YouTube Vocabulary in Japanese

Switching YouTube to Japanese is a small change that pays off quickly for any learner. You start seeing real vocabulary every time you open the app: ホーム, 急上昇, 登録チャンネル. YouTube is well established in Japan, and alongside the domestic platform Niconico Douga it counts many Japanese YouTubers (ユーチューバー) with more than a million subscribers. If you watch anime, J-pop or Vocaloid content, you will also meet Japanese comments and titles such as 「この曲が好き！」 on a regular basis.

This guide collects the words that actually appear on the Japanese YouTube interface. The list is split into three blocks: the Home sidebar, the YouTube Settings menu and the Video page. The kanji is kept as it appears in the UI, the reading is given in Hepburn romaji with macrons (ō, ū, ā, ē, ī), and each entry has a short English gloss. If you are just starting out with the writing system, it helps to have Hiragana and Hiragana and Katakana under your belt, and to be comfortable with the way Romaji romanizes the Japanese language.

YouTube Vocabulary

Home

These words live in the left sidebar of the YouTube home page:

• ホーム (Hōmu) - Home
• マイチャンネル (Mai chan'neru) - My channel
• 急上昇 (Kyūjōshō) - Trending
• 登録チャンネル (Tōroku chan'neru) - Subscriptions
• 履歴 (Rireki) - History
• 後で見る (Ato de miru) - Watch later
• ライブラリ (Raiburari) - Library
• 高く評価した動画 (Takaku hyōka shita dōga) - Liked videos

YouTube Settings

These terms appear inside the YouTube settings menu (設定, Settei):

• YouTubeの設定 (Yūchūbu no settei) - YouTube settings
• アカウント設定 (Akaunto settei) - Account settings
• 概要 (Gaiyō) - Overview
• 接続済みアカウント (Setsuzoku-zumi akaunto) - Connected accounts
• プライバシー (Puraibashī) - Privacy
• 通知 (Tsūchi) - Notifications
• 再生方法 (Saisei hōhō) - Playback options
• 接続済みのテレビ (Setsuzoku-zumi no terebi) - Connected TVs
• アカウント情報 (Akaunto jōhō) - Account information
• 著作権センター (Chosakuken sentā) - Copyright center
• 言語 (Gengo) - Language

Video

These words show up on a single video page, around the player and below the title:

• 視聴回数 (Shichō kaisū) - Views
• 回 (Kai) - Times (counter suffix)
• 追加 (Tsuika) - Add to
• コメント数 (Komento-sū) - Number of comments
• 返信 (Henshin) - Reply
• あなたへのおすすめ (Anata e no osusume) - Recommended for you

Example Sentences

Short sentences to help the vocabulary stick. Each block shows the Japanese original, the Hepburn romaji (with macrons) and a plain English translation.

Do you have a YouTube channel?

あなたはユーチューブチャンネルを持っていますか？
Anata wa yūchūbu chan'neru o motte imasu ka?

This video is funny.

このビデオは面白いです。
Kono bideo wa omoshiroi desu.

He is famous.

彼は有名です。
Kare wa yūmei desu.

Search on YouTube.

ユーチューブで検索。
Yūchūbu de kensaku.

He did not reply to my comment.

彼は私のコメントを答えませんでした。
Kare wa watashi no komento o kotaemasendeshita.

My video is in the trending list.

私の動画は急上昇に出ました。
Watashi no dōga wa kyūjōshō ni demashita.

She is a well-known YouTuber.

彼女は有名なユーチューバーです。
Kanojo wa yūmei na yūchūbā desu.

Closing

The fastest way to make this vocabulary stick is to use it on a real interface. Open YouTube, switch the display language to Japanese through 言語 (Gengo) in the settings, and let the same words show up on the home page, the sidebar and the video player. After a week of casual browsing, ホーム and 急上昇 stop looking like decoration and start feeling like reading. If you want to widen the kanji you meet on screen, the list of the 150 most used Kanji is a good place to keep building from here.

Thanks for reading. If you want a follow-up on the next block of interface words, leave a note in the comments and we will keep the list going. バイバイ!