mecab
a Python binding for unofficial fork of MeCab
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need Japanese morphological analysis and accept the copyleft licensing terms. The precompiled wheels and broad platform support make installation straightforward. However, verify that MeCab system dependencies and dictionaries are available in your environment, and be aware the package is aging—check whether it meets your stability and maintenance expectations before committing to a production dependency.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- MeCab requires the underlying MeCab C++ library and dictionary data; installation may fail if system dependencies are missing or incompatible.
- Medium install friction: precompiled wheels available for Python 3.8–3.14 across macOS, Linux, Windows, and ARM platforms, but the package is aging (243 days since last release) with Alpha development status.
License · maintenance · safety
copyleft license (copyleft) — Licensed under GPL-2.0-only OR LGPL-2.1-only OR BSD-3-Clause (copyleft). You may use it under any of these three terms; GPL and LGPL variants require derivative works to be similarly licensed.
last release 2025-12-14 (243 days)
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 437,778 downloads/mo, #6,664 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install mecab
import MeCab
t = MeCab.Tagger()
sentence = "太郎はこの本を女性に渡した。"
print(t.parse(sentence))- Whether the package includes or requires separate installation of MeCab dictionary data.
- Current maintenance status and whether the aging label reflects genuine abandonment or stable maturity.
- Compatibility with Python 3.13 and 3.14 in practice, given Alpha status.
What it is and what it does
MeCab is a Python binding to an unofficial fork of the MeCab morphological analyzer, a tool for breaking down Japanese text into its grammatical components. It tokenizes sentences into words and annotates each with part-of-speech tags, base forms, readings, and other linguistic features. The binding exposes two main APIs: a simple parse() method that returns formatted text output, and a parseToNode() method that yields individual token objects for programmatic access to morphological data.
The package is distributed as precompiled wheels for multiple Python versions (3.8–3.14) and platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, including ARM), reducing installation friction compared to building from source. However, it carries Alpha development status and has not been updated in 243 days, suggesting either stable maturity or reduced active maintenance. The underlying MeCab library is licensed under GPL-2.0, LGPL-2.1, or BSD-3-Clause, and this binding inherits that triple-license structure.
Use it for
- Tokenize and annotate Japanese sentences for NLP pipelines that require morphological analysis before higher-level processing.
- Extract parts of speech, base forms, and readings from Japanese text for linguistic research or language learning applications.
- Build Japanese search or indexing systems that need to segment text and normalize word variants.
- Preprocess Japanese text for machine learning models that expect tokenized and lemmatized input.
- Analyze Japanese grammar and syntax by traversing the parse tree returned by parseToNode().
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need Japanese morphological analysis and accept the copyleft licensing terms.
The precompiled wheels and broad platform support make installation straightforward. However, verify that MeCab system dependencies and dictionaries are available in your environment, and be aware the package is aging—check whether it meets your stability and maintenance expectations before committing to a production dependency.
Install
mecab on PyPI
Before you install
Medium install friction: precompiled wheels available for Python 3.8–3.14 across macOS, Linux, Windows, and ARM platforms, but the package is aging (243 days since last release) with Alpha development status.
MeCab requires the underlying MeCab C++ library and dictionary data; installation may fail if system dependencies are missing or incompatible.
License in practice
Licensed under GPL-2.0-only OR LGPL-2.1-only OR BSD-3-Clause (copyleft). You may use it under any of these three terms; GPL and LGPL variants require derivative works to be similarly licensed.
Quickstart
pip install mecab
import MeCab
t = MeCab.Tagger()
sentence = "太郎はこの本を女性に渡した。"
print(t.parse(sentence))Verify before relying
- Whether the package includes or requires separate installation of MeCab dictionary data.
- Current maintenance status and whether the aging label reflects genuine abandonment or stable maturity.
- Compatibility with Python 3.13 and 3.14 in practice, given Alpha status.
Package facts
| License | copyleft license copyleft |
| Python support | Not specified |
| Install friction | Medium. Platform-specific wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Aging 243 days since the last release |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 437,778 / month, #6,664 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 3 - AlphaLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseLicense :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2)License :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License v2 (LGPLv2)Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS XOperating System :: Microsoft :: Windows :: Windows 10Operating System :: POSIX :: LinuxProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Text Processing |
Evidence: mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-win32.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_universal2.whl; mecab-0.996.13-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_x86_64.whl
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