🔧 Fix Garbled Japanese Text
Paste garbled text or a file name. The tool tries every common Japanese encoding mix-up and shows the readable result.
Nothing is sent to a server.
Open a Japanese text file and save it as UTF-8
Subtitles (.srt), CSV or .txt files from Japan are often saved in Shift_JIS or EUC-JP and look garbled in most editors. Choose the file to detect its encoding, check the text, and download a UTF-8 copy that opens correctly everywhere. The file stays on your device. For subtitles, the subtitle fixer also handles timing and SRT ⇄ VTT conversion.
What kind of garbling is it?
The way the text looks tells you what went wrong, and whether it can be fixed.
| Looks like | Cause | Fixable? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ô·û{îΩé╠âtâ@âCâïû╝ | Shift_JIS file names read as CP437 | ✅ Yes | Box-drawing characters (╠ ╝ Ω) mixed with accented letters. Typical for ZIP files made on a Japanese Windows PC and opened on an English one. |
| 日本語 | UTF-8 text read as Windows-1252 / Latin-1 | ✅ Yes | Lots of “æ”, “ã” and “ƒ”. Common in CSV files opened in Excel and in old web pages and emails. |
| “ú–{Œê‚Ì | Shift_JIS text read as Windows-1252 / Latin-1 | ✅ Yes | Curly quotes, dashes and “‚” everywhere. Typical for subtitles (.srt) and text files made on Japanese Windows. |
| 縺薙ｓ縺ｫ縺｡縺ｯ | UTF-8 text read as Shift_JIS | ✅ Yes | Looks like real kanji, but makes no sense to Japanese readers. “縺”, “繧” and “繝” are the giveaway. |
| ���� / ???? | The characters were replaced when the file was converted | ❌ No | The original bytes are gone, so no tool can bring them back. Get a fresh copy of the file. If the file itself is still intact, try “Open a text file” below. |
| □□□ (empty boxes) | A missing font, not mojibake | ❌ No | The text is fine; your device has no Japanese font. Install one (for example Noto Sans JP) and it will display correctly. |
Japanese file names garbled after unzipping
Japanese Windows stores file names inside ZIP files in Shift_JIS without saying so. English Windows, macOS and most unzip tools assume CP437 instead, so a name like 日本語のファイル名.txt comes out as ô·û{îΩé╠âtâ@âCâïû╝.txt. The files themselves are fine; only the names are misread.
- Still have the ZIP? Our ZIP file name fixer re-packs it with correct names, right in your browser.
- Just need to know what a file is? Paste its name into the box above.
- 7-Zip (Windows): run
7z x -mcp=932 archive.zipto extract with the Japanese code page. - Bandizip (Windows / Mac): open the archive, change the code page to Japanese, check the names in the preview, then extract.
- Linux:
unzip -O cp932 archive.zip - Mac: The Unarchiver asks for the encoding when it cannot detect it. Choose Japanese (Shift_JIS).
Frequently asked questions
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The decoding runs entirely in your browser, and neither the text you paste nor the files you open are sent to a server. The only exception is the optional “Send this example” button, which you have to press yourself.
Why does Japanese text turn into “日本” or ““ú–{”?
Japanese is stored with an encoding such as UTF-8 or Shift_JIS. When a program assumes a different encoding (usually Windows-1252, the default for Western versions of Windows), each Japanese character is shown as two or three Western characters instead. Nothing is lost at that point, so reading the bytes again with the right encoding brings the text back. That is what this tool does.
How do I fix Japanese file names in a ZIP file?
Paste a garbled file name above to read it. To extract the whole archive with correct names, use 7-Zip with the command “7z x -mcp=932 archive.zip”, or Bandizip with the code page set to Japanese. On Linux, “unzip -O cp932 archive.zip” works. On Mac, The Unarchiver asks for the encoding when it cannot guess.
Can every garbled text be fixed?
No. If the text contains “�” or most characters became “?”, the original bytes were thrown away during a conversion and cannot be recovered by any tool. Empty boxes (□) are not mojibake at all; they mean a Japanese font is missing.
What does “mojibake” mean?
Mojibake (文字化け) is the Japanese word for garbled text: moji means “character” and bake means “transform”. It is used in English too, for garbled text in any language.