No, the Japanese keyboard is almost the same as the Western version, but with a few other keys for converting Romanji into Japanese. So, in order to use a computer in Japan, you must also learn Romanji - the English-character analogue for written Japanese. Every Japanese schoolchild does this a a matter of course. Romanji is Japanese written using the English [Roman] alphabet - the suffix -ji simply means 'in the manner of]. If you read a book in which the Japanese character speaks Japanese, his Japanese words are written using the English alphabet - as in ‘Gomen nasai, David-san’ - [so sorry, honourable David]. Needless to say, a Japanese computer handles ordinary English just as well, but might lack a few other keys not found on a Western keyboard - no £ sign, no Euro sign, no umlaut sign or any other European language diacritical mark. Emoticons cannot either be made or displayed - when you post one, all I see is a little hollow square, like you typing a non-Western language for which your PC is not set up.
For instance, if you type in ‘sayonara’, that is in Romanji four syllables - sa, yo, na and ra. The computer, using fuzzy logic, then produces Japanese characters on the screen approximating to the word, bearing in mind that there are multiple meanings for the various - 6000+ - Japanese symbols in common use. If the word in Japanese doesn’t make sense to you, then you press the ‘retry’ key, and it offers you another choice until it shows the one you expect.
This happens as fast as you type, and Japanese people of my acquaintance type just as fast [or slow] as we do. The cellphones work the same way, which is why your Western cellphone will not work in Japan. This has led to a thriving business growth at airports,where you can rent or buy your cellphone.
Western computers are not interchangeable in any way with Japanese computers, since Western computers use Microsoft OS and not one derived from the need offer variations of the different meaning of a syllable expressed as a pictograph. Apple computers use neither OS nor Japanese-version fuzzy logic, and are not very popular in Japan where they are a VERY expensive fashion statement.
So there are a number of locations in Metro-Tokyo where you have to go to get your Western machine fixed, if and when it goes wrong.
Incidentally, the company I worked for in Tokyo, for almost eight years, would not allow Apple products of any kind into the building - cellphones, laptops, netbooks, whatever. Not being a fan, that was fine by me, but it was a surprise to find that Sony products were equally unwelcome in government agencies. I know why, but this is neither the place nor the context to explain it.
mrs tac has a couple of Western pcs, but my desktop, a four Tb device, is staying right here.
tac
OVGRS
