Word Count Japanese

Summary

Word Count Japanese is a free, real-time counter for Japanese text. It counts total characters, CJK kanji, hiragana, katakana, sentences, paragraphs, and estimates reading time at 400 to 600 characters per minute — the standard range for native Japanese readers. The tool also counts Latin words for mixed-language text. All processing happens locally in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.

How it works

1. Paste or type your Japanese text into the input area.
2. The tool scans every character against Unicode ranges for hiragana (U+3040–U+309F), katakana (U+30A0–U+30FF), and kanji (U+4E00–U+9FFF plus extensions).
3. Latin words are counted by splitting on whitespace and punctuation.
4. Sentences are detected by Japanese (。！？) and Western (. ! ?) sentence-ending punctuation.
5. Paragraphs are counted by splitting on newline characters.
6. Reading time is estimated at 500 characters per minute — the midpoint of the 400–600 range cited in Japanese readability research.
7. All counts update live on every keystroke — no button press needed.

Use cases

• Check whether a tweet or social post stays within character limits.
• Estimate how long a Japanese article or blog post will take to read.
• Audit subtitles for length before localizing Japanese video content.
• Verify character counts for Japanese print or publishing layouts.
• Analyze the kanji-to-kana ratio when writing or editing Japanese copy.
• Count mixed Japanese-English text accurately in a single pass.

Frequently Asked Questions