The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME
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December 13, 25
スライド概要
Installing Ubuntu with Japanese language support just like that, Japanese text and input just work right out of the box.
Well... almost.
It doesn't mean everyone, in every application, typing any kind of Japanese will have a smooth ride. If you're using an English keyboard, there's a small ritual dance before Japanese input actually starts working. And sometimes, depending on the app, you get characters that look more like modern art than proper Japanese.
In this talk, I'll showcase common pitfalls that users encounter when trying to type or display Japanese on Ubuntu, by presenting real-life cases that demonstrate both everyday difficulties and unusual quirks.
Ubuntu Japanese LoCo Team member
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The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME Mitsuya Shibata Ubuntu Japanese Team / SOUM Corporation 2025-12-13 The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 1 / 29
Introduction Today’s topics: • How to enable Japanese on Ubuntu • Why Japanese fonts and encodings are complicated • Challenges in Japanese text input Today I would like to introduce the topics of this talk. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 2 / 29
Introduction Today’s topics: • How to enable Japanese on Ubuntu • Why Japanese fonts and encodings are complicated • Challenges in Japanese text input First, I will explain how to set up an environment to display and input Japanese on Ubuntu. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 2 / 29
Introduction Today’s topics: • How to enable Japanese on Ubuntu • Why Japanese fonts and encodings are complicated • Challenges in Japanese text input Next, I will talk about the complexity of fonts and encodings, which often causes trouble when displaying Japanese. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 2 / 29
Introduction Today’s topics: • How to enable Japanese on Ubuntu • Why Japanese fonts and encodings are complicated • Challenges in Japanese text input Finally, I will share some of the hassles involved in Japanese text input. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 2 / 29
How to display and input Japanese Text on Ubuntu Finally, I will share some of the hassles involved in Japanese text input. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 3 / 29
How to display and input Japanese Text on Ubuntu • I want to both the UI and input entirely in Japanese. • I want to keep the UI in English and only occasionally type or display Japanese. Now, let us get into the main topic. First, I will explain how to set up a Japanese environment on Ubuntu. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 4 / 29
How to display and input Japanese Text on Ubuntu • I want to both the UI and input entirely in Japanese. • I want to keep the UI in English and only occasionally type or display Japanese. When setting up a Japanese environment, there are roughly two types of use cases. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 4 / 29
How to display and input Japanese Text on Ubuntu • I want to both the UI and input entirely in Japanese. • I want to keep the UI in English and only occasionally type or display Japanese. One is using Japanese as the main language for both the UI and text input. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 4 / 29
How to display and input Japanese Text on Ubuntu • I want to both the UI and input entirely in Japanese. • I want to keep the UI in English and only occasionally type or display Japanese. The other is keeping the UI in English and occasionally typing Japanese. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 4 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: Setting up a fully Japanese environment is not very difficult. First, buy a Japanese keyboard. Of course, it is possible to use an English keyboard, but it requires some extra steps. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 Language →Select「日本語」 On the first screen of the installer, select「日本語」. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 • Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 Next, on the keyboard selection screen, also select「日本語」. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 • Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 • Finish installation and reboot Then follow the installer steps as usual. Once the installation is complete, reboot the system. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 • Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 • Finish installation and reboot • After logging in: Use “Super + Space” to switch from「日本語」to「日本語（Mozc） 」 After logging in, press “Super + Space” to switch from「日本語」to「日本語（Mozc）」. The keyboard indicator at the top right will change from “ja” to “A”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 • Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 • Finish installation and reboot • After logging in: Press the「半角/全角」key to toggle「直接入力」and「ひらがな」 Next, press the “Hankaku/Zenkaku” key to switch from「直接入力」to「ひらがな」. The keyboard indicator will change from “A” to「あ」. Now the system is ready. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese on Ubuntu (Full Japanese Environment) Easiest Setup: • Buy a Japanese keyboard • During installation: • Language →Select「日本語」 • Keyboard Layout →Select「日本語」 • Finish installation and reboot • After logging in: • Use “Super + Space” to switch from「日本語」to「日本語（Mozc）」 • Press the「半角/全角」key to toggle「直接入力」and「ひらがな」 Next, press the “Hankaku/Zenkaku” key to switch from「直接入力」to「ひらがな」. The keyboard indicator will change from “A” to「あ」. Now the system is ready. