Meeting minutes (gijiroku) and other Japanese recordings
In Japanese companies, someone usually has to write the gijiroku (議事録), the minutes of a meeting. A transcript of the recording is a fast starting point. Upload the MP4 or M4A from Zoom, Teams or a voice recorder, check names and figures, then use the AI prompt export to ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to turn the transcript into minutes with decisions and action items. Keep the full transcript as the record behind the summary.
Universities are the other big source. Students record zemi (seminar) discussions, lectures and interviews for their graduation thesis or master's research. Researchers interview people for fieldwork, and journalists and YouTubers record interviews that need checking or subtitles. Families record grandparents telling stories about the war years or rural life.
A large conference room with one recorder in the middle of the table is harder than an online call where each person speaks into their own headset. When you can, record online meetings from the meeting app itself, or place the recorder near the people who speak most.
Regional speech from Hokkaido to Okinawa
Standard Japanese based on Tokyo speech gives the cleanest transcript. Kansai speech from Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe is common on TV and usually comes through, often written in a more standard form. Hakata speech in Fukuoka and Hiroshima speech have their own verb endings that may be standardised or misheard.
Tohoku speech and the speech of older people in rural areas are harder, with sounds and vocabulary far from the standard. The languages of Okinawa and the Amami islands, such as Uchinaaguchi, are separate Ryukyuan languages and are not in the language list. Ainu is not in the list either. For recordings in these, the transcript is not useful, though parts spoken in standard Japanese can still be transcribed.
Other languages heard in Japan
Many recordings made in Japan involve more than Japanese. Each file is transcribed in one language, so pick the one most of the recording is spoken in:
- English: international teams, foreign-affiliated companies and English-taught university programmes. A meeting held in English should be set to English.
- Chinese and Korean: large resident communities, including long-established Korean residents, and many students from China. Both are in the list.
- Portuguese and Spanish: Japanese-Brazilian and Japanese-Peruvian communities in places like Hamamatsu and Toyota.
- Vietnamese, Tagalog and Nepali: common among workers and students. All three are in the list.
- Interpreted meetings, where a Japanese speaker and an interpreter take turns: choose the language you need to quote, and use the timestamps to find the other parts.
What to check in a transcript made in Japan
Japanese business recordings are full of company names, product names, titles and katakana terms from the industry. These are where most corrections land. A short checklist before you share the text:
- Names of people and companies, including the kanji used in names and whether 株式会社 is placed before or after the company name.
- Figures such as prices, dates in the Japanese era (Reiwa) or Western calendar, and percentages.
- English acronyms and product names, which may come out in katakana or Latin letters.
- Digits and Latin letters written in full-width or half-width form, if your company style guide specifies one.
- Overlapping speech in fast meetings, where short comments may be missing.
Editing, exporting and sharing
The transcript is split into paragraphs with timestamps, and the player highlights the current line. Click a line to hear it again and correct it. Export DOCX for minutes and reports, CSV for research coding, or SRT and VTT for subtitles, with timestamps and speaker names switched on or off. Speaker labels are available on paid plans or with a Minute Pack. Your files are never used to train AI models.
For colleagues outside Japan, the Google Translate link shows the transcript in English. The AI prompt export copies it with a ready-made prompt for an AI assistant if you need a summary or an English draft.