Setting up Japanese input IME (日本語入力方法) on Fedora 17 Linux under the Gnome 3 environment is quick and easy.

Fedora uses the IBus keyboard input method system and uses the Anthy Japanese input method for the Japanese keyboard input, so it will be a familiar process to set up and use if you have done it on earlier Fedora Linux distributions.

Japanese IME Setup Procedure

To start, open Activities from the Top Panel.

In the Search Box, type Input Method and select the Input Method Selector.

In the Input Method Selector screen, select Use IBus (recommended).

 

Press the Preferences… link to the right of Use IBus (recommended) to open the IBus Preferences screen.

On the Input Method tab, check the Customize active input methods check box.

Press the Select an input method dropdown and select Show all input methods.

Press the Select an input method dropdown once again and now select Japanese → Anthy.

Press the Add button, and then press Close.

You must log out for the changes to take effect, so press the Log Out button on the Input Method Selector screen.

When you log back in you will now have the IBus input method framework button on the Gnome top panel (It looks like a small keyboard with a globe in front of it). This is the button to change input modes. Open a text editor such as gedit or some other application with a text input window.

Press the IBus input method framework button and select Japanese – Anthy.

The keyboard icon has now changed to Aち, which shows the letter A and the hiragana character chi, which probably is trying to get something close the the pronunciation of Anthy while indicating Japanese/English input modes.

You should now be able to type in Japanese.

Use the Anthy Aち button to toggle between Japanese, English, and other Japanese IME modes.

Note: If you get the message No input window when you try to select Japanese Anthy, make sure you have the mouse cursor in an application with a text input box, such as a text editor or a Web browser.

That’s it. You should be able to type in Japanese now. Setting up Japanese IME input on Fedora Linux is simple and very similar to previous versions of Fedora.

For previous versions of Fedora, refer to:

• Fedora 16 (Gnome 3)
• Fedora 15 (Gnome 3)
• Fedora 14 (Gnome 2)

This tutorial will show you how to install Japanese input IME (日本語入力方法) in Linux Mint 13 under the Mate desktop environment. Japanese IME is required to be able to type in Japanese. It is pretty easy to get working, so let’s start.

Click on the Mint Menu and select System → Software Manager.

In the Software Manager, search for ibus.

Select ibus.

Click Install.

In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate.

Software Manager will now download and install IBus in the background.

While IBus is installing, search for anthy.

Select ibus-anthy and click Install.

In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate.

Software Manager will now download and install ibus-anthy in the background.

When the activity bar on the bottom shows 0 ongoing actions, installation is complete.

Close Software Manager.

From the Mint Menu, select to System → Control Center.

Open Language Support.

On the Language Support screen, select Install / Remove Languages….

Scroll down and check Japanese, and then press Apply Changes.

In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate.

The Applying changes popup screen will display. Wait for it to finish applying changes. It may take a few minutes.

On the Language Support screen, press the Keyboard input method system: drop down and select ibus.

Then press Close.

On the Control Center screen, scroll down and select Other → Keyboard Input Methods.

You may get a popup dialog box that says Keyboard Input Methods (IBus Daemon has not been started. Do you want to start it now? Select Yes to start IBus.

The IBus daemon is now started and the IBus preferences screen will now display.

On the IBus Preferences screen, go to the Input Method tab.

Select the Customize active input methods check box.

Press the Select an input method dropdown and select Japanese → Anthy.

Press Add on the IBus Preferences screen to add the Anthy Japanese input method.

Press Close to exit the IBus Preferences screen.

The IBus i icon should now display in the bottom panel (The square icon; not the shield icon). If it does not show up, log out and log back in. It should now show up. I recommend logging out and logging back in just to make sure it starts properly. It may show up but give you a No Input Window error if it doesn’t start up properly.

Open a text application like Text Editor. While the cursor is in the text field, press the IBus i icon in the bottom panel and select Japanese – Anthy.

Anthy is now activated. To toggle between English and Japanese input, press Control + Space Bar. The IBus icon will now change to the Anthy Aち icon, indicating that you can type in Japanese.

That’s all there is to it. Now you can type in 日本語.

Note: Sometimes the input method reverts back to English if you are changing back and forth between windows and applications. Just press Control + Space Bar to toggle back to Anthy if this happens.