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 5 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) Enabling Japanese input on an English-only OS isn’t that simple... Next, let me explain how to set up Japanese input on an English environment with an English keyboard. Almost any OS, setting up Japanese input in an English environment takes some effort. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 6 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) Enabling Japanese input on an English-only OS isn’t that simple... Just get a new PC dedicated to Japanese! ... and return to the previous slide. The easiest way is to buy a PC dedicated to Japanese. Then you can just go back to the previous slide and follow the setup steps. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 6 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) How to Enable Japanese on Your Everyday (non-ja) Ubuntu Machine: • Install Ubuntu as usual • Open Settings to Region & Language • Click Manage Installed Languages • Click Install / Remove Languages... • Install Japanese, then reboot Let me explain how to set up Japanese input on a non-Japanese Ubuntu environment with a nonJapanese keyboard. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 7 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) How to Enable Japanese on Your Everyday (non-ja) Ubuntu Machine: • Install Ubuntu as usual • Open Settings to Region & Language • Click Manage Installed Languages • Click Install / Remove Languages... • Install Japanese, then reboot Open Settings to Region & Language Open “Settings” and select “Region & Language”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 7 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) How to Enable Japanese on Your Everyday (non-ja) Ubuntu Machine: • Install Ubuntu as usual • Open Settings to Region & Language • Click Manage Installed Languages • Click Install / Remove Languages... • Install Japanese, then reboot Click Manage Installed Languages Click “Manage Installed Languages”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 7 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) How to Enable Japanese on Your Everyday (non-ja) Ubuntu Machine: • Install Ubuntu as usual • Open Settings to Region & Language • Click Manage Installed Languages • Click Install / Remove Languages... • Install Japanese, then reboot Click Install / Remove Languages... Click the “Install or Remove Languages” button. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 7 / 29
Using Japanese Occasionally (UI and keyboard in English) How to Enable Japanese on Your Everyday (non-ja) Ubuntu Machine: • Install Ubuntu as usual • Open Settings to Region & Language • Click Manage Installed Languages • Click Install / Remove Languages... • Install Japanese, then reboot Install Japanese, then reboot Select “Japanese”, install it, and reboot. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 7 / 29
How to Switch Input Methods • On Keyboard Indicator (top right): • Enable Japanese Input mode (non-JP keyboard): Next, I will explain how to enable Japanese input. First, enable “Mozc”, which is the default Japanese Input Method Editor on Ubuntu. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 8 / 29
How to Switch Input Methods • On Keyboard Indicator (top right): • Select “Japanese (Mozc)” • Enable Japanese Input mode (non-JP keyboard): Select “Japanese (Mozc)” You can do this by selecting “Japanese (Mozc)” from the keyboard indicator at the top right of the screen. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 8 / 29
How to Switch Input Methods • On Keyboard Indicator (top right): • Select “Japanese (Mozc)” • Or press “Super + Space” • Enable Japanese Input mode (non-JP keyboard): Alternatively, you can switch using “Super + Space” keys. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 8 / 29
How to Switch Input Methods • On Keyboard Indicator (top right): • Select “Japanese (Mozc)” • Or press “Super + Space” • Enable Japanese Input mode (non-JP keyboard): • Turn on “Hiragana” from Keyboard Indicator Turn on “Hiragana” from Keyboard Indicator Next, switch Mozc into a mode that allows Japanese input. Select “Hiragana” from the keyboard indicator. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 8 / 29
How to Switch Input Methods • On Keyboard Indicator (top right): • Select “Japanese (Mozc)” • Or press “Super + Space” • Enable Japanese Input mode (non-JP keyboard): • Turn on “Hiragana” from Keyboard Indicator • Or remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other Alternatively, you can press the Hankaku/Zenkaku key, but this key does not exist on English keyboards. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 8 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. So let us remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to another key. Mozc provides a built-in interface for this. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” From the keyboard indicator, select “Properties” under “Tools”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” • Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” Press the “Customize” button in the “Keymap style” section. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” • Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” • Sort by Key column If you sort by the “Key” column, you can see the key assignments for each key. