Can I get English minutes from a meeting that was held in Japanese?

Yes. When you upload the recording, open the advanced settings, tick 出力言語を指定する (choose the output language) and pick English. Each Japanese utterance is translated into English and the minutes are written in English.

Is the original Japanese kept?

Yes. The 文字起こし tab holds the Japanese transcript, and the 英語翻訳 tab shows time, Japanese and English side by side for every utterance. You can click a translation to edit it.

What happens if people switch between Japanese and English in the same meeting?

If the conversation switches to another language partway through a recording, the part after the switch can be missing from the transcript. We recommend keeping each meeting to one language.

Can I export just the English translation?

Word and PDF exports contain the minutes and the original transcript. The line-by-line translation is read on screen; there is no export of the translation on its own.

How to get English minutes from a meeting held in Japanese

Kaigi AI · 9 October 2026 · Japanese version

To get English minutes from a meeting held in Japanese, upload the recording to Kaigi AI and choose English as the output language: each Japanese utterance is translated into English and the minutes are written in English.

Plenty of meetings in Japan are run in Japanese while the record has to exist in English: a report to headquarters, a teammate who works in English, a partner who asked for written notes. Translating the minutes by hand doubles the time they already take.

This guide walks through the setting, the finished screen, the checks worth doing before the minutes leave your team, and the current limits. It describes the screens as of October 2026.

Step by step

Record the meeting. A Zoom, Google Meet or Teams recording works, and so does a voice recorder or a phone.
Open the upload page. On the dashboard, press アップロード. The page is titled ファイルをアップロード.
Open the advanced settings. The section is called 詳細設定：タイトル・言語・議事録の形式 and is closed by default.
Choose English as the output language. Tick 出力言語を指定する and pick "English" from the list.
Upload and wait. When processing has finished, open the meeting.

The output language is the language you want to read, not the language that was spoken. A translation is produced only when the two differ, so a Japanese meeting with English selected gets both the English minutes and a line-by-line English translation.

What the finished meeting looks like

議事録 (minutes). Written in English: overview, decisions, action items.
文字起こし (transcript). The original Japanese.
英語翻訳 (English translation). Time, Japanese and English in three columns, one row per utterance. Click a translation to edit it in place.

Having the Japanese next to the English matters more than it sounds. When a line in the minutes reads stronger or weaker than you remember the discussion being, you can find the original sentence in a few seconds.

Check these before you send the minutes on

Numbers, dates and amounts. Relative dates such as 来月頭 ("early next month") are clearer in English as actual dates.
Names. If a person, company or product name was misheard in the Japanese transcript, the same wrong name carries into the translation and the minutes. Compare every name that leaves the company with the original.
What was actually decided. Phrases like 検討します ("we will look into it") are often a polite way of not committing yet, and an English rendering can read firmer than the speaker meant. Check that every item under decisions really was decided.
Custom templates. If you use a custom template, its headings are translated into English as well. If that translation does not go through, only the headings stay as written in your template; the minutes underneath are still in English.

When you are happy with it, export the minutes to Word or PDF and send them.

What it does not do yet

Mixed-language meetings. If the conversation switches to another language partway through a recording, the part after the switch can be missing from the transcript. We recommend keeping each meeting to one language.
Meeting-bot recordings. Meetings recorded by the meeting bot get Japanese minutes. For English minutes, upload the recording instead.
Translation-only export. Word and PDF exports contain the minutes and the original transcript. The line-by-line translation is read on screen; there is no export of the translation on its own.
An English interface. When you sign up from this page, the sign-up page, the upload page and the result page are in English. The rest of the app (menus, settings, the login page), the error messages the server returns, the emails and the legal pages are in Japanese.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get English minutes from a meeting that was held in Japanese?: Yes. When you upload the recording, open the advanced settings, tick 出力言語を指定する (choose the output language) and pick English. Each Japanese utterance is translated into English and the minutes are written in English.
Is the original Japanese kept?: Yes. The 文字起こし tab holds the Japanese transcript, and the 英語翻訳 tab shows time, Japanese and English side by side for every utterance. You can click a translation to edit it.
What happens if people switch between Japanese and English in the same meeting?: If the conversation switches to another language partway through a recording, the part after the switch can be missing from the transcript. We recommend keeping each meeting to one language.
Can I export just the English translation?: Word and PDF exports contain the minutes and the original transcript. The line-by-line translation is read on screen; there is no export of the translation on its own.

Try it with one of your own recordings

The free plan needs no credit card. Sign-up, upload and the result page are in English; the rest of the app, server error messages, emails and the legal pages are in Japanese. The labels for the Japanese screens are on the English overview.

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