How to get the keyboard to input Japanese?

Question

To test 'text boxes' in an application of mine, I need the physical keyboard to output Japanese to the screen. Does anyone know how this can be done?

The application is in a Virtual Machine (VMPlayer) running Windows Server 2008 R2. VMPlayer is on a Windows 7 64 bit machine to which the keyboard is connected too.

I've already tried the set the following 'Keyboard and Languages' option in Control Panel of the Windows 7 machine but the keyboard still outputs English on screen of the Windows 7 screen. So getting this to work on the VM is still far away.

Answer 1

You have to select the Japanese IME from the language bar.

---

Update:

Microsoft say

To enter Japanese characters using a standard U.S. keyboard on a localized Japanese version of Windows NT, you must use an Input Method Editor (IME).

IME provides several different methods of entering Hiragana, Hurigana, Katakana, Kanji, and Romaji characters using Microsoft IME, WX2, VJ2, and ATOK7. The Microsoft IME input method is used by default. To change the default input method, run Microsoft IME from the Program Manager "Nihon go jin ka" group.

To invoke IME, you must use the key combination ALT+~ or ALT+` to launch 4 applications (located in the lower right hand corner on your desktop). These applications provide several Japanese characters you can enter into your document. To disable IME, you must use the same key combination of ALT+ ~ or ALT+ ` again

---

There's an old but informative article that describes some of the input methods.

I'm not actually familiar with Japanese IMEs but they may be similar to Chionese ones which fall into several types

• romanised pronunciuation. There's an official way of spelling the Japanese pronunciation using Latin letters. you type the latin letters, the IME inserts Japanese characters that sound like that (usually you get offered a list of characters and pick one)

• shape-based. You know the order and direction of the strokes that make up a character. You press a key that corresponds to a group of initial stroke shapes (e.g. vrtical line or left downward slanting line, box or cross) you repeat for subsequent strokes (or for first two and last two or some other such system)

• you draw a character with a mouse

• you use a key that indicates a radical (a common element found in many characters) There is usually no obvious correspondence between the latin letter and the radical, you have to learn them.

Answer 2

The first thing we want to do here is remove the useless "Japanese" input method (that is highlighted in the dialog in the question) so that only the "Microsoft IME" remains.

But you see how the Remove button is grayed out? That doesn't mean removing the "Japanese" method is disallowed. The reason it is grayed out is simply that the default language in the combo box at the top of the window is set to Japanese plus that particular input method. Switch that default language to English, and then you can remove the Japanese method from the Japanese keyboard.

If you do not remove this Japanese method, it will always be the default method for Japanese when a new application is started, regardless of whether it is above or below Microsoft IME in this dialog!

To use the Japanese keyboard, you can press Left Shift + Alt. You will see "JP Japanese (Japan)" appear in the language bar along with a red icon and "Microsoft IME". Unfortunately, you're still not ready to enter Japanese, because it is likely the "A Input mode" (Half-Width Aphanumeric). Use Ctrl+Caps Lock to switch to "あ Input Mode". This is the mode in which romaji turns to hiragana and then kanji selection.