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” • Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” • Sort by Key column • Set to “Ctrl + Space” instead of “Hankaku/Zenkaku” Set to “Ctrl + Space” instead of “Hankaku/Zenkaku” Find the entries assigned to “Hankaku/Zenkaku” and reassign them to “Ctrl + Space” or any key you prefer. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” • Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” • Sort by Key column • Set to “Ctrl + Space” instead of “Hankaku/Zenkaku” • Do logout, then login Save the settings, log out once, and then log in again. Now the setup is complete. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to remap the Hankaku/Zenkaku key to other This is required because non-Japanese keyboards do not ship with a Hankaku/Zenkaku key. • Click “Tools” on Keyboard Indicator and Select “Properties” • Click “Customize” button on “Keymap style” • Sort by Key column • Set to “Ctrl + Space” instead of “Hankaku/Zenkaku” • Do logout, then login With this, you can input Japanese even in an English environment with an English keyboard. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 9 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To switch between alphabet input and Japanese input, do the following. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” If you want to type alphabet characters, switch the keyboard layout, which GNOME calls an “Input Source”, to “en” or another keyboard using “Super + Space“ key. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” Alternatively, you can keep Mozc selected and switch to “Direct Input” mode using “Ctrl + Space” key. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” If you want to type Japanese, switch the Input Source to Mozc using “Super + Space”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” If you switched to “Direct Input” in the previous step, switch back to “Hiragana” using “Ctrl + Space”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
How to Switch Languages While Typing To type non-Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to your langs by “Super + Space” • Or select “Direct Input“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” To type Japanese: • Switch keyboard layout to Mozc by “Super + Space” • Or select “Hiragana“ mode on Mozc by “Ctrl + Space” Now you are ready to type Japanese freely starting tomorrow. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 10 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Now you are ready to type Japanese freely starting tomorrow. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 11 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Requirements for Japanese Text Layout1 : • Thousands of glyphs • Multiple scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Symbols • Full-width / half-width variants and ambiguous width • Many variants of Kanji by Unicode • Horizontal and vertical writing modes are mixed • Optional ruby annotations 1 For more detailed information, please refer to the following documents: https://www.w3.org/International/jlreq/?lang=en Here, I will introduce some of the challenges specific to Japanese. To display Japanese text properly, there are several things to keep in mind. I have listed some of them here. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 12 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Requirements for Japanese Text Layout1 : • Thousands of glyphs • Multiple scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Symbols • Full-width / half-width variants and ambiguous width • Many variants of Kanji by Unicode • Horizontal and vertical writing modes are mixed • Optional ruby annotations 1 For more detailed information, please refer to the following documents: https://www.w3.org/International/jlreq/?lang=en Here, I will introduce some of the challenges specific to Japanese. To display Japanese text properly, there are several things to keep in mind. I have listed some of them here. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 12 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Recommendationss: • Noto Sans/Serif CJK JP fonts and its variants cover most Japanese glyphs Let’s look at where these challenges come from. If this looks confusing, just remember that using the options shown here will usually be good enough. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 13 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Recommendationss: • Noto Sans/Serif CJK JP fonts and its variants cover most Japanese glyphs Let’s look at where these challenges come from. First, regarding fonts, if you install Noto Sans and Serif CJK JP, you will rarely have problems in daily use. There are many derivative fonts as well, so feel free to choose what you like. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 13 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Recommendationss: • Noto Sans/Serif CJK JP fonts and its variants cover most Japanese glyphs • Many GTK/Qt applications support displaying and editing Japanese text Let’s look at where these challenges come from. You will generally not have trouble displaying Japanese in GTK or Qt applications. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 13 / 29
Why Displaying Japanese Is Hard Recommendationss: • Noto Sans/Serif CJK JP fonts and its variants cover most Japanese glyphs • Many GTK/Qt applications support displaying and editing Japanese text • LibreOffice supports displaying and editing Japanese text, including horizontal and vertical writing, Kanji variants Let’s look at where these challenges come from. LibreOffice supports everything needed for Japanese text display, including vertical writing and variant characters. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 13 / 29
