what does a japanese keyboard look like? [Archive]

View Full Version : what does a japanese keyboard look like?

TwistedMac

Jul 18, 2004, 12:54

does anyone have a photo of a japanese keyboard? this is a question that has been milling in my mind for quite some time, and when my grandfather asked me that very same question (expecting the japan freak to know) my curiosity bloomed into a wonderful question...

i'm guessing they use a romaji keyboard much like ours, but with a few special keys, but it wouldn't surprise me if you could buy kana keyboards aswell...

i'm dieing to know.. what's the scoop? ^^

King of Tokyo

Jul 18, 2004, 13:43

I've seen them.. and actually it is pretty much like the western keyboard, but kana is put into the corner of the key.. I thought japan would have its own whole keyboard lol.. But it still has the english alphabet then like I said they squeeze the kana in the corner.. I'd show you the picture I saw but it is from another forum I go to and it is down for the moment.. I'll link you when it goes back up if possible

Keiichi

Jul 18, 2004, 16:48

It's not really much different from the western keyboard. There's this button (kind of by your left-alt key area) that lets you switch between the kanas and alphabets, basically.
I guess it depends on the software you're using also as to how the text is going to be inputted.

Faustianideals

Jul 18, 2004, 17:08

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/jplaptop.jpg
Yeah they are pretty much the same.

TwistedMac

Jul 18, 2004, 20:26

nice, thanks for the pic thor ^^

Arch

Jul 18, 2004, 20:38

oh thx alot for pic thor, i thought it was something like that. As my japanese friend told me they can easily change from japanese writing to english !

Lina Inverse

Jul 19, 2004, 11:28

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/jplaptop.jpg
Yeah they are pretty much the same.
Looks like a normal keyboard (as expected), and the "Katakana Hiragana Ro-maji" key can be easily indentified, but on the two other special keys (left and right of space), I can't make out the kanji because they're too small :relief:
Looks like they're the same kanji, but the first kanji is lacking on the right key.
Can anyone decipher them?

digicross

Jul 19, 2004, 15:57

Well... What you're looking is a domesticated keyboard. Of course, since regular international English QWERTY keyboard can be used provided the software can handle it, most major OS are capable of doing that.

Anyway. For fun, try looking at the Japanese MSX keyboards.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=msx+%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8 9&btnG=Search

As for the keys between the space bar in the mentioned picture.

I think that the right one ("henkan"="change"?) is to change the inputed words into the desired character, while the left one ("buhenkan"="un-change"/"no-change"?) is to leave it alone.

Lina Inverse

Jul 20, 2004, 11:50

Well... What you're looking is a domesticated keyboard. Of course, since regular international English QWERTY keyboard can be used provided the software can handle it, most major OS are capable of doing that.

Anyway. For fun, try looking at the Japanese MSX keyboards.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=msx+%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8 9&btnG=Search
I only see an Arabian Msx keyboard there :relief:

As for the keys between the space bar in the mentioned picture.

I think that the right one ("henkan"="change"?) is to change the inputed words into the desired character, while the left one ("buhenkan"="un-change"/"no-change"?) is to leave it alone.
Yes, that would make sense I think... thanks for the info :haihai:

MShingen

Jul 23, 2004, 00:12

TwistedMac

Jul 23, 2004, 00:14

thanks shingen ^^

Ewok85

Jul 23, 2004, 01:09

Items of note are "wheres the #^%*ing @ key!?! And then the ' and " !!!!"

Took my 12months to get used to it and I still have the muscle memory of hitting shift 7 and '[' for ' and @ :D

MShingen

Jul 30, 2004, 23:37

Well if you have already got use to it, then you will definitely find that Japanese Keyboard are much user friendly as compared to the normal English keyboard!

TwistedMac

Jul 30, 2004, 23:39

Well if you have already got use to it, then you will definitely find that Japanese Keyboard are much user friendly as compared to the normal English keyboard!

why is that? what's so great about it?

MShingen

Jul 30, 2004, 23:47

For instance, keys like colon (":") and add (@), it requires only 1 key. It is a seperate key with other functions. In the English standard keyboard, @ is shift 2 and : is shift ; if I remembered corrrectly. I don't need to press shift for the above mentioned keys. Also, if I would want to type Japanese and switch between Hiragana and Katakana, all I need to do is to highlight the text and press the respective buttons to convert them. Easy, right? :D

TwistedMac

Jul 30, 2004, 23:50

either a jp keyboard has less different buttons then (which would mean some were missing) OOOOOR it has other keys on secondary (shift) combinations, right?

MShingen

Jul 30, 2004, 23:52

Standard English keyboard is 101 keys while standard Japanese keyboard is 106 keys (not taking into consideration of the extra features such as window keys, internet browser keys, standby keys.....)

Ewok85

Jul 31, 2004, 00:11

If you do alot of writing in Japanese then its a very useful keyboard. Im not sure i like some (especiall ' " and _ ) changes but it feels alright to use.

Harvey

Aug 1, 2004, 09:34

You can make your US keyboard function just the same as a japanese keyboard if you want too
http://www.japannewbie.com/winxp_jpn_input.php

Surronded

Aug 3, 2004, 20:13

Ohhh! I want to have one of these!

Inuyasha-the-kid

Aug 4, 2004, 04:04

Where can you get A Japanese key board?

TwistedMac

Aug 4, 2004, 04:35

Where can you get A Japanese key board?
It can be acquired In Japan

Keiichi

Aug 4, 2004, 05:22

Where can you get A Japanese key board?
Just to let you know, getting a Japanese keyboard doesn't necessarily mean you can type Japanese off the bat. A keyboard's a keyboard. It's only as good as the software that can understand the input from it.

Keiichi

:mad:

Surronded

Aug 4, 2004, 16:29

I know, I'm writing Japanese with my keyboard.