Install Japanese Keyboard Windows 10

[Gaby Zenz]

InstallingJapanese keyboards on non-Japanese computers has gotten much easier in the past ten years. No more special discs with complicated software. In fact, just about every computer has a Japanese keyboard ready and waiting inside of it.

That's where we come in. We get a lot of emails from people struggling to install and switch between Japanese keyboards. In this guide we'll show you how to install Japanese keyboard inputs, set awesome shortcuts for better productivity, and type anything you could ever want, all without needing a "real" Japanese computer or keyboard.

You'll get a prompt asking whether you'd like to change your primary language from English (or whatever it currently is) to Japanese. Unless you're fluent in Japanese, don't switch. Just choose Use English for now.

I use Full-width Alphanumeric (Google) for English (better than your default U.S.), and Hiragana (Google) for Japanese. (If you don't already have Google Japanese Input on your computer, you can get it here)

But now there's a small problem. When you added the Japanese keyboard, it probably enabled another shortcut that conflicts with other programs. It's command + space. This filters through your language options, always going to the next one.

Next you'll have a couple of options. Chances are you'll want to unselect the box that says Set as my Windows display language (unless you are looking for some total immersion!). You can also choose to install speech and handwriting tools as well. Once you've made your selections, click Install.

You can use it to draw a kanji character you don't remember the reading for, or to look up a kanji you don't know. The stroke order kind of matters, but the quality of your drawing doesn't so much, as you can see here:

These can be really helpful if you're typing in more than 2 languages. For example, if you're writing a paper using English, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin, this can help make the process much less frustrating.

But you should be careful. If any other shortcuts (which may be default on your computer) are the same as the shortcuts you're making, they won't work. So it's probably best to stick with the default cycle shortcut if you aren't dealing with 3+ language keyboards.

This works when you're texting your friends and trying to look up or save a kanji to look up later on. Even better, it doesn't care about stroke order like most Japanese apps. And it doesn't use the same database as most Japanese - English dictionaries (Jim Breen, Jisho.org, Tangorin, etc.). Also you don't need an internet connection to use it! Handy, right?

If you need to enter some text in Japanese, the Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) for Windows lets you enter text using hiragana or katakana characters while using a typical keyboard with 101-105 keys. The IME also converts your input into kanji characters. Using the IME doesn't require changing your current Windows display language.

The Windows system tray shows which keyboard layout is currently active, for example, ENG. You can switch between installed layouts (layouts in the Preferred languages list in Settings) by selecting the Windows logo key + Spacebar.

When the Japanese keyboard layout is active, you can right-click the input mode icon to access additional options and tools. The right-click menu also has a shortcut to Microsoft IME settings. You can change the following settings related to using the IME:

To type the word, select the Japanese keyboard layout from the system tray and change to Japanese hiragana input mode, if necessary. Then type "natsu" without any spaces. You see that the Japanese IME turns your input into hiragana syllables: なつ

The candidate window also opens and shows a list of matches. But all you need to finish the character and convert it into kanji is to select the Spacebar once. If you select Enter, the Japanese IME keeps the word in hiragana.

So, I don't know Japanese, but I am trying to learn hiragana and katakana so that I can write my notes in them, cause it looks cool, and it makes it look like I know Japanese. I want to install the Japanese keyboard on my windows 10 device at school. The problem is, that I do not have any administrator privileges, nor do I have access to the windows store or most of the settings. Do you guys know how I can install the Japanese keyboard on my school device despite these restrictions? Maybe an AHK script? Cause I can use AHK if needed.

I want to install the Japanese keyboard on my windows 10 device at school. The problem is, that I do not have any administrator privileges, nor do I have access to the windows store or most of the settings.

Sounds like the machine is managed by a group policy. Since you don't have access to an Administrator account on the domain you won't be able to do what you want. You should seek the assistance of an network Administrator. You still need permissions to install AHK. AHK also won't give you the permissions necessary to make system changes.

