About Character Counter - Japanese Text Analysis Tool

Character Counter is a free online tool designed for Japanese text. Beyond basic character, word, line, and paragraph counting, it provides kanji, hiragana, and katakana character classification, Japanese readability scoring, and more - all in real time.

Key Features

• Character count (with and without spaces)
• Full-width and half-width character counting
• Genkoyoshi (manuscript paper) conversion - actual page simulation plus a simple estimate, with a hanging-punctuation toggle
• Automatic word, line, and paragraph counting
• Kanji, hiragana, and katakana character classification
• Kanji density and hiragana ratio analysis
• Japanese text readability score (0–100)
• Japanese-optimized reading and speaking time estimation
• Estimated reading time
• UTF-8 / Shift_JIS byte count display
• Social media character limit checker (X, Instagram, LINE, etc.)
• Detailed statistics (unique characters, top characters, punctuation and digit ratios)
• Drag & drop text file import (.txt, .md, .csv, and more)
• Dark mode for comfortable viewing
• Recounts every metric as you type (no button to press)

How Manuscript Paper (Genkoyoshi) Conversion Counts Characters

The manuscript paper conversion shows two figures: actual usage and a simple estimate. Actual usage simulates flowing your text into a 400-cell grid (20 characters × 20 lines) or an 800-cell grid (20 × 40), following the standard Japanese genkoyoshi rules:

• Punctuation marks (、。) and brackets each take one cell - they count as one character
• Punctuation or closing brackets that would land at the start of a line hang in the last cell of the previous line (the kinsoku rule). If your school or exam requires placing them in the first cell of the next line instead, switch the hanging-punctuation toggle off
• A line break feeds the rest of the line; consecutive line breaks count as one blank line
• Small kana (っゃゅょ) and the long-vowel mark (ー) each take one cell and may start a line
• Spaces, whether full-width or half-width, each take one cell

The simple estimate just divides the character count by 400 (or 800). The more line breaks and paragraph indents your essay has, the larger the gap from actual usage. See school essay character counting and Japanese punctuation counting rules for details.

When It Comes in Handy

Check character limits for blog posts and social media, verify word counts for reports and essays, or compare text lengths during translation. All text is processed entirely in your browser and is never sent to any server, so you can safely count even confidential documents.