How to Translate Medium From Japanese to French (Step-by-Step)

Japanese-language content on Medium is rich and worth reading. If French is your stronger reading language, the usual friction applies: copy the text into a translator and lose the layout, or read slower than you would like.

This guide shows a third option — translate the Japanese article in place, directly into French, with bilingual translation. The Japanese stays visible and the French meaning appears right beside it, so you can read the meaning quickly and still check the original for any word, name, or phrase.

Demo note: the screenshots below are built in a real Medium layout to show exactly how BothLang displays a bilingual page — the Japanese paragraph on top and the translated French directly beneath, with a hand-drawn arrow pointing at the translation.The workflow is identical on any article because BothLang works on whatever page you are viewing.

What you need

• BothLang installed in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox — see the download page.
• The extension pinned to your toolbar.
• A Japanese-language article open in a tab.

Step 1 — Open the Japanese article

Open the Japanese piece you want to read.

Step 2 — Set French as your target

Click the BothLang icon. Set Translate into to French and Page display to Bilingual.

Step 3 — Translate the page

Click Translate Now. BothLang places a French translation directly beneath each Japanese paragraph, leaving the Japanese intact. A hand-drawn arrow marks the first translated paragraph.

Step 4 — Switch reading modes

• Bilingual — source and translation together.
• Translation only — fastest.
• Original only — back to clean Japanese.

The short version

1. Install and pin BothLang.
2. Open a Japanese article.
3. Set Translate into: French, Page display: Bilingual.
4. Click Translate Now.
5. Read the French with the Japanese original underneath.

Try it on your next Japanese-language article.