• The Japanese Keyboard

• Japanese Keyboard Support for English Windows95

• Japanese Keyboard Support using Batch Installation

• Multiple (e.g. Japanese & English) Windows95 on one Computer

• Browse Japanese Web Pages without an external Tool

• Browse Japanese Web Pages with implicit English Translation !!!

• View Japanese Word, other documents

• Printing Japanese documents

• Creating Japanese documents

• Building Japanese Web pages

• Receiving Japanese email messages

• Japanese IME on English Windows95

• Macron usage in romanized Japanese

• English Help under Japanese Windows95

• Painless Windows95 re-installation

• Developing Applications for Japanese Environment and IME

• Email questions, comments, corrections to

  For Japanese issues on MacIntosh see Paul Findon's pages on The Japanese Mac

The Japanese Keyboard - Introduction



1. 
   Japanese A01 keyboard layout

 

2. You bought a computer in Japan, then installed English Windows on it, and suddenly you realize that your keyboard layout doesn't match the output these keys produce; most special characters are located on a different key than on a US or European keyboard.
   
   Solution: a Japanese keyboard driver. See below how to install it.

 

3. You want to enter Japanese characters, but you don't have a Japanese keyboard.
   
   No problem - you don't need one. What you need is a Japanese IME (Input Method Editor). See below how to install it.

 

For Windows95 to recognize the Japanese 106-keyboard (A01) layout:

 

1. copy file KBDJPA01.KBD from the Japanese \Windows\System folder into the English \Windows\System folder. It can also be downloaded from here: KBDJPA01.KBD [510B].
   (If you have difficulties downloading this file with Netscape, right-click on it, and Save Link As...)

 

2. download file jkeyb.reg [279B], then install its contents into the Registry (right-click / Merge).

 

3. from Control Panel, select the Keyboard icon, tab Language. On the existing Language (US English) click Properties, then select the newly created Japanese A01 keyboard layout. Apply.
   
   
   When using this keyboard definition, the following should be noted:
   
   • the Kanji input keys have no function under English Windows
   • the ¥ "yen" character in the Japanese 7-bit ASCII set is equivalent to the \ "backslash" in the original US ASCII set (0x5C). The ¥ key will therefore return a backslash under English Windows
   • the ~ "tilde" sign is located on the ^ "circumflex" key (Shift-circumflex), instead of the ¯ "macron"
   • shift-zero does not return any character
   • the 半角／全角 "Hankaku/Zenkaku" key on the left-top returns @ and ` respectively; ignore this key
   • the new 109-keyboard is supported as well

 

4. Note for users of Internet Explorer 5:
   if you use the IME that comes with IE5, you must also change keyboard id 00010411 by installing jkeybIE5.reg [123B]

For DOS to recognize the Japanese 106-keyboard layout:

 

1. copy files JKEYB.SYS and JKEYBRD.SYS from the Japanese \DOS and \Windows folders into the English \DOS and \Windows folders; or locate these files on the Japanese \DOS and \Windows folders (if they reside on the same system). They can also be downloaded from here:
   
   • \DOS\JKEYB.SYS [18KB]
   • \DOS\JKEYBRD.SYS [2KB]
   • \Windows\JKEYB.SYS [22KB]
   • \Windows\JKEYBRD.SYS [2KB]
   
   (Ignore \DOS files and section 2 below if you do not have a \DOS folder or a CONFIG.DOS file)

 

2. insert the following line into the CONFIG.DOS file, where the path points to the copied or original DOS locations of files JKEYB.SYS and JKEYBRD.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\JKEYB.SYS /106 C:\DOS\JKEYBRD.SYS

 

3. insert the following line into the CONFIG.SYS file, where the path points to the copied or original Windows locations of files JKEYB.SYS and JKEYB.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\JKEYB.SYS /106 C:\WINDOWS\JKEYBRD.SYS

 

4. reboot to activate the changes.

Adding Japanese 106-keyboard support for English Windows95 batch setup script:

 

1. See below how to build an initial BSETUP.INF script file and how to run batch setup.

 

2. Add the following lines to your BSETUP.INF file:
   

   [Install]
   AddReg=Jp.Keyb
   UpdateCfgSys=Update_config.sys
   

   [Jp.Keyb]
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,"System\CurrentControlSet\control\keyboard layouts\00000411",
       "layout file",,"kbdjpa01.kbd" (continued from previous line)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,"System\CurrentControlSet\control\keyboard layouts\00000411",
       "layout text",,"Japanese A01" (continued from previous line)
   

   [Update_config.sys]
   DevAddDev=C:\WINDOWS\JKEYB.SYS,DEVICE,,"/106 C:\WINDOWS\JKEYBRD.SYS"
   

   or download these lines from bsetup_jkb.inf [385B] and append it to your BSETUP.INF file.

