Installing Japanese Language Support on Windows XP

1. Go into the Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) and open "Language and Regional Options"

2. Click the Languages tab, and checkmark "Install files for East Asian languages". You will get a pop-up message telling you how much additional disk space it will need. Click okay on the message, then click the Apply button at the bottom of the window.

3. You will get a pop-up asking for your Windows XP CD. Insert the CD and make sure the "Copy files from:" box has the correct path to the i386 folder (so if your CD-ROM is the D: drive, the path that should be used is D:\i386). Hit okay. It will start copying over files. Occassionally the transfer may stop and ask for the location of the files again -- again just make sure it is looking at your CD-ROM drive that has your Windows XP disk.

4. After the files have copied over, Windows will ask you to restart your system. Choose "No" to restart your computer later. Then click on the Advanced tab. Under "Language for non-Unicode programs", change it from the drop-down menu to "Japanese". Then hit the Apply button at the bottom of the window.

5. A message will pop up saying that the necessary files are already on the hard drive, and ask if you'd rather copy them again from the Windows CD-ROM. Select "Yes" so the setup will use the files already installed to the hard drive.

6. Now a small bar should be visible at the top of your screen. This is the language bar that will let you choose to type in English or Japanese. If you wish to disable the Language Bar, you may do so by going back to the Languages tab in the "Regional and Language Options" Window, clicking the "Details" button, and then under preferences click the Language Bar button and uncheck the "Show the language bar on the desktop". However, it is recommended to keep your language bar enabled, so that if needed you can easily switch over to Japanese typing mode.

You do not have to keep the language bar at the top of your window where it is inconvenient, but instead make it part of your Windows taskbar. To do this, right-click on your taskbar, then go up to "Toolbars", and put a checkmark next to "Language Bar".

When you are finished, you will see the language bar is no longer on the desktop, and next to your system tray will be the letters "EN". If you click on this, you can change the setting to Japanese, and it will display "JP".

This allows you to type in Japanese in programs that support Japanese text. If you want to change your typing mode to Japanese, first make sure the application you wish to type in is active (for example, your web browser), and change your language bar from EN to JP, then hit Alt + ~ (the tilde key). Then you simply type in romaji which will automatically be converted to hiragana. Below is an example of typing "puri" on the keyboard when you are in Japanese typing mode on Google Japan.

If you would like to change what you have just typed into katakana, while the word is still underlined in red, hit F7. Below is an example of typing "puri" again, and this time F7 was hit directly afterwards to convert it to katakana.

If you would like to convert the hiragana word you just typed to kanji, hit the spacebar and a dropdown list of available kanji will appear and you may select one. Below is an example of typing "kouryaku", then hitting the spacebar to convert it to kanji. By default the first kanji will appear, but if you hit the space bar a second time, a box with possible kanji and kana combinations will pop up and you may select a different one.

The following examples of how to use the language bar to input text in Japanese shows how you may search Google Japan for capture guides.

7. Now that all the settings are taken care of, REBOOT WINDOWS. Your Japanese settings will not work until you restart!

Installing Japanese Language Support on Other Operating Systems

Windows 98/Windows Millenium

Unfortunately, Windows 98 and Windows Millenium do not provide native Japanese language support. There are a few third-party software programs that can add very limited Japanese support to these operating systems, such as NJStar Communicator and AsianSuite. However, Japanese games rarely will work with third-party language support, and require native Japanese language support. To really be able to play Japanese games on these operating systems, you would need to install a Japanese version of Windows 98 or Windows Millenium.

Windows 2000

Windows 2000 provides native Japanese language support. You may find instructions on installing Japanese language support on Windows 2000 at the following site:

Windows 2000 Japanese Language Support Installation Guide

Windows Vista

Windows Vista also provides native Japanese language support. Instructions for how to enable Japanese language support for Windows Vista has been provided by Aotan from the Boys' Love Games Headquarters Message Board. However, please be aware that Windows Vista is a very new operating system, and there may be some games that are not compatible on Vista.

Windows Vista Japanese Language Support Installation Guide


Boys' Love Games Headquarters Complete Idiot's Guide to Japanese Gaming © March 2009
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