Captio AI
🦻 Accessibility + 💻 Productivity App

Japanese live captions and productivity tool for deaf and HoH people.

Follow any Japanese conversation, meeting or lecture. Supports Standard Japanese (Tokyo dialect) and common regional speech.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Captio AI app showing live captions in Japanese
Use Cases

Works in every situation

Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.

💬Everyday Conversations

Most Japanese conversations happen fast, at normal pace, without warning. Captio AI captions every word as it's spoken, so you can follow without asking anyone to repeat themselves.

🤟Communicating with Deaf & HoH

Hearing people often don't know how to adapt when talking with deaf or hard of hearing Japanese speakers. Captio AI turns their speech into real-time captions, so the conversation can happen naturally on both sides.

💼Meetings

In Japanese meetings, decisions happen fast and people talk over each other. Captio AI captions every speaker as they talk, so you never miss a decision or a question directed at you.

🎓Lectures

Japanese lecturers speak quickly, cover complex material, and rarely repeat themselves. Captio AI gives you a live transcript of everything said, so you can follow the content instead of straining to hear it.

🏥Doctor Appointments

Doctors speak quickly in Japanese and use clinical language that's easy to mishear. Captio AI shows you everything they say in real time, so you can follow your diagnosis and ask the right questions.

🤝Job Interviews

Missing a question in a Japanese interview means answering wrong or asking for a repeat. Captio AI shows you every word the interviewer says, so you can focus entirely on your answer.

📱Phone & Video Calls

Japanese phone and video calls are harder to follow than in-person conversations. No lip reading, often poor audio quality. Captio AI captions whoever is speaking in real time, so you do not need to ask for repeats.

👥Group Settings

In Japanese group conversations, multiple people talk at once and the thread moves fast. Captio AI keeps up with whoever is speaking, so you can follow without losing where the conversation is going.

🍽️Restaurants & Cafes

Background noise in Japanese-speaking restaurants and cafes makes speech hard to follow. Captio AI focuses on whoever is speaking to you, so you can have a real conversation through the noise.

✈️Traveling

In Japanese-speaking cities, airports, and hotels there is no margin for mishearing. Captio AI captions speech in real time, so you can navigate confidently wherever you go.

🎤Conferences & Events

At Japanese conferences, speakers are far away, acoustics are unpredictable, and you cannot ask for a repeat. Captio AI gives you a live transcript of every speaker, so you can follow the full event from any seat.

📺TV & Media

Built-in subtitles on Japanese TV, films, and videos are often wrong, delayed, or missing. Captio AI captions whatever is playing in real time, so you are not dependent on what the content provides.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Dialect & Accent Support

Japanese dialect & accent support

Supports Standard Japanese (Tokyo dialect) and common regional speech.

Hyōjungo dialect

Standard Japanese (標準語) — based on the educated Tokyo variety and used in national broadcasting, education, and formal contexts. Captio AI handles Hyōjungo with full accuracy, displaying captions in native Japanese script (kanji, hiragana, and katakana).

Kansai dialect

関西弁 — spoken in Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, and surrounding regions by around 20 million people. Has a distinct pitch-accent system, intonation, and vocabulary from Standard Japanese. The most widely recognized Japanese regional variety. Captio AI handles it accurately in educated conversational speech.

Tōhoku dialect

東北弁 — spoken across northern Honshū: Sendai, Aomori, Akita, Yamagata, and Iwate. Known for vowel merging (the 'zūzū-ben' feature) and distinct intonation — one of the most divergent mainland Japanese dialects. Captio AI handles educated Tōhoku speech well; very heavy dialect features may occasionally reduce accuracy.

Kyūshū dialect

九州弁 — spoken across Kyūshū island: Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, and Ōita. Has distinct intonation and some vocabulary differences from Standard Japanese, varying by prefecture. Captio AI handles Kyūshū dialect accurately in everyday conversational speech.

