Input Japanese using ibus

This article or section is a candidate for merging with
ibus
.
Notes:
Move language-independent content to
ibus
and Japanese-specifics to
Localization/Japanese
. (Discuss in
Talk:Input Japanese using ibus
)
This page explains how to get the Japanese input to work using
IBus
.
If you use SCIM, see
Smart Common Input Method platform
.
If you use Uim, see
Input Japanese using uim
.
Installation
You need the following packages to input Japanese.
Japanese fonts
Japanese
input method
(Kana to Kanji conversion engine)
Input method framework: ibus
Japanese fonts
see also
Fonts
,
Font configuration
and
Localization/Japanese
for configuration or more detail.
Recommended Japanese fonts are as follows.
Sans-serif
adobe-source-han-sans
||
adobe-source-han-sans-jp-fonts
or
adobe-source-han-sans-otc-fonts
Open-source OTF fonts developed by Adobe.
Serif and Sans-serif
IPA fonts
||
otf-ipafont
An open source OTF font set including sans-serif (Gothic) and serif (Mincho) glyphs provided by Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA).
If you want to show
2channel Shift JIS art
properly, use the following fonts:
Monapo font (AUR:
ttf-monapo
AUR
)
ibus
Install
the
ibus
package.
Input method
Anthy
Anthy
is one of the most popular Japanese input methods in the open source world.
Install
ibus-anthy
from the official repositories.
Mozc
See
Mozc
.
Mozc
is a Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) designed for multi-platform such as Chromium OS, Windows, Mac and Linux which originates from
Google Japanese Input
.
Install
ibus-mozc
AUR
which is available on AUR.
Settings
Environment variables
Apply the following
environment variables
to Xorg:
GTK_IM_MODULE='ibus'
QT_IM_MODULE='ibus'
GLFW_IM_MODULE='ibus'
XMODIFIERS='@im=ibus'
Using systemd
If you are
using systemd to manage your X session
, you will need to set the environment variables in your systemd session rather than an init script.
~/.config/systemd/user/ibus-env.service
[Unit]
Description=ibus environment initialization
Before=xorg.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl --user set-environment XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl --user set-environment GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl --user set-environment QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl --user set-environment GLFW_IM_MODULE=ibus
~/.config/systemd/user/ibus.service
[Unit]
Description=ibus daemon
Wants=ibus-env.service
After=xorg.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ibus-daemon
Restart=on-abort

[Install]
WantedBy=xorg.target
Lastly, you will need to
enable
ibus.service
ibus preferences
Configure ibus preferences by running:
$ ibus-setup
which brings forth a GUI.
Navigate to the 'Input Method' tab, click on 'Add', click on 'Japanese' and select your input method.
Now click on the newly added list entry and click on 'Preferences' to configure your input method.
Anthy preferences
Change 'Input Mode:' from 'Latin' to 'Hiragana'
After cofiguration
You can run
ibus-daemon -dr
or restart X to test your settings.
By default
Super+Space
cycles between your input methods
Provided everything went well you should be able to input Japanese in X.
See also
ibus
GitHub repository
Fonts
Japanese fonts showcase
modified Japanese fonts