5 Best Japanese OCR Software (Tested and Reviewed)

There can be multiple scenarios where you need to use Japanese OCR software. For example, you got a professional scanned document or invoice in the Japanese language. Similarly, you may have been given scanned notes by your Japanese teacher.

To make such content copyable, editable, and fit for translation, you need to perform OCR on the document, and here we will share our top 5 picks that you can use in this scenario.

Part 1. Top 5 Japanese OCR Programs

Here are our top 5 picks that you can use for performing OCR function on documents containing Japanese content:

1. UPDF - The Best Japanese OCR on All Devices

Whether you use Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android, UPDF is the ideal software for performing OCR across all your devices. UPDF is a PDF editing tool with a complete range of tools, and one of its highlighted features is the OCR tool. This OCR tool supports 38 languages, and no matter which language you choose, it will provide up to 99% accuracy along with content integrity.

If your document contains other languages in addition to Japanese, you can also select multiple languages in the OCR language options based on what your document includes. There’s no need to switch software or repeat the process multiple times—UPDF can accurately recognize all the languages in your multilingual document in one go.

Its practicality does not end here since after performing OCR on the Japanese content, you can edit it, convert it into other file formats, or use UPDF AI for summarizing, translating, or reviewing the content. To enjoy all these benefits while performing OCR on Japanese content, you can download UPDF today.

In case you have scanned handwritten content and cannot get accurate results with UPDF's OCR feature, you can use UPDF's AI feature to extract the handwritten texts easily. Just open the handwritten scanned PDF with UPDF, click on the "UPDF AI", go to "Chat" mode, "Screenshot", select the Japanese handwritten contents that you want to copy, enter the prompt "Extract handwriting text from the image", and send. Now, UPDF AI extracts the texts for you. You can copy them to any place you need.

UPDF understands that users may want to process multiple documents at once, so it includes a Batch OCR option in the batch processing panel. Simply add all the Japanese documents you want to recognize, follow the instructions shown in the UPDF interface, and you can complete OCR on multiple Japanese scanned files very quickly.

If you don’t want to download the software, you can also use UPDF AI Online​ to recognize and extract text from your Japanese scanned documents. UPDF AI Online also supports uploading scanned PDF files and images — you can enter commands to let UPDF AI Online recognize and extract the text inside. Extracting handwritten text is also supported by UPDF AI. The UPDF AI free plan includes 100 prompts. You can click the button below to try it out for free and let the AI extract Japanese text from your document.

If you want to know how to use UPDF's OCR, you can watch the video below.

Key Features:

• UPDF Cloud dedicated PDF storage and synchronized content on all devices
• Complete editing experience for links, images, and text in the PDF document
• PDF annotation and commenting features with collaborative sharing
• Merge, split, and organize PDF documents
• Read PDF documents aloud
• Convert PDF to other files and vice versa
• Create, edit, and flatten PDF forms
• Crop PDF pages

To know more about UPDF, you can read this review article.

If you have a Japanese document that you need to perform OCR on, you can download UPDF right now!

2. i2OCR - Best Online Japanese OCR Tool

If you are looking for an online tool to perform OCR on Japanese content, you can use i2OCR. It is the best online OCR tool that supports the Japanese language along with other 100+ languages. It can extract Japanese text from images so you can edit it or format it. It offers unique features. It works 100% free for performing OCR on Japanese language documents and supports multi-column document analysis.

It means that if the page has multiple columns of text, all of those can be processed without formatting, but it maintains content integrity. I2OCR has rich post-processing backend operations, so you can perform OCR and quickly get that text in other tools for editing. You can upload your PDF for OCR or upload images in different formats, including JPG, PNG, PPM, TIF, etc. I2OCR also supports web input for convenient online processing.

Key Features:

• Process the file and output it in multiple formats
• Side-by-side view interface to compare original and converted files
• Privacy is guaranteed since no user files are saved or used, and they are typically deleted within an hour

3. Convertio - Best Free Online Japanese OCR Program

Convertio is an online file-processing platform that offers multiple file conversion, compressing, and editing features, including an OCR feature for the Japanese language. It works online, so that you may use it on any device. Moreover, it works 100% free but comes with a limitation of 10 pages only for users who do not register.

The OCR feature for Japanese documents is very simple here since you can add files and select multiple languages for text in the file. In the Output and Format settings, you can choose the file type from 14 available options (e.g. PDF, JPG, BMP, GIF, JP2, PBM). Second, you may decide whether to OCR every page or only a certain range of pages. Once you've recognized text using Convertio, you may use that file or save the converted file in Google Drive or Dropbox.

Convertio also supports batch processing for Japanese language documents. So, you can perform OCR on those documents in batches for higher productivity.

Key Features:

• Video Converter
• Audio Converter
• Image Converter
• Document Converter
• Presentation Converter
• Ebook Converter, etc.

4. Yomiwa - Best Japanese OCR iPhone

iPhones and iPads have multiple apps that you can use for performing OCR on documents, but the best one is Yomiwa. It is the ultimate dictionary OCR application for those who want to detect handwritten and scanned Japanese content and translate that into English immediately. It performs OCR by processing 4000 different Japanese characters and processes every character individually for amazing accuracy.

It is not essential to have the image or file of that Japanese content since you can perform OCR dynamically through the camera of your iPhone. Along with OCR for the Japanese language, it can provide details about that content in 20 other languages instantly. This app combines OCR technology and socializing; if you are unable to comprehend something even after performing OCR on it, you can ask the Yomiwa community about it and get help from real human users.

Key Features:

• Complete dictionary for the Japanese language
• Extremely fast processing with a reliable backend for reading text and drawings
• Option to create flashcards for revision
• Text reader
• Online translator

5. Text Scanner [OCR] - The Best Android Japanese OCR App

Text Scanner [OCR] is a popular Android app that lets you quickly extract text from images using optical character recognition (OCR). With over 10 million downloads and a high average user rating, it’s designed to convert photos of printed text into editable and searchable text in seconds. The app supports more than 50 languages, including handwritten text, and makes it easy to copy, share, or export the recognized text to other apps or services like email, Google Drive, or clipboard. It’s fast, simple to use, and works directly from your device’s camera or gallery, though it contains ads and offers in‑app purchases for premium features.

Key Features:

• Supports live translation with camera and audio like Google translate
• Integrated learning tools like quizzes, flashcards, etc.
• The application supports customization to make its features and appearance as per your needs.

Final Thoughts

OCR tools can be very helpful when you need to convert a picture containing content or a scanned document. However, the only issue you may face while using these tools is limitations in language selection. If you have an image or scanned PDF with Japanese content in it, then you need to use a Japanese OCR for its native support with the language.

Hopefully, you can pick from one of the tools shared above to perform OCR in the Japanese scanned document and pictures. However, if you want functionality with great experience and reliability, then you must try UPDF. Download it and enjoy all its functionalities.