Ryūkyū dialect

Spoken in Okinawa and the Ryūkyū Islands. Linguists now classify Ryūkyūan varieties as a separate Japonic language rather than a Japanese dialect due to mutual unintelligibility with mainland Japanese. Captio AI handles Standard Japanese most reliably; Ryūkyūan speech may have significantly reduced accuracy.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Privacy

What you hear stays with you.

Gone the moment it ends

Captio AI processes your Japanese audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is kept.

Not a product

Your conversations are not something Captio AI sells, shares, or monetizes — to anyone, for any reason.

Not used to train anything

What you say in a Japanese doctor's appointment or job interview never ends up in a training dataset. Not ours. Not anyone else's.

100% PRIVATE
Accessibility

Hearing accessibility for Japanese speakers

Japanese Sign Language (日本手話 / JSL)

Japan's deaf community uses Japanese Sign Language (日本手話, Nihon Shuwa). JSL is now recognized in national law as a language. Japan also uses Signed Japanese, which follows spoken Japanese grammar rather than JSL's own structure. These are different systems, and many deaf people in Japan draw a clear distinction between them.

JSL developed naturally within the deaf community. Signed Japanese was created as a bridge to spoken Japanese and is often what gets taught in mainstream education settings. Many deaf Japanese people who attended regular schools learned Signed Japanese rather than JSL, which their community does not always recognize as their natural language.

Japanese healthcare and formal settings use a highly formal register (keigo) that is difficult to follow even for hearing people who encounter it infrequently. For hard of hearing people at a hospital or government office in Japan, the combination of fast speech, formal vocabulary, and limited interpreter availability is a common situation. Captio AI captions spoken Japanese in real time regardless of register.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Reviews

People love Captio AI

"JSL is my first language but hearing people do not sign. Captio AI gives me a way to follow spoken Japanese in any situation where I need to."

Yuki 🇯🇵
yuki.n***@gmail.com
Deaf, Tokyo

"Hospital consultations in Japan use very formal Japanese. Captio AI handles the keigo and the medical vocabulary. I follow my consultations properly now."

Kenji 🇯🇵
kenji.s***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Osaka

"My university lectures are in Standard Japanese. Captio AI gives me a live transcript in kanji and kana. I can study from it afterwards."

Akiko 🇯🇵
akiko.t***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Nagoya

"My hearing started declining last year. Captio AI handles Kyushu-accented Japanese well enough for me to follow office conversations in Fukuoka."

Hiroshi 🇯🇵
hiroshi.m***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Fukuoka

"I was worried Captio AI would not handle Kansai dialect but it works well for conversational Osaka and Kyoto speech. I use it every day."

Miku 🇯🇵
miku.k***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Kyoto

"Japanese meetings move fast and the keigo vocabulary is dense. I put Captio AI on the table and read the captions. The accuracy in formal Japanese is good."

Takashi 🇯🇵
takashi.h***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing since birth, Tokyo

"JSL is my first language but hearing people do not sign. Captio AI gives me a way to follow spoken Japanese in any situation where I need to."

Yuki 🇯🇵
yuki.n***@gmail.com
Deaf, Tokyo

"Hospital consultations in Japan use very formal Japanese. Captio AI handles the keigo and the medical vocabulary. I follow my consultations properly now."

Kenji 🇯🇵
kenji.s***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Osaka

"My university lectures are in Standard Japanese. Captio AI gives me a live transcript in kanji and kana. I can study from it afterwards."

Akiko 🇯🇵
akiko.t***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Nagoya

"My hearing started declining last year. Captio AI handles Kyushu-accented Japanese well enough for me to follow office conversations in Fukuoka."

Hiroshi 🇯🇵
hiroshi.m***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Fukuoka

"I was worried Captio AI would not handle Kansai dialect but it works well for conversational Osaka and Kyoto speech. I use it every day."

Miku 🇯🇵
miku.k***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Kyoto

"Japanese meetings move fast and the keigo vocabulary is dense. I put Captio AI on the table and read the captions. The accuracy in formal Japanese is good."

Takashi 🇯🇵
takashi.h***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing since birth, Tokyo

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Start captioning in Japanese

Captio AI is free to start

Download for free

Download on theApp Store