Skip to Main Content

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

How to Type in Other Languages: Japanese

A guide to installing and typing in common non-Latin character scripts on home computers.

Subject Guide

Profile Photo
International and Area Studies Library
Contact:
Room 321 Main Library
1408 W. Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-1501
Website

Introduction

Typing in Japanese is very complex, because it requires knowledge of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, as well as Romanji. In Japan, many types of non-QWERTY keyboards are popular, but a Japanese keyboard is not required to type in Japanese characters. For an American typist, a combination of Romanized input and on-screen character selection is the easiet way to start typing in Japanese.

Read more about Japanese input methods.

How to Type in Japanese

This video demonstrates how to set up Japanese on a Windows machine, and then demonstrates how the multiple input methods work. Narrated in English.

Other How-To Guides for Typing Japanese