Thousands of Glyphs Japanese uses a large number of glyphs in everyday writing: • Hiragana: 46 basic characters, 90+ with variations To display Japanese properly, users need to handle a large number of glyphs. Even basic Hiragana alone consists of more than 46 characters, and including subtle variations, more than 90. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 14 / 29
Thousands of Glyphs Japanese uses a large number of glyphs in everyday writing: • Hiragana: 46 basic characters, 90+ with variations • Katakana: roughly the same number as Hiragana Katakana has a similar number of characters. In addition, users must choose between Hiragana and Katakana depending on context. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 14 / 29
Thousands of Glyphs Japanese uses a large number of glyphs in everyday writing: • Hiragana: 46 basic characters, 90+ with variations • Katakana: roughly the same number as Hiragana • Kanji: a lot..., really a lot • Over 2,000 characters are required by high school • and half are mastered before age 12 And then there is Kanji. There are a huge number of them. Very few people know all of them, but you still need to learn more than 2000 characters. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 14 / 29
Thousands of Glyphs Japanese uses a large number of glyphs in everyday writing: • Hiragana: 46 basic characters, 90+ with variations • Katakana: roughly the same number as Hiragana • Kanji: a lot..., really a lot • Over 2,000 characters are required by high school • and half are mastered before age 12 About half of those are learned during elementary school. This is roughly comparable to how English speakers memorize spelling, but Japanese children are memorizing Kanji instead. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 14 / 29
Thousands of Glyphs Japanese uses a large number of glyphs in everyday writing: • Hiragana: 46 basic characters, 90+ with variations • Katakana: roughly the same number as Hiragana • Kanji: a lot..., really a lot • Over 2,000 characters are required by high school • and half are mastered before age 12 • Others: variant characters, emojis (world wide) Another topic that even Japanese people try to avoid is variant characters. Simply put, these are Kanji that differ slightly in shape. Recently, we also have emojis. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 14 / 29
Variant Characters: “Watanabe-san” Problem When someone says “Watanabe-san”, you may imagine one spelling... A well known example is the Watanabe-san problem. When someone says they are Watanabe-san, what characters do you imagine? The simplest and most common one is this Watanabe-san. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 15 / 29
Variant Characters: “Watanabe-san” Problem When someone says “Watanabe-san”, you may imagine one spelling... But there are also Watanabe-san like this. Can you see that the character on the right is different? The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 15 / 29
Variant Characters: “Watanabe-san” Problem When someone says “Watanabe-san”, you may imagine one spelling... but Japan has a surprising number of completely different “Watanabe-sans.” In fact, there are many more Watanabe-san in Japan. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 15 / 29
Variant Characters: “Watanabe-san” Problem When someone says “Watanabe-san”, you may imagine one spelling... but Japan has a surprising number of completely different “Watanabe-sans.” All of these are “Watanabe-san.” Some of them may or may not exist in real life, but they do exist as characters. The same applies to names like “Saito-san” or “Takahashi-san”, which also have many glyph variations. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 15 / 29
Encodings & Mojibake Common Japanese encodings: • UTF-8: modern standard • ISO-2022-JP: old email • EUC-JP: old Unix • Shift_JIS: (old?) Windows (CP932), macOS legacy Regarding character encodings, due to historical reasons, Japan has several different traditions. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 16 / 29
Encodings & Mojibake Common Japanese encodings: • UTF-8: modern standard • ISO-2022-JP: old email • EUC-JP: old Unix • Shift_JIS: (old?) Windows (CP932), macOS legacy 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojibake These days, most things have moved to UTF-8, so problems are less common, but these encodings are still sometimes used. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 16 / 29
Encodings & Mojibake Common Japanese encodings: • UTF-8: modern standard • ISO-2022-JP: old email • EUC-JP: old Unix • Shift_JIS: (old?) Windows (CP932), macOS legacy 1 Apparently, there are people who have the special ability to recover original text from mojibake. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 16 / 29
Encodings & Mojibake Common Japanese encodings: • UTF-8: modern standard • ISO-2022-JP: old email • EUC-JP: old Unix • Shift_JIS: (old?) Windows (CP932), macOS legacy Tip: Use lv instead of “less” for non-UTF-8 files. By the way, if you install the lv command, it is very useful for reading text files in old encodings without mojibake. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 16 / 29
Zip File namess from Windows The filenames in the zip archive use CP932 on old Japanese Windows1 . When you try to extract this on Ubuntu, CP932-encoded filenames are interpreted as UTF-8 and become garbled. You can avoid this by setting the following environment variables: $ export UNZIP="-Iutf8 -Ocp932" $ unzip foo.zip 1 A fresh installation of Windows 11 now uses UTF-8 by default? On Ubuntu, you will probably encounter mojibake most often when extracting zip files created on Windows. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 17 / 29
