's gaming keyboard for the Japanese market
MacBook Pro Japanese Keyboard and the
IBM 5924-T01 Kanji Keypunch) used before the Kana-to-Kanji conversion was invented|alt= Japanese keyboards (as shown on the second image) have both
hiragana and Roman letters indicated. The JIS, or
Japanese Industrial Standard, keyboard layout keeps the Roman letters in the English
QWERTY layout, with numbers above them. Many of the non-
alphanumeric symbols are the same as on English-language keyboards, but some symbols are located in other places. The hiragana symbols are also ordered in a consistent way across different keyboards. For example, the , , , , , keys correspond to , , , , , (
ta,
te,
i,
su,
ka, and
n) respectively when the computer is used for direct hiragana input.
Input keys Since Japanese input requires switching between Roman and
hiragana entry modes, and also conversion between hiragana and
kanji (as discussed below), there are usually several special keys on the keyboard. This varies from computer to computer, and some OS vendors have striven to provide a consistent
user interface regardless of the type of keyboard being used. On non-Japanese keyboards,
option- or
control- key sequences can perform all of the tasks mentioned below. On most Japanese keyboards, one key switches between Roman characters and Japanese characters. Sometimes, each mode (Roman and Japanese) may even have its own key, in order to prevent ambiguity when the user is typing quickly. There may also be a key to instruct the computer to convert the latest hiragana characters into kanji, although usually the space key serves the same purpose since Japanese writing doesn't use spaces. Keyboards with multiple forms of writing may have a
mode key to switch between them.
Hiragana,
katakana, halfwidth katakana, halfwidth Roman letters, and fullwidth Roman letters are some of the options. A typical Japanese character is square while Roman characters are typically variable in width. Since all Japanese characters occupy the space of a square box, it is sometimes desirable to input Roman characters in the same square form in order to preserve the grid layout of the text. These Roman characters that have been fitted to a square character cell are called fullwidth, while the normal ones are called halfwidth. In some fonts these are fitted to half-squares, like some
monospaced fonts, while in others they are not. Often, fonts are available in two variants, one with the halfwidth characters monospaced, and another one with proportional halfwidth characters. The name of the typeface with proportional halfwidth characters is often prefixed with "P" for "proportional". Finally, a keyboard may have a special key to tell the OS that the last kana entered should not be converted to kanji. Sometimes this is just the
Return/
Enter key. In
Microsoft Windows platforms, changing a physical keyboard from an English US keyboard (101 keys) to Japanese keyboard (106 keys) or vice versa may require modifying the
registry to ensure symbols like @ can be input correctly.
Thumb-shift keyboards A
thumb-shift keyboard is an alternative design, popular among professional Japanese typists. Like a standard Japanese keyboard, it has hiragana characters marked in addition to Latin letters, but the layout is completely different. Most letter keys have two kana characters associated with them, which allows all the characters to fit in three rows, like in Western layouts. In the place of the space bar key on a conventional keyboard, there are two additional modifier keys, operated with thumbs - one of them is used to enter the alternate character marked, and the other is used for voiced sounds. The semi-voiced sounds are entered using either the conventional shift key operated by the little finger, or take place of the voiced sound for characters not having a voiced variant. The kana-to-kanji conversion is done in the same way as when using any other type of keyboard. There are dedicated conversion keys on some designs, while on others the thumb shift keys double as such. ==
Rōmaji input==