You have a basic understanding of hiragana/katakana and Japanese phonetics.You have a basic understanding of how to use it (how to make hiragana appear when you type, how to convert a word to kanji).You have your IME installed, set up and ready to use.This article aims to provide novice IME users with an introduction to some of the intermediate and advanced features literally waiting at their fingertips, providing a basis for improved typing efficiency, problem solving and expanded usage. However, it’s common for foreigners to overlook some of the finer points of its usage. You may have already set up your IME and have some experience using it (if not, please check out ’s excellent guide to installing/setting up your IME). Typing in Japanese is done with software called an IME (Input Method Editor), which allows you to type Japanese phonetically (romaji) and have the your typing automatically converted to Japanese characters. If you’re serious about learning Japanese, I’m sure you will eventually either want to or need to be able to type in Japanese on your computer.

Windows 8 private character editor