In short
Set Japanese as your Mac's primary language in System Settings › General › Language & Region, restart Notey, and record. Apple's on-device transcriber supports Japanese, and works offline once its model is downloaded. Check names and homophones in the kanji it chose. The after-meeting improvement is English only.
To transcribe a meeting in Japanese on a Mac, on the device, set the Mac's primary language to Japanese, restart your notetaker, and record. Apple's on-device transcriber in macOS 26 supports Japanese, and after its model is downloaded once, it runs without a connection. The transcript is written in Japanese script, kanji and kana, and the places to check are the ones Japanese makes hard for any recogniser: names, homophones and loanwords.
This guide gives the steps, what to expect, and the limits. In Notey the language comes from the Mac, there is no language menu per meeting, and the improvement Notey makes after a meeting is English only.
Set your Mac up to transcribe Japanese
- Open System Settings › General › Language & Region.
- Add Japanese. Under Preferred Languages, click +, choose Japanese (日本語), and click Add.
- Make it the primary language. Accept when macOS asks to use Japanese as the primary language, or drag it to the top of the list.
- Restart if macOS offers to.
- Quit Notey and reopen it.
- Download the model while online. The first Japanese transcription on the Mac fetches the speech model from Apple. Make a short test recording with a connection.
- Check the test before an important meeting.
Menus and apps switch to Japanese as well. To return, put your usual language back at the top and restart Notey.
Adding a Japanese keyboard input source is a separate setting, for typing. It does not affect transcription.
Japanese on Apple's list
Apple's on-device transcriber reported one Japanese locale, Japanese (Japan), ja-JP, on macOS 26.6 in September 2026. Which languages a Mac can transcribe lists all ten languages and their variants.
What to expect from a Japanese transcript
| Area | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Names | The same sound can be written with several kanji; the recogniser picks one | Correct names by hand |
| Homophones | Words that sound alike (for example, many words read "kōshō" or "kikan") may get the wrong kanji | Read in context; listen when unsure |
| Loanwords | Usually written in katakana; brand and product names may come out as katakana rather than their official spelling | Correct the ones you will quote |
| English terms | Some come through, others turn into katakana approximations | Check technical terms |
| Numbers | Spoken counters and large units (万, 億) can be written as digits or kanji | Check amounts against the recording |
| Politeness | Keigo and sentence endings are usually kept; fillers may be kept or dropped | Usually fine |
Japanese has no spaces between words, so a recogniser also has to decide where words start and end. In clear speech this rarely matters; in fast or overlapping speech it can produce odd phrases.
As in every language, a close microphone, headphones and one person speaking at a time help most. Why meeting transcripts get names and numbers wrong explains the patterns in general.
The live transcript is final
For English meetings, Notey reads the recording again on your Mac after the meeting and keeps the words the recognisers agree on. That step is English only. A Japanese meeting keeps its live transcript. Correct names and key terms while you remember them, and play any line from its timestamp when the kanji looks wrong.
Japanese and English in one meeting
Meetings with overseas colleagues often mix Japanese and English. The Mac's on-device transcriber listens for one language per meeting, so the other language's speech will be written as the nearest-sounding words in the chosen one. Pick the language the decisions are made in. Transcribing a meeting held in two languages goes through the choices.
Captions in Japanese
For captions on screen during a meeting, macOS Live Captions lists Japanese on Apple's feature availability page as of September 2026. Live captions for meetings on a Mac compares it with other options.
Recording in Japan
Before you transcribe, you record, and the people in the meeting should know. Japan's rules on recording a conversation you take part in, and on businesses handling personal information, are covered in recording calls and meetings in Japan. How to ask for consent to record has wording you can adapt.
Switching between Japanese and English
Keep both languages in Preferred Languages and reorder them before each meeting.
- Before a Japanese meeting, open System Settings › General › Language & Region and drag Japanese to the top.
- Quit and reopen Notey.
- Afterwards, drag your usual language back to the top and restart Notey.
Switch between meetings, not during one. A meeting already transcribed keeps its language.
Help the transcript before the meeting
A few habits make Japanese transcripts easier to use:
- Put names in the agenda, with their kanji. When the transcript picks different kanji for a name, you will recognise it and can correct it.
- Say the company or product name clearly once, early in the meeting. You will then know how the recogniser writes it and can search for that spelling.
- Spell out numbers that matter. Repeat an amount or a date once, clearly, when it is agreed.
- Avoid long overlaps. Aizuchi (short acknowledgements such as "hai" and "sō desu ne") are normal and usually harmless, but two people speaking full sentences at once confuses any recogniser.
Notey and Japanese
- Transcribed on your Mac, live. Audio never leaves the Mac, and recording, transcription and search need no account and no network.
- Your side and theirs come from two separate tracks, so the transcript knows who is who in any language.
- The Mac's language is the transcript's language. Switch to Japanese before the meeting.
- No after-meeting improvement for Japanese; the live transcript is the one you keep.
- Every line plays from its timestamp, which is the quickest way to check a name or a number.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Mac transcribe Japanese without an internet connection?
Yes, after the Japanese speech model has been downloaded. macOS fetches it from Apple the first time an app transcribes Japanese, then transcription runs on the Mac.
Why are people's names wrong in my Japanese transcript?
Many Japanese names can be written with several different kanji for the same sound, and a recogniser has to guess. Correct names by hand, and check them before quoting.
Does the transcript use kanji, kana or romaji?
A Japanese transcript is written in ordinary Japanese script, a mix of kanji and kana, as the recogniser chooses. Check homophones, where the same sound has several spellings.
Does Notey improve Japanese transcripts after the meeting?
No. The second pass after a meeting is for English meetings only, so the live Japanese transcript is the final one.
Can I transcribe a meeting that is half Japanese and half English?
Only one language per meeting is transcribed on the device. Choose the one that matters most; the other will come out poorly. The guide on meetings in two languages covers the options.
Can I switch between Japanese and English meetings on one Mac?
Yes. Keep both in Preferred Languages, move the one you need to the top before the meeting, and restart Notey. Switch between meetings, not during one.
Can I transcribe a Japanese meeting offline?
Record a short test in that language while online, a day or so before. macOS downloads the speech model for the language the first time it is used, and after that transcription works with no connection, on a train or a plane.