About the role

We are building a Japanese-language transcription team for a speech data project. You will listen to short recordings of people speaking Japanese and write down exactly what you hear, following a detailed set of written conventions.

This is not translation, and it is not tidy-up work. The value of the data comes from it matching the audio precisely, including everything a speaker gets wrong.

How to apply

Fill in the application form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5Iqq7Z1KUX3YEH4yipARiQG2TL_gfYDb1kbvUTjr_x9Y7YQ/viewform

What you will do

- Transcribe Japanese audio clips in spoken form, following the project conventions
- Capture speech exactly as spoken, including hesitations, filler sounds, repetitions, false starts and grammatical errors, without correcting any of them
- Mark unclear speech, mis-spoken words and filled pauses using the project's markers
- Record audio characteristics present in each file, such as laughter, background speech, overlapping speakers, background noise and audio glitches
- Record speaker metadata: number of speakers, gender and nativity
- Research the correct written form of names, song and film titles, brands, channels and place names when they appear in a clip

Requirements

- Native or near-native Japanese, with a good ear for regional accents,



fast speech and casual registers
- Working reading knowledge of English — the conventions document and the annotation tool are in English
- Very high attention to detail, and the patience to replay a clip several times over a single word
- Willingness to follow a written specification exactly, including rules you may personally disagree with
- A quiet working setting, headphones, and a stable internet connection
- Comfortable occasionally encountering explicit or offensive language in recordings

Nice to have

- Previous transcription, subtitling, captioning or annotation experience
- A background in linguistics, translation, interpretation or language teaching
- Familiarity with Japanese music, film, television and online media, which helps considerably when checking how a title or name is written
- Experience in a QA or review role

Details

- Remote, freelance
- One-month contract, with the possibility of extension
- hours per week, flexible scheduling
- Earn ¥30,000 – ¥70,000 over the contract. Where you fall in this range depends on your output efficiency: how many clips you complete without sacrificing accuracy
- Ongoing feedback from reviewers; consistent accuracy leads to higher volume and review-level work

📌 Japanese Transcriptionist (India)
🏢 Perit AI (YC F26)
📍 India