Zip File namess from Windows The filenames in the zip archive use CP932 on old Japanese Windows1 . When you try to extract this on Ubuntu, CP932-encoded filenames are interpreted as UTF-8 and become garbled. You can avoid this by setting the following environment variables: $ export UNZIP="-Iutf8 -Ocp932" $ unzip foo.zip 1 A fresh installation of Windows 11 now uses UTF-8 by default? Except for freshly installed Windows 11 systems, many Windows environments use CP932, a Shift_JIS derived encoding. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 17 / 29
Zip File namess from Windows The filenames in the zip archive use CP932 on old Japanese Windows1 . When you try to extract this on Ubuntu, CP932-encoded filenames are interpreted as UTF-8 and become garbled. You can avoid this by setting the following environment variables: $ export UNZIP="-Iutf8 -Ocp932" $ unzip foo.zip 1 A fresh installation of Windows 11 now uses UTF-8 by default? When you extract zip files created in such environments, unzip tries to interpret CP932 filenames as UTF-8, which results in mojibake. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 17 / 29
Zip File namess from Windows The filenames in the zip archive use CP932 on old Japanese Windows1 . When you try to extract this on Ubuntu, CP932-encoded filenames are interpreted as UTF-8 and become garbled. You can avoid this by setting the following environment variables: $ export UNZIP="-Iutf8 -Ocp932" $ unzip foo.zip 1 A fresh installation of Windows 11 now uses UTF-8 by default? With the unzip command on Ubuntu, you can avoid this problem by setting the following environment variables. The new GNOME file archiver may also support this. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 17 / 29
CJK(V) Unified Ideographs Same Unicode codepoint, different glyphs by region1 : • Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) • Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) • Korean (ko) • Vietnamese (vi) • Japanese (ja) Locale affects appearance: 1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihan Another issue that Japanese users often encounter is “CJKV Unified Ideographs”. In Unicode, Kanji with similar glyphs are assigned to the same code point. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 18 / 29
CJK(V) Unified Ideographs Same Unicode codepoint, different glyphs by region1 : • Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) • Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) • Korean (ko) • Vietnamese (vi) • Japanese (ja) Locale affects appearance: 1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihan The regions listed here all use the same Unicode characters, but the actual glyph shapes differ slightly. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 18 / 29
CJK(V) Unified Ideographs Same Unicode codepoint, different glyphs by region1 : • Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) • Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) • Korean (ko) • Vietnamese (vi) • Japanese (ja) Locale affects appearance: 1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihan Fontconfig and related systems choose the appropriate font based on the locale to display the correct glyphs. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 18 / 29
CJK(V) Unified Ideographs Same Unicode codepoint, different glyphs by region1 : • Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) • Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) • Korean (ko) • Vietnamese (vi) • Japanese (ja) Locale affects appearance: 1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihan However, in an English locale environment where both Japanese fonts and Traditional Chinese fonts are installed, which one takes priority depends on the fontconfig configuration. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 18 / 29
CJK(V) Unified Ideographs Same Unicode codepoint, different glyphs by region1 : • Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) • Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) • Korean (ko) • Vietnamese (vi) • Japanese (ja) Locale affects appearance: 1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihan It is possible that the Japanese text you are reading is rendered with slightly different glyphs from what a Japanese user sees. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 18 / 29
How Japanese Input Works It is possible that the Japanese text you are reading is rendered with slightly different glyphs from what a Japanese user sees. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 19 / 29
How Japanese Input Works • English: “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” • Japanese:「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 Finally, let us talk about Japanese input. Topics related to Input Methods will probably be covered by other sessions, so I will keep this at a general level. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 20 / 29
How Japanese Input Works • English: “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” • Japanese:「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 Compared to English, Japanese input is fairly complicated. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 20 / 29
