Comments on: English Windows XP with a Japanese Keyboard

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:08:08 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Robert. I actually haven’t used my Japanese keyboard since returning from Japan in 2007. You’re right this is an older post, but it’s still one of the most popular on my site.

By: robert

robert — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:36:27 +0000

thanks for the article BUT you dont need direct hiragana and katakana input. NO ONE tpyes like that. trust I work in a Japanese office in Japan. JAPANESE peopel type in romaniji and let the computer change it for them. it is the ONLY effective way. mainly becuase of kanji.

I LOVE japanese keyboards. I like the layout better. After 5 years of having both. 2 with j keyboards, and 1 with a US key board, which finnaly broke. and now I have all 3 jp keyboards, but 1 still on a ENGLISH OS…..
I love the placement of the “@” key I love that you dont have to hit shift for “:” Some of them have TERRIBLE placement of the enter key… so watch for that. and some have a small space bar but its off center so you will ALWAYS hit the the wrong key.
but if you find one that matches you old typeing style. than you are golden!!!

learn to type in romanji!!!! and let it convert. its how the japaense do it. its WAY faster to type. but seeing how this post is fairly old, this advice is just for new leaners/typers of japanese.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:00:52 +0000

Specifically, with a Japanese keyboard, if you don’t know how to read a kanji, you can simply highlight the kanji and press henkan to see the reading in hiragana.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:53:15 +0000

In regards to using the Stickers on an english keyboard, you will likely still tell windows that its a 109-key japanese keyboard, but since there is no additional keys for changing modes, you may have to use manual hot-keys similar to if yo were using kana-input with the IME Method editor.

Ctrl + Shift for instance swaps from EN to JP mode
Ctrl + ~ then swaps from Alphanumeric entry to Kana input

Google “Japanese IME” and browse the results.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:53:55 +0000

Sorry, I don’t know. I’ve only used English Windows with a Japanese keyboard, not vice versa.

By: Debs

Debs — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:28:30 +0000

Finally, a really helpful and nicely explained blog site.

A quick question: my sister has converted a japanese laptop to english system however the @ symbol, which has it’s own key, does not display. Before I call her back will this therefore be fixed by changing keyboard setting to Japanese as you have explained in “English Windows XP with a Japanese Keyboard”…?

Many thanks.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:12:41 +0000

Sorry, I’m not familiar with the sticker systems. A Japanese keyboard has more keys than an American keyboard, so my instructions in this post very likely do not apply to what you’re doing.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:32:53 +0000

how do u set up a system for the japanese keyboard stickers for my american keyboard?

By: Loren

Loren — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:26:38 +0000

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

I can’t believe it was so simple. After my Japanese-model laptop malfunctoned and Sony refused to touch it in the States, I bought a US model, but I’ve been wanting to use an external J-keyboard with my E-laptop for a long time and even purchased 3 keyboards in Japan, but was always too busy to be persistent enough to figure out the settings. I previously read Cameron Baccario’s article, but still no success.

I was able to do almost everything I needed on my laptop’s E-keyboard, but some required extra keystrokes. The one function I never figured out really frustrated me. Specifically, with a Japanese keyboard, if you don’t know how to read a kanji, you can simply highlight the kanji and press henkan to see the reading (pronunciation)in hiragana. This saves a lot of time looking things up.

Using an external Japanese keyboard not only allows me to type faster (full-size keyboard, and easier to find keys without looking), but also gives me additional functionality (noted above) and reduces the number of keystrokes required in many situations, such as switching back and forth between romaji (for Japanese) and “direct Input” (for English), or when using TRADOS translation memory software. I also find I can do Google searches faster on my Japanese keyboard because I can type quotation marks with only my left hand without looking, while using my right hand to highlight text to cut&paste, whereas the English keyboard requires both hands or the right hand, which means taking my hand off the mouse and looking down to find the quotation mark key.

Anyway, thank you! Where do I send payment?