How to read and write in Japanese

= Introduction = This guide explains how to read and write in Japanese on a non-Japanese system.

= What is needed ?=

Japanese fonts
If your are not using a Japanese system, you probably have no such fonts installed and if you try to enter Japanes characters from your keyboard, you will only see small rectangle boxes in place of the characters on the screen.

Input method
To read and write in Japanese, the firt thing you need is a way to enter Japanese characters with your usual keyboard. This is done via a piece of software usually called an input method. At the moment, for the Japanese language, there are 2 such common methods : anthy and mozc.

With such a software component typing ta on your keyboard will input the kana た into your word processor. Some simple manipulation that is relevant to the way your input method works, will permit you to easily switch from the hiragana た to the katakana タ. In a similar way typing nihon will input にほん and an other simple manipulation will permit you to turn this to the kanji version of this word 日本.

IME
On top of this you also need a way to switch from the input method you normally use for your own language to the one you need for the Japanese language. This functionality is provided by an other piece of software called an IME for Input Method Editor such as ibus or SCIM. Once installed, you will be able to switch from your own language's input method to the Japanese input method using a key combination or using your mouse to select a relevant icon in the icon tray.

= Installing the software components =

Japanese fonts
As a minimum, install the media-fonts/kochi-substitute package.

As extra, are also available:
 * media-fonts/ja-ipafonts
 * media-fonts/vlgothic
 * media-fonts/mplus-outline-fonts
 * media-fonts/monafont
 * media-fonts/ipamonafont
 * media-fonts/sazanami

Installing
You are advised to prefer ibus to scim. To install the previous, you need :

anthy

 * app-i18n/anthy
 * app-i18n/ibus-anthy
 * app-i18n/ibus

Normally installing ibus-anthy should pull in ibus and anthy (if not emerge them separately).

mozc

 * app-i18n/mozc
 * app-i18n/ibus

Launching the ibus daemon at logging time
Add these lines to your  file and reboot.

Configuring
To configure the Input Method Editor, use the following command as a standard user

Alternatively, if you are a gnome user, type ibus in the search bar and launch ibus-preferences.

In the dialog box that appears, click on the Input method tab and add the japanese-anthy method. Then return to the General tab and define a key combination as a keyboard short cut for switching the input method.

= See also =
 * Ibus