Current Events > will a Japanese keyboard work on a Canadian computer?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My husband has spent the past couple of years learning japanese and he's very good at it now. he's part of a couple groups online that regularly chat fully in Japanese (mostly native speakers plus some transplants) but he's been using some virtual keyboard thing when hanging with them

his birthday is this month and I'd like to surprise him with a solid mechanical Japanese keyboard. but will it work like normal if just plugged into his computer? is there anything i should know?

@ssjevot
@Uta
@SpiritSephiroth

idk any other users who live in Japan, but please please feel free to chime in any and all

Any keyboard will work on any PC. At most, you'll need to add a Japanese keyboard option in the Windows settings. Time & Language > Language & region.

pokedude900 posted...

Any keyboard will work on any PC. At most, you'll need to add a Japanese keyboard option in the Windows settings. Time & Language > Language & region.

is there a way to make it so that once i plug it in, any input from that keyboard matches what the keys say, but retain the english script if using the still-plugged-in english keyboard?

It'll work but you might need to go into settings and adjust the layout.

I just use a Japanese IME that allows me to type on my regular keyboard and it shows up as Japanese characters.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5e0ad201.png

Having a Japanese keyboard would be cool though. Would definitely take getting used to typing the keys because it's not a QWERTY keyboard.

Dungeater posted...

is there a way to make it so that once i plug it in, any input from that keyboard matches what the keys say, but retain the english script if using the still-plugged-in english keyboard?

The character output isn't actually determined by the keyboard itself, but by your current Windows keyboard setting. Which, as Puglia showed, is a quick toggle on the taskbar if you have both English and Japanese installed. I use that myself when I need to quickly write something in or .

ok that's awesome, thanks so much guys. he's gonna love this

Yeah it will work, just be aware the layout is not the same. Most people here have at least the English and Japanese keyboard settings on their computer (and maybe Chinese), but when using the English one be aware the keys do not perfectly correspond to what is on the keyboard. It's ideal to have memorized the English layout because most of the non-letter symbols are not in the same spot. So you will not be able to locate them by using the keyboard itself as a guide. You can type in English still when in Japanese IME mode but this has a number of issues and I wouldn't recommend it if you intend to type anything of any length or import in English. Just using a standard English keyboard to type Japanese isn't a very big deal (but again you run into the lack of correspondence between keys for symbols). We definitely use English language keyboards from time to time (usually because we had one laying around or the laptop was imported).

I used the same input method Puglia showed when I took a Japanese class a few years ago. It worked reasonably well.

Probably not a replacement for a real keyboard though.

As multiple posters already pointed out, modern computers arn't really region locked. As long as you have correct software installed you can use pretty much any keyboard you want.

It works on my computer from the UK. Keep in mind though, there are several keys that don't match up to my UK configuration that you'll have to get used to. Mostly it's just a few symbol keys which is annoying at first, but I learnt to live with it. They're a bit displaced.

Edit: My keyboard is a qwerty keyboard with the added Hiragana characters along with the standard English Alphabet. Most keyboards here are like this including at my workplaces.

RasterGraphic posted...

Probably not a replacement for a real keyboard though.

It's actually the most common way to type, even for Japanese people.

I work in Japanese like 70% of the time and use my Anglo-only Canadian keyboard 100% of the time.

Install an IME (Google makes a good one) and he can use whatever keyboard he likes.

PS: now that I think of it, the French Canadian keyboard might be closer to Japanese one because of return instead of enter? Idk if that mattera though.

A pure Japanese kana-only keyboard is pretty rare these days, afaik. It's qwerty now, as others with experience have already said.

I've always wanted a Japanese keyboard, as sort of a novelty

but yeah for practical purposes you can just use your operating system's IME

FL81 posted...

I've always wanted a Japanese keyboard, as sort of a novelty

but yeah for practical purposes you can just use your operating system's IME

Tiny spacebar SUCKS