Study Japanese 101

How to Type in Japanese on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android

Add a Japanese romaji keyboard, type the sounds in Latin letters, and convert with Space. Learn nn for ん, doubled consonants for っ, x or l for small kana, and wo for を.

Study Japanese 101 editorial team · · 4 min read

To type in Japanese, add a Japanese keyboard to your device, choose romaji input, and type the sounds with Latin letters. The keyboard turns them into hiragana as you type. Press Space to convert to kanji, then Return or Enter to confirm. You do not need a Japanese keyboard. You need the setting, a few spelling rules and practice.

Add a Japanese keyboard

Each system calls the tool something different: an input source on Mac, an IME on Windows, a keyboard on phones. The job is the same.

Mac

Apple’s setup guide: open System Settings, choose Keyboard, go to Text Input and click Edit. Click the add button, select Japanese and choose Japanese – Romaji. Apple notes that Romaji is useful when you do not use a Japanese keyboard.

To switch, use the Input menu in the menu bar, press Control-Space, or set the Fn or Globe key to change input sources.

Windows 11

Microsoft’s language settings guide: go to Settings, Time & language, Language & region, then select Add a language next to Preferred languages. Choose Japanese and install it. Leave “Set as my Windows display language” off unless you want Windows itself in Japanese.

Hold the Windows logo key and press Space to cycle keyboard layouts. On an English keyboard, the Microsoft Japanese IME page lists Alt + backquote (`) to turn Japanese input on and off.

iPhone

Apple’s keyboard guide: open Settings, tap General, Keyboard, Keyboards, then Add New Keyboard and choose Japanese. Apple’s feature list names two Japanese keyboards: Kana and Romaji. Choose Romaji if you already type on a QWERTY layout. While typing, touch and hold the switch-keyboard key to change keyboards.

Android with Gboard

Google’s Gboard guide: open any app, tap a text field, then tap Settings at the top of the keyboard. Tap Languages, then Add keyboard. Choose Japanese, pick a layout and tap Done. Touch and hold the space bar to switch languages.

Type the sound, then convert

Type a word as it sounds. For example, nihongo appears as にほんご. Press Space and the keyboard offers 日本語.

On Mac, Apple’s text entry guide describes two modes. Live Conversion converts as you type. Traditional conversion waits for Space. Press Space again to see more candidates, Return to confirm, and Escape to go back to the hiragana you typed.

On Windows, the first Space converts, and a second Space opens the candidate list. Enter selects. Before you confirm, F6 converts the input to hiragana and F7 converts it to full-width katakana. That is a fast way to write loanwords.

Do not accept the first candidate without reading it. はし can become 箸 (chopsticks), 橋 (bridge) or 端 (edge). The keyboard guesses. You choose.

Romaji rules that trip up beginners

These rules come from Apple’s romaji-to-kana table.

  • ん is nn. Apple lists nn, n' and xn. Typing nn is the safe habit. こんにちは is ko + nn + ni + chi + ha, so type konnnichiha. With only two n’s, the table reads nn as ん and leaves the i on its own, which gives こんいちは.
  • っ doubles the next consonant. きって is kitte. ざっし is zasshi. To type っ alone, use xtu or ltu.
  • Small kana take x or l. xa gives ぁ, xya gives ゃ, lyo gives ょ. You rarely need this for common sounds: kya already gives きゃ, and sho gives しょ.
  • Particles are typed as they are written. The topic particle は is ha, the particle へ is he, and を is wo.
  • Two spellings often work. し is shi or si, ち is chi or ti, つ is tsu or tu, ふ is fu or hu, and じ is ji or zi.
  • ぢ and づ have their own keys. ぢ is di and づ is du. つづく is tsuduku.

Microsoft and Google do not publish an equivalent English table on the pages above. If a spelling fails on another keyboard, try the other spelling from the same row.

Practice on real sentences

Typing exposes gaps in kana recall. If you hesitate over which kana a sound needs, the keyboard cannot help. Send short messages to yourself, type the example sentences from your textbook, and look up words in a dictionary by typing them, not by pasting.

A drill also helps. Real Kana shows a character and has you type its romaji, which trains the same mapping the keyboard uses.

Next step: if kana recall is the real problem, follow the two-week kana plan, then come back and type every new word you learn.

Sources

Prepared by our editorial team with AI assistance. Product details are checked against the sources below.

Back to all posts