The use of AHK won't change the system's keyboard layout. Even if you run a portable version of AHK you still would not have the required permissions to install the language pack and/or keyboard layout. Which means you still have to request your network administrator to install it for you

Next click the "Advanced" tab and where it says "Code pageconversion tables" you need to check "Japanese" and click"Apply". Until you do this Japanese will not be an option in certainplaces. I don't remember if you have to reboot at this point or not.

There are two problems with this setting though. One is aesthetic, the defaultsystem font becomes a font that supports Japanese and in non unicode Japanesethe character / becomes . That can be confusing since all paths almostanywhere in Windows will now have that symbol instead of . For exampleC:\windows\system32 becomes c:windowssystem32.

The second issue is that some programs look at this setting to decide whatlanguage to install in. Two that come to mind are Apple's Quicktime and Nero CD. In order to install them in English you need to set this setting back toEnglish, reboot, install, set it back to Japanese, reboot.

Note that the language settings are PER PROGRAM!! That means if we were inEnglish, ran two programs, in one program we went to the language bar andpicked Japanese when we switched back to the other program it would still be inEnglish input mode. This can be confusing. Another thing, unless some programis active that accepts text input some of the settings will not be available.So, open Notepad and keep it active while trying the follow stuff below.

They are in order from top to bottom, Hiragana, Full Width Katakana, Full WidthEnglish, Half Width Katakana, Half Width English, Direct Input. The only 2 youreally care about are Hiragana and Direct Input. Direct Input is English. Youtype, you get English just like Windows was before you did all this stuff. Setit to Hiragana and you can type romanji like "toru" and you'llsee とる instead. The underline means the Input Method Editor (IME), the thing thatdoes this is waiting for you to decide what you want to do with thosecharacters. If you press ENTER theywill be entered as is, If you press space once the IME will turn them into themost common thing they could be OR the last thing you told it to change themtoo. Press space again and you'll get a list of things it could be. Forexample on the second press I got this

The left window is a list of all the things the IME thinks it could change とるinto. Use the cursor keys to select one. Generally the last thing on the listis katakana, in this case トル, that's why you never need to use the specialKatakana input modes since you can just press space twice to get there. Alsothe list wraps so if you are at the top, press the up key and you'll go tothe bottom. Plus, if you type something that would normally be katakana likeてれび on the first space press it will become the most common thing which is テレビ.

On the right window are all the various homonym definitions for toru withexamples. The first one for example is 取る as in to take a note, take a fee. The3rd one is 撮る as in take a picture. Very useful, even many Japanese oftenforget which one is correct, especially the less common ones.

TIP: switching between Hiragana input mode and Direct Input mode through the language bar is tedious. Instead you can switch by pressing Alt-Tilde (the key below ESC on your keyboard). So, need to type Japanese, press Alt-Tilde, start typing. When you are done press Alt-Tilde again to switch back to English.

Let's say you want to enter 今締める so you type いましめる. When you press space you'll get this 戒める. Pressing space again will not give you the completion you want. That'sbecause the IME is trying to make a word out of all 5 characters. To tell it touse less hold shift and press the left arrow. Each time you do less ofcharacters will be highlighted. Press it 3 times until you get this いましめる then press space again. This time the IME will only look up the first twocharacters. Most likely this time it will become this 今しめる. Notice the gap between 今 and しめる. This means the IME is considering those twowords separately. Also the underline under 今 is thicker than the one under しめるindicating that 今 is the current thing the IME is concentrating on. To completethe second word press the right arrow. The underline under しめる will get thickerand you can press space to complete it and choose 締める.

In *normal* Japanese each character takes the same space. They are fixed size fonts. Check out any Japanese writing textbook and you'll see each character is supposed to fit into a box. For graphic design sometimes Japanese use proportional fonts but generally, much more than in English, lots of stuff is in a fixed size font.

Full Width means a character that fills one of those boxes. Half Width means a character that only fits half the box. Technically in the computer half width means it takes a single byte, full width means it takes more than one byte.

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