Kanji to Hiragana Converter and Furigana Generator
Paste or type Japanese and furigana appears above every kanji word as you go. Choose which kanji get readings, copy the text as hiragana or romaji, or print it as a reading sheet. It's free, and there's no signup.
Click a word to remove its furigana, and click again to bring it back. Click between characters to type. Hover over a word (or press and hold on a phone) to change its reading.
A dotted line under furigana means the word has another reading. Red furigana is a reading you chose, and a dashed box is a word the dictionary does not know. None of these marks print.
Converted text
How to add furigana to Japanese text
The furigana converter works inside the text box. Paste your text or type straight into it, and small hiragana readings appear above each kanji word as you write. If a reading is in the way, click the word and its furigana disappears everywhere in the text. Click it again to bring it back. To remove a reading in one place only, hover over the word (or press and hold on a phone). The same menu lets you pick another reading or type your own in hiragana or romaji, which is how you fix a name the dictionary doesn't know. For a learner reading native text, that makes it a kanji reader as well as a converter.
Furigana by JLPT level
Furigana on every word is fine for a first read. Once you know the N5 kanji, readings above 日 and 人 are clutter. So you choose where readings go: on every kanji, only on kanji above JLPT N5, N4, N3 or N2, or only on kanji beyond the JLPT lists. A teacher with an N4 class can set it to N4 and hand out a text where only the words the class hasn't learned yet carry readings. The JLPT publishes no official lists, so our levels come from OpenJLPT, which is based on Jonathan Waller's lists.
Counters, dates and words with two readings
These are the readings simple converters tend to miss. Counters change their sound: 一本 is いっぽん, 三本 is さんぼん, 六百 is ろっぴゃく, 一分 is いっぷん and 三階 is さんがい. Dates have their own readings, so 一日 after a month is ついたち, 二十日 is はつか and 三日 is みっか. The converter reads 一人 as ひとり, 二十歳 as はたち, 日本 as にほん and 今日は as the greeting こんにちは. 何 before です is なん, 方 in あの方 is かた, and 一日中 and 世界中 take じゅう. Some words have two readings and only the meaning decides: 人気 (にんき or ひとけ), 方 (ほう or かた), 辛い (からい or つらい) and 市場 (いちば or しじょう). These get a dotted underline, and the menu offers the alternatives.
Kanji to kana, romaji, or furigana in brackets
The converted text panel gives you three versions and a Copy button. Hiragana turns the kanji into kana. You can convert only the words showing furigana and keep the rest as kanji, the way graded readers do, and you can turn katakana into hiragana too. Romaji uses Hepburn-style spelling with long vowels written out, so とうきょう comes out as toukyou. The particles は, へ and を are written wa, e and o, and words are spaced. Furigana in brackets gives you 漢字（かんじ）, which pastes cleanly into documents that can't show ruby text.
Printable furigana reading sheets for teachers
Print the text or save it as a PDF and you get a reading sheet with furigana above the kanji, in clean black and white. Pick A4 or US Letter and set the text size on a seven-step slider. You can put several texts in one PDF with a title for each, and start each text on a new page if you prefer. There's a name and date line for handing out in class. Set the JLPT level first and the sheet carries only the readings your students need. To practice writing the kanji themselves, use the kanji worksheet generator. Students who are still learning to read the furigana can start with the hiragana worksheets, and the genkō yōshi paper has furigana grids for writing readings by hand.
How accurate is the converter?
We wrote a test set of 73 words from ordinary textbook sentences before the converter had ever run on them, then scored it once. It got 71 right, about 97 in 100. One miss was a word where the meaning decides the reading (降り, falling rain or getting off a train), the other a count of days (三日間), and we have fixed both since. Its weak spots are personal names and place names that aren't in the dictionary, and words with two readings, where it picks the commoner one and lets you change it. So check names, check anything with a dotted underline, and type a reading yourself when it's wrong. Ninety-seven in a hundred still means checking the other three.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert kanji to hiragana?
Paste your text into the box, choose Hiragana in the converted text panel and press Copy. Furigana shows above the kanji as you type, so you can check the readings before you copy.
Can I add furigana to Japanese text for free?
Yes. The tool is free and needs no signup. Furigana appears above every kanji word as you type, and you can copy the result or print it.
Can it convert Japanese to romaji?
Yes. Choose Romaji in the converted text panel. It uses Hepburn-style spelling with long vowels written out (とうきょう becomes toukyou), writes the particles は, へ and を as wa, e and o, and puts spaces between words.
Is the converter accurate?
On a test set of 73 words from textbook sentences, written in advance and scored once, it got 71 right. It's weakest on names the dictionary doesn't know and on words whose reading depends on meaning. For any word, you can pick another reading or type your own.
Can I show furigana only for kanji I don't know?
Yes, by JLPT level. Set "Show furigana on" to kanji above N5, N4, N3 or N2, or to kanji beyond the JLPT lists. You can also click any word to hide its furigana everywhere.
Can I print or save it as a PDF?
Yes. You get a reading sheet with furigana above the kanji, on A4 or US Letter, with a text size slider and a name and date line. You can put several texts in one PDF, each with its own title.
Is my text stored?
No. Your text goes to our server only to look up the readings (the dictionary is too big to download to a phone), and it isn't stored, logged or shared. We count how often the tool is opened, copied from and printed, never what you type.
Licenses and credits
Readings come from the IPADIC dictionary through kuromoji (Apache License 2.0). Alternative readings come from JMdict, the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used in conformance with the Group's licence. JLPT levels follow OpenJLPT (CC BY-SA 4.0), based on Jonathan Waller's JLPT resources; the JLPT itself publishes no official lists.