Japanese Church Sermon Translation, Live
Sermon Translate translates a Japanese sermon into English captions, or an English sermon into Japanese, while the pastor speaks. When a passage is clearly cited, verse popups can show it from the Japanese Bible your church chooses.
Japanese and English in one fellowship
Japanese churches abroad often gather Japanese nationals, Japanese Americans who read English best, and spouses from other backgrounds. The pastor can preach in Japanese with English captions on the screen, or a guest can preach in English with Japanese captions.
- Japanese preaching with English captions
- English preaching with Japanese captions
- Both lines together on the Subtitles screen
What Sermon Translate does in Japanese
Japanese works in both directions: a preacher can speak Japanese into the app, and members can read the sermon in Japanese.
- The 66 Bible book names are built in for Japanese, taken from a published Japanese Bible, so a spoken book name comes out the way that Bible writes it. Other church vocabulary is general translation guided by church context, and your church glossary fixes the terms that matter to you.
- Verse popups can show the passage in Japanese, from a Bible edition in that language.
Japanese Bible editions in verse popups
When the preacher clearly names a passage or quotes a known verse, the popup shows it from 口語訳聖書, the 1955 Colloquial Japanese Bible, which is in the public domain. The 66 book names in the captions follow a published Japanese Bible.
Keep names consistent
Japanese names can be written several ways. Add your members, pastors and ministries to the church glossary with the exact spelling you want in each language.
How a church sets up Japanese captions for a service
One laptop, tablet or phone near the pulpit does the work. Give it clean sound from the sound desk or a microphone close to the preacher, sign in, choose the language being preached and Japanese as a reading language, and start. The room reads the captions on the projector through the Subtitles screen, online viewers see them in the livestream through the OBS overlay, and members who prefer their own phone scan a QR code with QR Code Join, included in every plan, and read with no account.
- Before the service: add names, ministries and church terms to the glossary, and choose a Bible version for verse popups
- During the service: keep the device on power and online; captions follow the preaching sentence by sentence
- After the service: the transcript is saved to the account, and the Standard plan turns it into AI sermon notes
Which Japanese Bibles can verse popups show?
口語訳聖書, the 1955 Colloquial Japanese Bible. It is in the public domain, so no license is needed.
Can Korean be added for a mixed Japanese and Korean congregation?
Yes. Korean is supported in both directions, and the Subtitles screen shows up to 5 caption languages at once. Free and Basic include one reading language, Standard includes two and All Languages includes every language. Each language beyond that uses another hour of plan time for every hour of the service.
How fast do captions appear?
In our recorded sessions, captions appear about half a second after the words and the translation follows within a few seconds, usually two to three.
What does it cost to show Japanese captions every Sunday?
Every account gets 1 free hour every month of live translation, enough to test a full service. Basic is $19.99 a month for 12 hours and Standard is $34 a month for 30 hours. Free and Basic include one reading language, Standard includes two and All Languages includes every language. Each language beyond that uses another hour of plan time for every hour of the service.
Can an English sermon be translated into Japanese live?
Yes. Choose English, or the language your pastor preaches in, as the speaker language and Japanese as the reading language. Japanese can also be preached into the app, so a Japanese sermon can be read in English or another language.