Custom Japanese phrase card
Tick a set phrase, type your own line, or do both. Everything is printed exactly as you write it — nothing is translated for you — on a business-card-size card you can hand across a counter, with ten copies to an A4 sheet.
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Nothing is uploaded — the card is built in your browser
This tool only prints what you type. It gives no medical advice, makes no diagnosis and guarantees no translation of anything you write yourself.
Twelve phrases that come up constantly
Asking directions, asking someone to take your photo, asking for a formal receipt made out to a company, declining a plastic bag, asking for less spice, asking for an English or picture menu, reporting a lost item, asking about tax-free shopping, asking where smoking is allowed, asking whether cards are accepted, and asking what is in a dish. Each is a complete polite sentence rather than a keyword, which is what makes a stranger read it as a request for help.
Your own text, printed and not translated
The free-text box takes whatever you write and prints it verbatim — it is never translated — on the Japanese side, under the line 以下は本人が入力した文章です — the text below was typed by the cardholder. That sentence is there so nobody assumes your line was checked by anyone. A separate English box prints on the reverse only. Blank lines and stray spaces are stripped so the card never prints an empty row.
The two phrases with a blank to fill
The receipt phrase asks for the ryoshusho to be made out to a name, and the lost-item phrase names what you lost. Type it into the fill-in box and the sentence completes itself; leave it blank and a sensible default word is used instead — 会社名 for the receipt and 持ち物 for the lost item — so the card never prints a placeholder or a half sentence.
What Japan expects, in the small print
Plastic bags have been chargeable since 2020, so declining one is normal and saves 3 to 5 yen. Tax-free shopping needs 5,000 yen or more in one shop on one day plus your actual passport, and you must say so before you pay. Lost property genuinely does get handed in — railways run their own offices, everything else ends up at the nearest police box. Small restaurants and rural shops are often cash only, while convenience-store and post-office ATMs take foreign cards.
Printing and the phone version
The default card is 91 by 55 millimetres and ten fit on one A4 or US Letter sheet with cut lines, printed at 100 percent scaling. A6 gives four larger cards per sheet and A5 gives one. The PNG export is 1080 pixels on the long edge for showing on a phone. Ticking the back side adds a mirrored second page with the English text.
One request per card
A card with one clear sentence gets a useful answer; a card with six gets skimmed and the type shrinks to fit. The tool warns you once the card passes the point where it stays comfortably readable at business-card size, and suggests either a second card or the larger A6.
Frequently asked questions
Does this translate what I type?
No, and that is deliberate. Your text is printed exactly as you write it, with a Japanese line saying it was typed by the cardholder. Only the twelve set phrases are real Japanese written and checked by hand — everything else on the card is your own words, unchanged.
Can I write Japanese in the free-text box?
Yes. Whatever you paste or type goes onto the Japanese side of the card as-is, so if you already have a sentence you trust — from a Japanese friend, a hotel email, or a phrase book — this is the way to put it on a printed card alongside the set phrases.
Do shops in Japan take foreign cards?
Usually in cities and chains, and often not in small restaurants and rural shops. Carrying some cash is still the right call. Convenience-store and post-office ATMs reliably accept foreign cards, which is the easiest way to top up on the road.
How many cards print on one sheet?
Ten at 91 by 55 millimetres on A4 or US Letter, with cut lines, as a one-page PDF. A6 gives four per sheet and A5 gives one large card. Print at 100 percent scaling so the card comes out at the size a wallet expects.
Is what I type uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server and no account. The phrases ship as a static file with the page and the PDF is built in your browser, so your text never leaves the device.