This front page contains information on activating Japanese support in Mac OS: start by following the instructions below, then consult the other pages on the site for information on specific tasks and applications: email, web browsing, dictionary software, etc.

Mac OS comes installed with support for reading and editing Japanese--in documents, in email, and on the web.

If you receive Japanese email in Apples Mail application or go to a Japanese web page in Safari, the Japanese will probably display correctly without your doing anything special or reading any further on this page.

If this does not work smoothly, if you want to enable additional features in these programs, or if you want to input Japanese text (to create documents, do web searches, or send email in Japanese, for example), youll need to take some extra steps.

These are described below, and on the other pages of this site.

Click on the button marked with a plus sign in the lower left to add a new language, then select Japanese from the menu and click the Add button.

You will be asked you if you would like to use Japanese as your primary language; for now choose Use English, unless you want the menus and dialogs in the finder and other applications to switch to Japanese.

This will let you enter kanji characters by drawing them on the trackpad.

Click on the Keyboard Preferences button at the bottom of the Language Region window, which will take you directly to the Input Sources tab of the Keyboard Preferences pane.

From the menu on the left, choose Japanese.

If you have an older versions of MacOS, this may say kotoeri, which was the earlier, more poetic name of the Japanese input method).

Google Japanese Input How To Enter Japanese

For more on how to enter Japanese text, see the page on Typing in Japanese elsewhere on this site.) If Hiragana or Katakana is already selected as the input method when you click on the input menu, youll get a longer menu with options specific to Japanese input, including a help option.

Most users (including native speakers) enter Japanese by typing the pronunciation in roman characters, so you do not need a special Japanese keyboard.

If you have a Japanese a keyboard, it has a few extra keys you can take advantage of, as well as the option of dispensing with roman character input and having each key map to a specific kana character.

The online Apple store now has an option that lets you select a Japanese keyboard as an option when you buy a new Mac.

If you are using a Japanese keyboard or laptop, you can choose between the rmaji or kana input method in the Japanese input preferences.

Add Japanese to the list of languages as described above, if it does not appear there already.

If you drag Japanese above English in the list, the finder and many other applications will open next time with Japanese menus.

Even if you do not want Japanese menus, make sure Japanese appears somewhere in your list of languages.

Just having it there unlocks Japanese features in certain software, like Japanese encoding in Apples Mail application.

You can also set the menu language of specific applications individually.

Many (though not all) applications have menus in different languages built in.

You can activate these with a third-party application called Language Switcher.

For an introduction to using Japanese with different applications, see the pages on Text Editors, Dictionaries, and Browsers.

Google Japanese Input Plus Sign In

Google Japanese Input How To Enter Japanese

Google Japanese Input For Mac