Japanese keyboard layout?

Hate to break it to you... but I have never gotten the Japanese layout to work on my Macbook Pro under bootcamp. I have been blind touch typing the US layout for 10 months.

I was hoping for better with Bootcamp 2.0 but... so far no good.

You should probably ask this in a Windows forum, but the way to do it is typically to display the Properties for Microsoft IME and select "Kana" as "Input method".

If I get it right, you know how to enable the Japanese IME? (Enable East Asiatic languages and so on...)

So the problem is how to use it in Vista when you are running bootcamp, and there seems to be a problem with it?

If so, I am sorry but I was not aware of the problem and I do not know any solution. If there is another problem, feel free to describe it in more detail.

Can I just out of curiosity ask what the problem is with the input? Surely the letters a-z are the same? The short cut keys to switch keyboard layout and between hiragana and katakana may be different between PC and Mac, but I never use those ones anyhow (I have a Japanese PC as well as my English Mac).

What exactly is it you are missing?

Last year I also had the same problem with Japanese keyboard layout in XP or in Vista after it was released. I tried to uninstall the keyboard driver, then chose ALPS keyboard and it works!

I also struggle with the problem. Under Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion one just chooses the standard japanese 106/9 keyboard as keyboard driver. Both virtualization products just register it as a ps/2 device. However, the Apple keyboard registers as generic HID USB device under Boot Camp. There seems nothing to fiddle with. It seems, though Apple is so proud advertising the specific Japanese localization added in Leopard (incl. Boot Camp), forgot to write a driver for the frelling keyboard..

<update> just found this article in the KB. Will try it out next when back home. If anyone already wants to take a look, greatly appreciated: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306759

That looks like it might do the trick....

Yeah... Since boot camp hit 2.0 I tried to select the 108 key Japanese keyboard layout from within the Windows preferences but still no luck. It seems no matter what Windows refuses to believe the keyboard isn't US layout.

For Magnus... All the punctuation is in different locations on a Japanese keyboard and it makes for a royal mess having to blind type the US layout if you aren't used to it. (Like " is shift-2 and @ has its own key) Even using Japanese IME your punctuation is all wrong because the key layout is wrong. 😟

The JIS keyboard is supported in Windows but you need to select the 106 Japanese keyboard, not the default keyboard. You can do this during the Windows installation by selecting the "s" at the keyboard selection. Once thats set you can use the IME keys left and right of the space key.
I believe there is a way to set the 106 Japanese keyboard after install but I am not quite sure how.

I do not have installation disks here, so I do not want to try, but it should be in Control Panels > Keyboard > Hardware > Properties... somehow...

I don't want to reinstall besides that I use a slipstream CD from my company, which doesn't give me the option.

However, the file it will load is keyb106.dll when chosen during the scratch install. It must be possible to retrieve that one afterwards somehow. Just not sure how to work with it..

Mind, this is a pretty crude hack (what else a unix guy is to do on Windows) and I am sure there are much more elegant methods, i.e. using the registry etc -> let me know! However, it works like a charm.

1) Make sure you have a copy of the "kbd106.dll" file. If you have Japanese IME installed, there is a pretty good chance it is already under "/WINDOWS/System32/"

2) Download & install Process Explorer from M$: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

3) Figure out which "kbd*.dll" is running on your system. I had a slip stream US XP install in my case and in probably most other cases it should be "kbd101.dll". For the rest of this hack, I'll just refer to it as such.
Otherwise, try to find it with Process Explorer using the find option and string "kbd". You might already have the "kbd106.dll" running, however if you reading here it doesn't do squat for you. Safely ignore it now. You should see a second "kbd*.dll" running.

4) Make a backup copy of your running "kbd101.dll" in "/WINDOWS/System32/"

5) Copy the "/WINDOWS/System32/kbd106.dll" file to the desktop and rename it to your "kbd101.dll"

6) Now back to Process Explorer. Use find option again with the string "kbd101.dll". There should be two entries. On running under "winlogon.exe" service and one running under "svchost.exe" service.

7) Click the first one from the find dialog. In the top panel of the process window it will show you the parent process (i.e. "winlogon.exe"). in the bottom panel the actual entry. Right-click on that entry in the bottom panel and choose "Close Handle". It will be marked red now.

8) Repeat with the second entry from the find dialogue. Now, it won't give you an error when we delete the file in the next step.

9) Since WINXP tracks registered DLLs and even replaces them when deleted we need some quick timing here. Best, open the folder "/WINDOWS/System32/" next to the file we renamed in step 5 on the Desktop. Now delete your running "kbd101.dll" file in "/WINDOWS/System32/", and quickly move the new "kbd101.dll" from your Desktop into the open folder window of "/WINDOWS/System32/". If you were quick enough you will not get an error that the file already exists.

10) Reboot and enjoy !"#$%&'()=~|@[`{;:]+*},./?

Generally there is a registry hack you can do. I did it, and it worked fine natively, but my Japanese USB keyboard was still typing in US layout within Fusion. There's a much simpler way to do the "crude" hack though:

1. Open Command Prompt
2. cd /windows/system32
3. copy kbd106.dll kbd101.dll
4. Answer "yes" to prompt
5. Done. This is when the snooty Mac guy in the Japanese commercials suggests you have a cup of coffee.