HUB - Updated 2026-05-15

CSV / Excel Encoding Center

A practical hub for fixing garbled CSV files in Excel, UTF-8 BOM issues, Korean CP949 files, and Japanese Shift-JIS mojibake.

Open CSV Encoding Fixer

Quick Answer

Garbled CSV text usually means the file was opened with the wrong character encoding. Excel may guess UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, a local Windows code page, or Shift-JIS depending on the file and the user's environment. Keep the original file, inspect a small sample, then choose the encoding that matches the source system.

Why This Matters

CSV files move product catalogs, ad reports, customer lists, CRM exports, and logs between tools. When a file contains Korean, Japanese, accents, or emoji, a wrong encoding guess can turn names and addresses into unreadable text. The safest workflow is to separate the file source, the tool used to open it, and the system that will receive the final CSV.

Common Problems

Symptom	Likely Cause	First Check
Korean text is garbled in Excel	UTF-8 read as a local Windows code page	Import as UTF-8 or use UTF-8 BOM
Japanese text shows mojibake	Shift-JIS and UTF-8 mismatch	Check whether the source is a Japanese Windows system
First column is strange after upload	UTF-8 BOM was not accepted	Test a BOM-free copy
Columns are shifted	Delimiter or quotes are wrong	Check comma, tab, and quoted fields

Practical Workflow

Save a backup of the original CSV.
Test a few rows in CSV Encoding Fixer.
If the target is Excel, try UTF-8 with BOM.
If the target is an API or upload form, check whether BOM is allowed.
For Japanese legacy files, verify Shift-JIS before converting to UTF-8.

Example

If a supplier sends a Japanese CSV and product names look like 譬ｪ蠑丈ｼ夂､ｾ, the file may be Shift-JIS but your tool is reading it as UTF-8. If a SaaS export is UTF-8 but Excel garbles it, a UTF-8 BOM copy may be better for Excel users.

Related Tool

CSV Encoding Fixer: Check CSV text and create an Excel-friendly UTF-8 BOM copy.

Japanese CSV mojibake fix

Updated

2026-05-15