diff --git a/ext/bg/js/search.js b/ext/bg/js/search.js
index 673f066b..ea68915c 100644
--- a/ext/bg/js/search.js
+++ b/ext/bg/js/search.js
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ class DisplaySearch extends Display {
                 text !== this.clipboardPreviousText
             ) {
                 this.clipboardPreviousText = text;
-                if (jpIsJapaneseText(text)) {
+                if (jpIsAnyCharacterJapanese(text)) {
                     this.setQuery(this.isWanakanaEnabled() ? window.wanakana.toKana(text) : text);
                     window.history.pushState(null, '', `${window.location.pathname}?query=${encodeURIComponent(text)}`);
                     this.onSearchQueryUpdated(this.query.value, true);
diff --git a/ext/bg/js/translator.js b/ext/bg/js/translator.js
index d9cb0c54..2fb36194 100644
--- a/ext/bg/js/translator.js
+++ b/ext/bg/js/translator.js
@@ -214,11 +214,9 @@ class Translator {
     }
 
     async findTermsInternal(text, dictionaries, details, options) {
-        if (!options.scanning.alphanumeric && text.length > 0) {
-            const c = text[0];
-            if (!jpIsKana(c) && !jpIsKanji(c)) {
-                return [[], 0];
-            }
+        text = Translator.getSearchableText(text, options);
+        if (text.length === 0) {
+            return [[], 0];
         }
 
         const titles = Object.keys(dictionaries);
@@ -587,4 +585,19 @@ class Translator {
             yield variant;
         }
     }
+
+    static getSearchableText(text, options) {
+        if (!options.scanning.alphanumeric) {
+            const ii = text.length;
+            for (let i = 0; i < ii; ++i) {
+                const c = text[i];
+                if (!jpIsCharacterJapanese(c)) {
+                    text = text.substring(0, i);
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        return text;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/ext/mixed/js/japanese.js b/ext/mixed/js/japanese.js
index 44db4b8c..8d69c180 100644
--- a/ext/mixed/js/japanese.js
+++ b/ext/mixed/js/japanese.js
@@ -92,9 +92,13 @@ function jpIsKana(c) {
     );
 }
 
-function jpIsJapaneseText(text) {
+function jpIsCharacterJapanese(c) {
+    return jpIsKanji(c) || jpIsKana(c);
+}
+
+function jpIsAnyCharacterJapanese(text) {
     for (const c of text) {
-        if (jpIsKanji(c) || jpIsKana(c)) {
+        if (jpIsCharacterJapanese(c)) {
             return true;
         }
     }