LiveSub
Japanese podcasts with English subtitles: translate Japanese audio live, free
Published: 2026-09-16 ・ Updated: 2026-11-02
Works in Chrome or Edge on a computer (Firefox: through a microphone or audio input; the add-on covers YouTube and Twitch; not on phones). Japanese ⇄ English only.
Japanese podcasts, radio-style shows and X Spaces are some of the best places to hear natural, unscripted Japanese. They are also the hardest to follow, and the usual tools are no help at all.
Subtitle translation extensions work by translating captions that a video already has. Audio has no captions, and a podcast is not even a video. Some shows publish transcripts, but few do, and not in English.
This guide shows how to get English subtitles on any Japanese audio playing in your browser, for free, without installing anything.
What you'll learn
- Which podcasts, Spaces and radio streams this works with
- How to get live English subtitles on Japanese audio, step by step
- How to use the transcript, the word list and the display modes with audio
In short: if the show plays in a browser tab on your computer, LiveSub can listen to that tab and show the Japanese and an English translation as live subtitles, about one to two seconds behind the speakers. No transcript is needed.
What you need
- Chrome or Microsoft Edge on a computer. In Firefox, LiveSub listens through a microphone or a loopback audio input (such as Windows Stereo Mix); LiveSub for Firefox covers YouTube and Twitch videos only. Safari uses the same input method but is untested
- Not a phone or tablet. Mobile browsers cannot share tab audio
- The audio playing in a browser tab. A web player, not a phone app
- A one-time download of the speech recognition model. For Japanese, the Balanced setting is about 670MB; after the first time, it is loaded from your browser's storage
No account, no extension, no payment, and no time limit.
What works and how
| What you want to listen to | Works? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Podcasts in a web player | Yes | The web versions of Spotify, Apple Podcasts and similar services |
| X Spaces | Yes | Open X in the browser and join the Space there |
| Internet radio and audio streams | Yes | Anything that plays in a tab |
| Talks and interviews on YouTube | Yes | Even with no captions |
| Phone apps | No | It needs a browser on a computer |
The dividing line is simple: can it play in a browser tab on a computer? If a show is only in an app, look for a web version.
LiveSub is a website. You share one browser tab's audio with it. It recognises the Japanese speech on your own computer, translates it with Chrome's built-in on-device translator, and shows the Japanese and the English as subtitles. Nothing is uploaded, and because nothing runs on a server, there is no time limit and no list of supported sites.
Step by step
1. Set the direction and try the how-to video
Open LiveSub in Chrome. Under "Translate from / to", choose Japanese → English. Japanese uses a different recognition model, and if you leave it on English → Japanese you get garbled text instead of subtitles.
Press "Try the how-to video (no sharing)". It plays a short how-to video in Japanese and shows subtitles without sharing any tab. It also gets the one-time download out of the way.
2. Choose a recognition setting
Under "Recognition setting", leave Balanced. If subtitles fall behind, choose Lighter. You can switch at any time, even while subtitles are running.
3. Share the tab
Open the podcast, Space or radio stream in another tab. Back in LiveSub, press "Start (share a tab)". In Chrome's sharing dialog:
- Pick the "Chrome Tab" section at the top
- Choose the tab playing the audio
- Tick "Also share tab audio" at the bottom left
- Press Share
4. Play and read
Press play. Subtitles appear about one to two seconds after the words are spoken.
If no sound arrives for about 12 seconds, LiveSub tells you. Check the audio is playing and not muted, and that "Also share tab audio" was ticked. If you shared the wrong tab, press "Share again".
Getting more out of audio
Read while you do something else
Press "Show in a floating window". The subtitles move into a small window that stays on top, so you can listen while working in another window and glance at the text when you need it. You can scroll back to catch a line you missed.
Save the transcript
Podcast episodes often run over an hour. "Download transcript" saves the Japanese and the English with timestamps as a text file, so when you later wonder where a topic came up, you can search the text instead of scrubbing through the audio.
Put the hosts' names in the word list
Conversation shows repeat the same names constantly: hosts, guests, regular segments, companies. Recognition gets these wrong in a different way each time. Open "Word list" and add the correct spellings, one per line. Japanese entries need at least 3 characters, English ones 4. To choose how a name appears in the translation too, write it as "たなか = Tanaka".
Use it as study material
Set the display to "Original and translation" to see the Japanese and the English side by side, or "Original only" to listen without the English and switch over only when you need to check. Podcasts are natural-speed conversation, which makes them demanding but realistic practice.
Pause and replay
With a recording, the subtitles follow the audio. Pause, and they pause; rewind, and the line is subtitled again.
Honest limits
- About one to two seconds of delay behind the audio
- Two hosts talking over each other is the hard case. Lively conversation shows lose accuracy in the overlapping parts
- It is machine translation. You get the gist; jokes and nuance often do not come through
- Names are the weak point. The word list helps, but it is not perfect
- Music and jingles reduce accuracy while they play
- Computer only. It needs Chrome or Edge on a desktop or laptop, and a show that plays in a browser
Wrapping up
It will not be a perfect transcript. But it turns "I cannot follow this" into "I know what they are talking about", and for a show you had given up on, that is often enough.
Open the show in a browser tab, then open LiveSub on your computer and press "Try the how-to video (no sharing)" first.
About this guide: written by the maker of LiveSub. Steps, button names and figures are checked against the LiveSub app as of the date above. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.