Japanese Input on Ubuntu Linux 12-04 LTS Precise Pangolin

May 29th, 2012

This tutorial will show you how to set up Japanese input IME (日本語入力方法) on Ubuntu Linux 12.04 from the Unity interface. The installation procedure is very similar to the previous Unity release of Ubuntu 11-10.

Setup Procedure

To start, select Dash home from the Unity Launcher.

From the Dash home, search for Language Support.

Select Language Support.

On the Language tab of the Language Support screen, press Install / Remove Languages…

On the Installed Languages screen, scroll down to Japanese and check Installed, and then press Apply Changes.

Enter your password on the Authenticate screen.

It will take a few moments to download and install the Japanese IME packages.

Back on the Language Support screen, select ibus for the Keyboard input method system, and then press Close.

Once again select Dash home from the Unity Launcher.

From the Dash home, search for Keyboard Input Methods.

Select Keyboard Input Methods.

You may get a pop up message saying Keyboard Input Methods (IBus Daemon) has not been started. Do you want to start it now? Select Yes.

On the Input Method tab of the Ibus Preferences screen, select the Customize active input methods check box.

Press Select an input method and select Japanese → Anthy.

Press Add and then press Close.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now display on the top panel.

Open up any application with a text box such as gedit and place the cursor in the text box.

Press the Ibus keyboard icon on the tap panel and select Japanese-Anthy.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now change to the Anthy Aち icon.

That’s it. You can now type in Japanese in Ubuntu 12.04. 難しくない手順ですね。

56 Responses to “Japanese Input on Ubuntu Linux 12-04 LTS Precise Pangolin”

  1. パウロ says:

    ありがとうございます
    好きです
    チケット

  2. T. Watanabe says:

    Thank you for this instruction.
    I am very happy that I can use Japanese input on top of the original (non-Japanese) ubuntu environment.

  3. Jason Evans says:

    ありがとございます!

  4. kirk says:

    Thanks for the great guide. Have a problem though. This is for the latest LXLE distro that runs Lubuntu / Ununtu 12 LTS.

    I realize this is not a fix-it forum, but I’ve tried a bunch already with no success.

    When I log in and select English as the OS, I CAN type in Japanese no problem. It took a buch of hit-and-miss random fiddling around with “displaying input icon” checkboxes. But it works.

    Here’s the strange proble: when I log in as the same user with the exact same settings but select Japanese as the OS language, Japanese menue are displayed but ironically, I can NOT type in Japanese. Ibus always says (in Japanese) “no input window.”

    Again, I apologize, this is probably not the place to post such issues, but I really hope someone here might have a suggestion. Thanks.

  5. CHACHO says:

    THANK YOU now i can live some more.

  6. ethan says:

    for some reason even though i have the packages for anthy installed i cannot find any options for it at all, whether it be the ibus prefrences menu or the text input menu

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