Entering Japanese Characters Using a U.S. Keyboard and IME

 Last reviewed: June 2, 1995
Article ID: Q130907
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

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.

KBCategory: kbusage kbinterop
KBSubcategory: nthowto
Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 prodnt japan tilde

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Last reviewed: June 2, 1995
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