Reading Time & Manuscript Page Calculator
Paste your text to see how long it takes to read, how long it takes to say aloud, and how many sheets of Japanese manuscript paper (genkō yōshi) it fills. Useful for blog post read times, speech lengths and Japanese essay page limits. English words and Japanese characters are counted separately, so mixed text works too. If you only need counts, try the Character Counter.
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- Characters (no spaces or line breaks)
- 0
- Japanese characters
- 0
- English words
- 0
- Reading time
- 0
- Speaking time
- 0
- Manuscript paper
- 0
Notes
- Reading time is calculated as Japanese characters ÷ Japanese reading speed + English words ÷ English reading speed. Around 500 Japanese characters per minute is a common guideline, but it varies widely with the difficulty of the text and the reader.
- Speaking time assumes 300 Japanese characters or 130 English words per minute. It is a rough guide and the speed cannot be changed.
- Japanese characters means kana, kanji and full-width symbols. Half-width letters and digits are counted as words, and half-width symbols are not counted.
- Manuscript paper uses 20 characters per row and counts half-width characters as one cell each. Turn on "Start a new row at each line break" to count rows as if each line break starts a fresh row.
Glossary
Reading time
An estimate of how long it takes to read a text silently. Japanese is generally read at about 400 to 600 characters per minute, English at roughly 200 to 250 words per minute.
Manuscript paper (genkō yōshi)
Japanese writing paper with a grid of 20 cells per row. A sheet has 20 rows (400-character) or 10 rows (200-character), and page limits for essays and contests are often given in sheets.
FAQ
How is the reading time calculated?
Japanese characters are divided by the Japanese reading speed (500 characters per minute by default) and English words by the English reading speed (230 words per minute by default), then the two are added. Both speeds can be changed in the settings.
Do spaces and line breaks count as characters?
Reading time ignores spaces and line breaks. For manuscript paper, half-width characters take one cell each, and line breaks are handled according to the "Start a new row at each line break" setting.
How is the number of manuscript sheets decided?
Each row holds 20 characters; a 400-character sheet has 20 rows and a 200-character sheet has 10. With "Start a new row at each line break" on, every paragraph or blank line starts a new row.
How accurate is the speaking time?
It assumes about 300 Japanese characters or 130 English words per minute. Real speed depends on the speaker and pauses, so treat it as a rough guide.
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