Fix garbled Japanese CSV text
Makes a CSV file whose Japanese text breaks in Excel readable again, by saving it as UTF-8 with a BOM. Only the text encoding changes, not the contents. The file is processed only on this device.
- Free
- No upload
- No sign-up
- Works offline
How to use
Press "Choose a file" and pick one CSV file.
Check that the sample lines read correctly. If they do not, choose another text encoding.
Press "Save for Excel" to save the fixed file as UTF-8 with a BOM.
Questions
Why does the text break?
The text encoding of the file (the rule that turns characters into numbers) is not the one Excel expects. Excel on Japanese Windows opens a CSV file without a mark (a BOM) as Shift_JIS.
Is my file sent anywhere?
No. Reading the file and making the new one both happen on your device. Nothing is sent out after you choose a file.
Do the contents change?
Only the text encoding changes. Line breaks, delimiters, quotes and empty lines stay as they are. Before saving, the tool reads the new file back and checks that the text is the same.
What if the sample lines look wrong?
Choose another one under "Read with another encoding" in the tool. If every encoding looks wrong, the file may use an encoding this tool does not read, such as one for Chinese or Korean.
What is the saved file called?
The original name with "-utf8" at the end ("-sjis" when you save in Shift_JIS). The name is used only on this device.
Why can I not save in Shift_JIS?
Emoji and some kanji and symbols are not in Shift_JIS. Remove or replace the characters at the places shown, then try again. If the place you send the file to can read UTF-8, save it as UTF-8 with a BOM instead.
Leading zeros disappear, or numbers turn into dates
Excel changes numbers and dates by itself. This is not about the text encoding, and this tool cannot fix it. In Excel, import the file with "From Text/CSV" and read that column as text.
Can I use it on a Mac or a phone?
Yes. If a Shift_JIS CSV file breaks there, saving it as UTF-8 with a BOM makes it readable in most apps. Inside apps such as LINE, saving may not work. If so, open the page again in Safari or Chrome.
Limits
- The tool does not sort, change delimiters, add or remove columns, or convert to Excel files (.xlsx).
- The text encoding is guessed from the contents. With only a few Japanese characters, the guess can be wrong. Check the sample lines before saving.
- Characters that a company made for itself (gaiji) do not show correctly on other computers. This tool cannot fix them.
- Some programs other than Excel read the BOM as an extra character. If the place you send the file to asks for no BOM, do not use this form.
- One file can be up to 50 MB. On phones, large files can be slow even below that.
- We cannot protect against things in your own environment, such as browser extensions.