translation service?
It is the automated version of one: upload the scan, and the English comes back in the original layout in minutes, hanko included. For a certified signature, a translator or agency reviews and certifies the draft.
Choose your plan
Simple, scan-friendly pricing. Pages are pages — no multiplier for scanned files.
Pay-as-you-go
Translate a few pages. No commitment.
$0.30 a page, from 10 pages — you pay for exactly 10 pages.
- Pages never expire
- Up to 100 MB per file
Lite
Most popularFor individuals with scans to translate every month.
Pro
For high-volume users with scans to translate every week.
- $0.06 / page
- 500 pages every month
- Unused pages roll over (up to 1,500)
- Up to 100 MB per file
Translate scanned PDFs in other languages
Guides on translating scanned documents
Can ChatGPT Translate a Scanned PDF? What Works and What Doesn't
Vision models genuinely read scans now. The question isn't whether ChatGPT can translate your PDF — it's whether a chat reply is actually what you need back.
Read guideTranslate a Scanned PDF on Your Phone (iPhone & Android)
Camera-translate apps are great for reading a page on the spot, but they don't give you a file — here's how to get an actual translated PDF from your phone.
Read guideWhy Does My Scanned PDF Translate to Gibberish? (And How to Fix It)
Random symbols, blank pages, or 'PDF tools are temporarily offline' — the cause is almost always the same one thing, and it's fixable.
Read guide