Japanese Input on Mac

So I finally bought my first Japanese Mac. Until now I’d been using my American keyboard and the Option+Shift+Space keyboard shortcut to cycle between Romaji>Hiragana>Katakana, but conveniently the Japanese keyboard has dedicated 英数 and かな keys. The problem is, I can’t get them to function. I’ve tried defining a new shortcut in the Keyboard section of System Prefs, but it wouldn’t register the keystrokes of either the 英数 or かな keys. Right now I’m cycling with the Control+Space shortcut, but I’d really like to use these otherwise useless keys for what they were intended.

I could not tell you much about the kana input.
I know its not commonly used, most even in Japan use romaji IME input. Likely what you did before.
I do with my mac, just switch the input with control + option + space. English, hiragana and katakana. Also neat with the touchbar it shows kanji auto complete.
Though I don’t know much about kana input, wish you the best of luck. You would try the learning Japanese sub reddit. there are a lot more active people on there who may know.

I did create this topic awhile go,but basicly everyone talked about how no one uses the kana input lol
https://community.wanikani.com/t/japense-keyboards-anyone-have-one/31353/1

I believe the reference to the かな key is just a single key that functions as the IME on/off button or for scrolling through options, but maybe I’m wrong.

1 Like

Not sure how you have the Mac set up but you may need to set the Region to Japan. This can be done in the language and region setting pane. I know from my experience with the iPhone there are some things you only get access to by setting the region to Japan (like adding a Suica card for example).

You could also try the modifier Keys Setting in keyboard that may have additional options on your Mac.

I didn’t even realise that the Japanese keyboard has these extra buttons, I’m going to have to take walk up the street to Bic Camera and take a look.

Bought my Mac in America but I hope this helps:

Thanks for the input y’all! I’ve since asked my Japanese co-worker about it and we figured it out.

1 Like

I didn’t know about the Control + Shift + Space!!!

I just use the command + space shortcut to change keyboards

I don’t know if this is helpful (because my Mac uses the standard US keyboard layout), but Karabiner-Elements might be useful to you. It’s free and open source, and the author is Japanese, so there are some built-in configurations specific to Japanese keyboard layouts.

Huh, neither did I. Also, trying to do it, I accidentally discovered that isn’t how to switch keyboards (on my mac) but it IS how to enable handwriting mode. Shift + Option + Space switches from hiragana ↔ romaji

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.