Japanese language and computers: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:19, 8 September 2022

Revision as of 05:34, 8 September 2022

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[[File:KB_Japanese.svg|thumb|A Japanese kana keyboard]]

In relation to the '''Japanese language and computers''' many adaptation issues arise, some unique to [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and others common to [[language]]s which have a very large number of characters. The number of characters needed in order to write in English is quite small, and thus it is possible to use only one [[byte]] (2⁸=256 possible values) to encode each English character. However, the number of characters in Japanese is many more than 256 and thus cannot be encoded using a single byte - Japanese is thus encoded using two or more bytes, in a so-called "double byte" or "multi-byte" encoding. Problems that arise relate to [[transliteration]] and [[romanization]], character encoding, and outputinput of Japanese text.

==Character encodings==

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[[Unicode]] was intended to solve all encoding problems over all languages. The [[UTF-8]] encoding used to encode Unicode in web pages does not have the disadvantages that Shift-JIS has. Unicode is supported by international software, and it eliminates the need for gaiji. There are still controversies, however. For Japanese, the kanji characters have been [[Han unification|unified]] with Chinese; that is, a character considered to be the same in both Japanese and Chinese is given a single number, even if the appearance is actually somewhat different, with the precise appearance left to the use of a locale-appropriate font. This process, called [[Han unification]], has caused controversy.{{cn|date=October 2020}} The previous encodings in Japan, [[Free area of the Republic of China|Taiwan Area]], [[Mainland China]] and [[Korea]] have only handled one language and Unicode should handle all. The handling of Kanji/Chinese have however been designed by a committee composed of representatives from all four countries/areas.{{cn|date=October 2020}}

== Text Outputinput ==

{{main|Japanese outputinput methods}}

Written Japanese uses several different scripts: [[kanji]] (Chinese characters), 2 sets of ''kana'' (phonetic syllabaries) and roman letters. While kana and roman letters can be typed directly into a computer, entering kanji is a more complicated process as there are far more kanji than there are keys on most keyboards. To outputinput kanji on modern computers, the reading of kanji is usually entered first, then an [[input method editor]] (IME), also sometimes known as a front-end processor, shows a list of candidate kanji that are a phonetic match, and allows the user to choose the correct kanji. More-advanced IMEs work not by word but by phrase, thus increasing the likelihood of getting the desired characters as the first option presented. Kanji readings inputs can be either via [[romanization]] (''[[rōmaji]] nyūryoku,'' {{Nihongo2|[[:ja:ローマ字入力|ローマ字入力]]}}) or direct kana input (''kana nyūryoku,'' {{Nihongo2|[[:ja:かな入力|かな入力]]}}). Romaji input is more common on PCs and other full-size keyboards (although direct outputinput is also widely supported), whereas direct kana outputinput is typically used on mobile phones and similar devices – each of the 10 digits (1–9,0) corresponds to one of the 10 columns in the [[gojūon]] table of kana, and multiple presses select the row.

There are two main systems for the [[romanization]] of Japanese, known as ''[[Kunrei-shiki]]'' and ''[[Hepburn romanization|Hepburn]]''; in practice, "keyboard romaji" (also known as ''[[wapuro romaji|wāpuro rōmaji]]'' or "word processor romaji") generally allows a loose combination of both. IME implementations may even handle keys for letters unused in any romanization scheme, such as ''L'', converting them to the most appropriate equivalent. With kana outputinput, each key on the keyboard directly corresponds to one kana. The [[JIS X 6002|JIS keyboard]] system is the national standard, but there are alternatives, like the [[thumb-shift keyboard]], commonly used among professional typists.

== Direction of text ==