Ukrainian Has Been on VoiceTra Since August 2022: Translation Apps and Interpreters at Government Counters

“VoiceTra,” the free speech-translation app from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), added Ukrainian in August 2022. As of September 2026, Ukrainian is supported for both voice input and spoken output of translated results. However, NICT describes VoiceTra as a research app intended for individual travelers to try out.

Municipal consultation counters use several kinds of tools: translation devices, video interpreting over a tablet, and interpreters available on set days of the week, among others. This article organizes what each can and cannot do, based on published materials (as of September 2026) from NICT, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA), and local governments.

Ukrainian on VoiceTra

According to NICT’s support page, VoiceTra translates 33 languages, and downloading and using it are both free. What is possible differs by language, and NICT shows the following three capabilities for each one.

Because Ukrainian is not covered by automatic detection, you use it by selecting Ukrainian as the other person’s language.

According to the update history, Ukrainian translation, speech recognition, and speech synthesis were added in iOS version 8.8 and Android version 8.7, both released on August 2, 2022. Later, a server update on March 29, 2024 improved the accuracy of Ukrainian speech recognition, strengthened translation, and added a female voice for spoken output.

Ukrainian was not, from the start, a language central to the national plan. The “Global Communication Plan 2025” (グローバルコミュニケーション計画2025), published by MIC in March 2020, listed 15 “priority languages” (重点対応言語) for improving translation accuracy — Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Burmese, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Filipino, Khmer, Nepali, and Mongolian — and Ukrainian was not among them.

Things to Know Before You Use It

• It is meant for translating travel conversation sentence by sentence. NICT’s FAQ assumes translation of travel conversation one sentence at a time, and states that it is not well suited to sentences outside travel conversation, long passages, or translating single words.
• There is a way to check whether the translation is accurate. A “back-translation,” which translates the result back into your own language, is displayed. You can compare it with the sentence you entered to check whether your meaning came across.
• An internet connection is required. Because processing is done in the cloud, the app cannot be used where there is no signal or offline. Each voice translation uses about 100 kilobytes of data, and the user bears the cost of that data.
• Personal names and place names may not translate correctly. Proper nouns are registered to some extent, but not all of them.
• It runs on a research server. Regarding use for business purposes, NICT says it can be used on a trial basis, but asks that users also consider commercial services built on VoiceTra’s technology. It does not guarantee the effect of the translated content on your business, or how long the service will continue to be provided.

In August 2026, version 9.2.1 was released to address a security issue that had been found. NICT is asking people using version 9.1.3 or 9.2.0 to update to 9.2.1, and states that older versions will show a prompt to update and will not be usable. The service, which had been suspended temporarily, was fully restored on August 10.

Three Tools Used at Counters

The “Plain Japanese Guidelines for Residency Support — Points on Spoken Language” (在留支援のためのやさしい日本語ガイドライン～話し言葉のポイント～), compiled in October 2022 by the ISA and others, states that translation devices have been deployed at counters in many local governments. The ISA’s published “List of Regional Consultation Counters” (地域の相談窓口一覧, as of July 2026) also carries notes such as “a translation device is used for other languages” for many counters.

Reading the same list together with local government pages, language support at counters falls broadly into three types.

Nikko City’s page does not state which languages are among its 13.

Some counters combine several of these. The Ishinomaki City Foreign Resident Consultation Counter in Miyagi Prefecture is listed in the ISA’s directory as supporting “all 25 languages through tablet video interpreting and machine translation devices,” and Ukrainian is among the 25 languages the city’s page names. According to the same page, a Chinese-language counselor is available on Wednesdays and a Vietnamese-language counselor on Thursdays.

The Hokkaido Foreign Residents’ Consultation Center’s page also lists a “Hokkaido Ukraine-Related One-Stop Support Counter” at the same number (011-200-9595). It is open 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00 (Hokkaido International Exchange and Cooperation Center page, confirmed September 24, 2026).

You can look up the counters and supported languages in your area using the ISA’s “Find a Consultation Counter Where You Live” (あなたの住んでいるところの相談窓口を探す) tool. How to use it is covered in Where to Ask First When You Start Living in Japan. The ISA notes that its list does not include every counter in every area, and that it may differ from the most current information.

How to Speak When Using a Translation Device

“Points on Spoken Language” states that speaking to a translation device in Japanese where you have organized what you want to say improves the device’s translation accuracy, more than speaking in ordinary Japanese. It also says that, when using a translation device, it helps to “speak clearly,” “say it to the end,” and “keep it short” (the first letters spell out the “Scissors Rule,” ハサミの法則, in Japanese). This is a guide for counter staff, but the same applies to a person speaking into a translation app.

The “Plain Japanese Guidelines for Residency Support” (August 2020, ISA and Agency for Cultural Affairs), which covers written Japanese, states that, when publishing information online, it is effective to also prepare a version without furigana readings where possible, in view of the possibility that readers will run it through machine translation.

The same guidelines cite a 2018 survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Council for International Exchange. Among foreign residents of Tokyo, the languages they wanted information provided in (multiple answers allowed) were Plain Japanese at 76%, English at 68%, and (ordinary) Japanese at 22%; “machine-translated native language” was 12%.

Situations Where Machine Translation Alone Is Not Enough

“Points on Spoken Language” notes that, because Plain Japanese organizes information by prioritizing clarity, it can fall short for things such as the details of a system, explanations of complex topics, medical content that affects someone’s life, or consultations about human rights. In such cases, it says it is important to combine other means, such as multilingual support or translation devices, and switch flexibly as needed. It also states that if you feel communication is difficult no matter how simply you speak, you should switch to using an interpreter or machine translation.

For VoiceTra as well, NICT does not guarantee the effect of the translated content on your affairs. For matters where a mistake would cause real trouble — such as explanations of a contract or a medical matter — consider the following steps.

• Look for a counter or phone consultation with an interpreter. National counters where you can consult in Ukrainian are listed in Where to Ask First When You Start Living in Japan
• At the hospital, write down your insurance information and symptoms in advance (Before You Go to the Hospital in Japan)
• When you use machine translation, check whether it matches what you meant to say, for example using the back-translation. For important points, ask the other person to rephrase it back to you to confirm

A translation app is a reassuring tool for greetings, giving directions, or a quick check. But it is the user who, in the end, has to confirm whether the translation is right.