Multiple versions of Windows95 on one computer



0. Check out, download and install Microsoft's INTLBOOT utility.

   Caution: I have received reports of difficulties and even complete failures to install multiple Windows95 using this version of INTLBOOT (1.3). I have myself successfully installed Japanese and English Windows95 under an earlier version, but I have not yet been able to test this newest version.

   Another, perhaps safer, way to maintain multiple operating systems is to use a boot manager. Some operating systems (Linux, OS/2) have a boot manager built-in. There are also independent commercial software products on the market, such as System Commander by V-Communications or PartitionMagic by PowerQuest.

   Note: When using the PartitionMagic boot manager, be aware that you need version 3.05 or higher to support the OSR2 or Win98 FAT32 file system on a bootable partition. Delete the boot partition, and re-install it with P.M. 3.05 if originally installed with an earlier version.

Browse Japanese Web Pages with the Internet Explorer:



1. Download and install the Multilanguage Support Japanese Extension for Internet Explorer 3 (IE3LPKJA.EXE) from Microsoft Download. Korean and Chinese fonts are also available from here. Reboot after installing!
   For Internet Explorer 4: click Product Updates on the Help menu, then select the appropriate fonts under Multi-Language Support.
   For Internet Explorer 5: use Windows Update, then select the appropriate fonts under Multi-Language Support.

    

2. On the Internet Explorer, left-click on the new Language Select icon on the lower-right corner, then click Japanese (Auto Select).

    

3. For more information see Using International Extensions in Internet Explorer 3.0.

    

4. For Netscape 3.0 / 4.0 check out Patrick's Cyber Domain Tips. But since Geocities, where this Web page resides, is often unavailable, here is a short version of what to do for Netscape Navigator 4.x:
    
   
   1. Download and install the appropriate Fonts from Microsoft (point 1 above).
   2. Start Netscape Navigator. Select Edit -> Preferences -> Fonts.
      
      • Select "Japanese" for the Encoding, then choose "MS Gothic" for the proportional, and "MS Mincho" for the fixed font. I recommend size 12 for both fonts.
      • (for simplified "Chinese(GB)", choose "MS Hei" for the proportional, and "MS Song" for the fixed font).
      • (for traditional "Chinese(Big5)", choose "MingLiU" for both the proportional and fixed font).
      • (for "Korean", choose "GulimChe" for both the proportional and fixed font).
   3. While still on the Preferences panel, select Languages. Add the appropriate languages, e.g. Japanese [ja].
   4. To activate Japanese, select View -> Encoding -> Japanese (Auto detect).
      To reverse to English, select View -> Encoding -> Western (ISO-8859-1).

Browse Japanese Web Pages with implicit English Translation



• TransLinGO! from Fujitsu is one of the hottest new products to hit the market. (Win 9x/ME/NT/2000, IE 3.02/4.x/5.x, NN 4.x). Also does clipboard translation.

View Japanese Word documents:



1. You need to install or upgrade to Word97.

    

2. On the Office97 CD-ROM, folder Valupack, double-click Valupk8.hlp.

    

3. Select topic Microsoft Office Far East support and install the appropriate version (Japanese, Korean, Chinese).

    

   For Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents, use the free Acrobat Reader 4.0, and download the Asian Font Packs from the Adobe website.

Printing Japanese Documents



0. Any tool that is able to display Japanese documents (Web browser, Word) is also able to print these documents. Most printers however can only print Japanese characters correctly when the appropriate Japanese device driver is installed. The negative side of this is that any tools related to this driver (printer setup) will be very difficult to use (Japanese text will be unreadable).

   See Russ Wright's Canon Drivers page for a list of compatible English drivers for Japanese Canon printers.

Creating Japanese documents under English Windows



0. Various 3rd-party software is available on the market, such as NJSTAR, TwinBridge, or KanjiKit for Windows.
   
   Newest Info: Office 2000 components all work with the Microsoft Japanese IME.

Building Japanese Web pages



0. Add the following HTML tag to the <HEAD> section:

   <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-2022-jp">

   • use charset x-sjis or Shift_JIS for Shift-JIS encoding (Windows, Mac)
   • use charset x-euc-jp or EUC-JP for EUC encoding (Unix)
   • use charset UTF-8 for Unicode encoding (Windows 2000)
   • use charset iso-2022-jp for JIS encoding (data exchange, email)

   This will ensure that Web browsers with Japanese language support will automatically switch to the correct encoding mode.

