Japanese voice over starts with how your brand name is spoken

Foreign names in Japanese are written and pronounced in katakana, and the katakana version is not a transliteration anyone can guess. It is a decision. McDonald's became Makudonarudo; plenty of brands have two or three competing readings in circulation, and the one a voice actor picks on the day becomes the one your customers hear.

If your brand already has an official Japanese reading, we use it. If it does not, we raise it at script stage and get it agreed before the session, because a reading that sounds wrong to the Japanese team cannot be fixed with an edit.

Keigo is a brand decision, not a translation detail

Japanese grammar encodes the relationship between speaker and listener. A bank, an airline or an insurance provider speaks in polite or honorific keigo; a snack brand or a mobile game talking to teenagers does not. Pitch the level wrong and the copy sounds either cold and bureaucratic or presumptuous, and the listener notices it within a sentence.

We agree the register with you before casting, and hold it consistent across every asset in the campaign.

Standard Japanese and regional voices

Hyōjungo, broadly Tokyo-based, is the default for national advertising, corporate video and e-learning. Kansai speech, from Osaka and Kyoto, is widely recognised and used deliberately for warmth, humour or local character. It is a casting choice for a reason, not a neutral alternative.

Timing: count morae, not characters

A Japanese script can look shorter than the English on the page and still run longer out loud. Spoken Japanese is timed in morae, and polite forms add length. If the duration is fixed, the adaptation has to be written to time at translation stage rather than solved by asking the actor to rush.

Where Japanese voice over is used

Commercial voice over for TV, online and connected TV
Corporate voice over and elearning voice over
Explainer voice over for product and onboarding video
Animation voice over and video game voice over
IVR voice over for customer service lines
Dubbing and subtitling

Character work is its own discipline

Japan has a dedicated voice acting profession, the seiyū, with training and conventions that differ from commercial narration. An actor who is excellent on a corporate film is not automatically right for an anime-style character, and the reverse is also true. Tell us which you need and we cast from the right pool.

What you get

Custom demos from native Japanese voices, read to your script
The katakana reading of your brand agreed before recording
Keigo level set and held consistent across the campaign
A native reviewer checking the delivered audio
A fixed quote covering recording, direction, editing and usage

Send the script and the target duration. Demos and a fixed quote usually within 24 hours, or see how hiring works.

Japanese Voiceovers