How Japanese Input Works • English: “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” • Japanese:「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 For example, these sentences have the same meaning and are about the same length, but the effort required to input them is very different. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 20 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” First, let us look at English. Press “Shift + g” to input a capital “G”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. Type Shift + n for “N” Do the same to input “N”. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. Type Shift + n for “N” 3. (snip) Continue typing in order, and once you type the final “n” and “t”, you are done. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. Type Shift + n for “N” 3. (snip) 4. Type “n” Continue typing in order, and once you type the final “n” and “t”, you are done. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. Type Shift + n for “N” 3. (snip) 4. Type “n” 5. Type “t” Continue typing in order, and once you type the final “n” and “t”, you are done. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input English text “GNOME is a very user-friendly desktop environment” 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. Type Shift + n for “N” 3. (snip) 4. Type “n” 5. Type “t” 6. Done! Continue typing in order, and once you type the final “n” and “t”, you are done. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 21 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” Now let us look at Japanese. The first step, pressing “Shift + g” to input a capital “G”, is the same. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) Now let us look at Japanese. The first step, pressing “Shift + g” to input a capital “G”, is the same. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) 3. Type “h” After finishing GNOME and moving to the Japanese part, type “h” first. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) 3. Type “h” 4. Type “a” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “は” Next, type “a”, and only now do you get「は」. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) 3. Type “h” 4. Type “a” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “は” 5. Type “t” Then type “t” and “o” to get「と」. This means you need about two keystrokes per character. Then you continue typing. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) 3. Type “h” 4. Type “a” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “は” 5. Type “t” 6. Type “o” and it combines with the previous “t” to form “と” Then type “t” and “o” to get「と」. This means you need about two keystrokes per character. Then you continue typing. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type Shift + g for “G” 2. (snip) 3. Type “h” 4. Type “a” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “は” 5. Type “t” 6. Type “o” and it combines with the previous “t” to form “と” 7. continue... Then type “t” and “o” to get「と」. This means you need about two keystrokes per character. Then you continue typing. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 22 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” After typing “s” and “u”, the final character is completed. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” After typing “s” and “u”, the final character is completed. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” 3. The preedit string was 「GNOME はとてもつかいやすいですくとっぷかんきょうです」 At this point, alphabet and Hiragana input is complete. This state is called the preedit state. From here, you need to convert it into Kanji. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” 3. The preedit string was 「GNOME はとてもつかいやすいですくとっぷかんきょうです」 4. Next, press the space key to convert it into 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 For example, if you press the “Space” key once, Mozc converts it into appropriate Katakana or Kanji. In this case, the string is simple, so it was converted correctly in one go. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” 3. The preedit string was 「GNOME はとてもつかいやすいですくとっぷかんきょうです」 4. Next, press the space key to convert it into 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 5. If the conversion is incorrect, choose another candidate for each word If the conversion result is different, you need to adjust each segment one by one using cursor keys and similar operations. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” 3. The preedit string was 「GNOME はとてもつかいやすいですくとっぷかんきょうです」 4. Next, press the space key to convert it into 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 5. If the conversion is incorrect, choose another candidate for each word 6. Press Enter to confirm the preedit string Once everything is correct, press the Enter key to commit the text. Now the input is complete. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
How to input Japanese text 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 1. Type “s” 2. Type “u” and it combines with the previous “h” to form “す” 3. The preedit string was 「GNOME はとてもつかいやすいですくとっぷかんきょうです」 4. Next, press the space key to convert it into 「GNOME はとても使いやすいデスクトップ環境です」 5. If the conversion is incorrect, choose another candidate for each word 6. Press Enter to confirm the preedit string 7. Done! Once everything is correct, press the Enter key to commit the text. Now the input is complete. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 23 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. Why is it not always converted correctly in one step? There are several reasons. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. One of them is that word boundaries are unclear. In English, words are separated by spaces. In Japanese, sentences are separated, but words are not. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. • 「面白い猫の子」: “おもしろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A funny/interesting kitten” For example, when you input「おもしろねこのこ」, there are several possible segmentations and conversions. One means “A funny or interesting kitten.” The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. • 「面白い猫の子」: “おもしろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A funny/interesting kitten” • 「尾も白い猫の子」: “お / も / しろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A kitten whose tail is also white” Another interpretation is “A kitten whose tail is also white.” The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. • 「面白い猫の子」: “おもしろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A funny/interesting kitten” • 「尾も白い猫の子」: “お / も / しろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A kitten whose tail is also white” • 「面白いねこの子」: おもしろい / ね / この / こ” = “That kid is pretty funny, huh?” Yet another is “That kid is pretty funny, huh?” A Hiragana string alone can have many interpretations. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: Ambiguous segmentation When you try to convert a「おもしろいねこのこ」, several options may appear. • 「面白い猫の子」: “おもしろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A funny/interesting kitten” • 「尾も白い猫の子」: “お / も / しろい / ねこ / の / こ” = “A kitten whose tail is also white” • 「面白いねこの子」: おもしろい / ね / この / こ” = “That kid is pretty funny, huh?” You need to choose based on context and meaning, but there are inevitable limitations. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 24 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This is slightly different from kana-kanji conversion, but Kanji can have many different readings. This is one example that became popular on X. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: The same character can have multiple readings 1 「二日経って、今日一月一日は日曜日。日本は祝日で晴れの日」 • ふつか（ka）たって • きょう（ou） • いちがつついたち（ta chi）は • にち（ni chi）ようび（bi） • に（ni）ほんは • しゅくじつ（ji tsu）で • はれのひ（hi） 1 https://x.com/ArturGalata/status/1961398552145666158 This sentence contains many instances of the character「日」, but each one is read differently. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 25 / 29
Example: Same pronunciation, many kanji Different kanji for「はかる（haka-ru） 」, each with different meaning: • 「計る」：to count, calculate, or plan • 「測る」：to measure physically • 「量る」：to weigh or measure volume/amount • 「図る」：to plan or attempt something • 「謀る」：to plot or scheme, usually for trickery • 「諮る」：to consult or seek advice Conversely, there are cases where the pronunciation is the same but the Kanji is different. Often, they even have similar meanings. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 26 / 29
Example: Same pronunciation, many kanji Different kanji for「はかる（haka-ru） 」, each with different meaning: • 「計る」：to count, calculate, or plan • 「測る」：to measure physically • 「量る」：to weigh or measure volume/amount • 「図る」：to plan or attempt something • 「謀る」：to plot or scheme, usually for trickery • 「諮る」：to consult or seek advice For example, “haka-ru” uses different Kanji depending on what you measure and how you use it. At this point, even many Japanese people cannot write them correctly. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 26 / 29
Many Input Method Editor (IME) Exist To address these challenges, Japanese has developed various IMEs. • Mozc1 : default for Ubuntu • Anthy23 : default for GNOME Initial Setup • SKK3 • Kanji-direct input • Others Users should choose what fits their typing style. 1 https://github.com/google/mozc https://github.com/fujiwarat/anthy-unicode 3 https://salsa.debian.org/debian/anthy 4 https://github.com/skk-dev/ddskk For these reasons, there are many different types of Japanese kana-kanji conversion software, or Input Method Editors. 2 The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 27 / 29
Many Input Method Editor (IME) Exist To address these challenges, Japanese has developed various IMEs. • Mozc1 : default for Ubuntu • Anthy23 : default for GNOME Initial Setup • SKK3 • Kanji-direct input • Others Users should choose what fits their typing style. 1 https://github.com/google/mozc https://github.com/fujiwarat/anthy-unicode 3 https://salsa.debian.org/debian/anthy 4 https://github.com/skk-dev/ddskk Japanese users choose different ones based on personal preference. 2 The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 27 / 29
Conclusion Japanese users choose different ones based on personal preference. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 28 / 29
Conclusion To support Japanese – or any complex language – we must understand both: • The technical challenges (fonts, encodings, IMEs) • The cultural background behind the writing system Finally, here is a brief summary. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 29 / 29
Conclusion To support Japanese – or any complex language – we must understand both: • The technical challenges (fonts, encodings, IMEs) • The cultural background behind the writing system To support Japanese, and other languages with complex layouts and input methods, we need to understand both the technical aspects and the cultural background. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 29 / 29
Conclusion To support Japanese – or any complex language – we must understand both: • The technical challenges (fonts, encodings, IMEs) • The cultural background behind the writing system To support Japanese, and other languages with complex layouts and input methods, we need to understand both the technical aspects and the cultural background. The Quirky Adventures of Typing and Displaying Japanese on Ubuntu & GNOME 2025-12-13 29 / 29