   The official charset names are Shift_JIS and EUC-JP, but some browsers may only recognize the older, experimental names x-sjis and x-euc-jp.

Receiving Japanese email messages



0. The currently only known way to me is by using Outlook Express, that is part of MSIE 4. See Patrick's Cyber Domain Tips II for details.
   
   Note: Outlook 97 also works correctly, but only when used with the Microsoft Exchange Server with Japanese language support.
   
   Newest Info: Outlook 98 works correctly for all mail clients I have tested.

Macron usage in romanized Japanese


Until Windows 2000 is available (which fully supports Unicode, that contains all macron characters), there are several ways to use or simulate the elongated Japanese vowels with a macron, or overbar
• Use circumflex as an alternative, e.g. â
• Maui language fonts contain macron characters; download True Type fonts from any of these sites
  • http://www.reddfish.co.nz/
  • http://www.kennett.co.nz/
  • http://winz.co.nz/navigator/matapihi.html
  • http://www.infopage.net/myspace/computers/macrons/
• In Word, you can use the EQ field function to simulate a superscript hyphen, as follows
  1. CTRL+F9 (or Insert/Field...)
  2. Between the French brackets, type: EQ_\o(x,y)
     Where _=space; x=letter under macron; y=macron (superscript hyphen, usually)
  3. Delete space between ) and } if any.
  4. F9

Japanese IME with English Windows95



• Microsoft has built a Japanese IME (Input Method Editor) for English Windows95 and non-Japanese keyboard. It can be downloaded from here. It can also be installed via Microsoft Windows Update.
  
  By default it will install for the US keyboard. If you have a Japanese keyboard, registry entry 0000411 layout file will be replaced by kbdus.kbd; you will have to change it back to kbdjpa01.kbd after the installation.

English Help under Japanese Windows95:



1. If you use both Japanese and English Windows95 on the same partition, ignore this step. Otherwise copy file WINDOWS.HLP from English \Windows\Help folder into a new \Windows\Ehelp folder on the Japanese system. Plus any other *.HLP files you think may be useful.

    

2. Create a shortcut in your Start Menu or Desktop, pointing to the respective Help files. Note that the Help functions and buttons will of course still be Japanese.

Windows95 installation verification or re-installation:

 

1. Download and install Microsoft Batch 2.0 (or locate the newest version on your Windows9x CD-ROM; the Microsoft FTP server may disappear in near future).

 

2. Run the Batch Setup program and retrieve all settings from the Registry. Change or add options as desired. When done, save script e.g. as BSETUP.INF in your \Windows folder.

 

3. For a speedy re-installation, manually edit the script file and add/modify the following lines:
   

   [Setup]
   ProductID="xxx-xxxxxxx"   ;your CD key
   EBD=0                     ;1 = create startup disk, 0 = none
   TimeZone="Tokyo"          ;your time zone
   VRC=0                     ;Prompt before replacing more recent files
   Verify=0                  ;1 = verify installation, 0 = re-install
   
   [System]
   Display="S3"              ;your display type
   Monitor="54T"             ;your monitor type
   

   these last two lines are pretty important for a speedy re-installation. Their correct value can be found in the Registry at
   \HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\nnnn\InfSection
   and
   \HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Monitor\nnnn\InfSection
   

 

4. See above how to add Japanese Keyboard Support to the batch setup script.

 

5. Run SETUP from your Windows95 CD-ROM with BSETUP.INF (with the full path name) as parameter. The /is option will skip the initial ScanDisk quick check. Example:
   H:\setup.exe /is C:\Windows\bsetup.inf
   
   
   Further information on batch setup scripts:
   
   • see Appendix D of the Windows95 Resource Kit Documentation [Word document; 89KB]. The document can also be viewed at the MSDN Online Library under Windows Resource Kits / Windows95 Resource Kit / Appendix D.
     Chapter 3 contains basic information on Windows95 setup.

Developing Applications for Japanese Environment and IME



1. Go to the MSDN Online Library.

2. Select Books.

3. Select Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT.

4. Check Chapter 7 - Processing Far Eastern Writing Systems.

Acknowledgement: some of above tips have, in a different form, originally appeared in the Computing Japan magazine.

Disclaimer: although all these bilingual tips have been carefully tested, the author will not accept any responsibility for loss or damage resulting from the use of these information.