How to write and read in Japanese with an occidental system

Installing Japanese Fonts

Before all, to read and write in Japanese, you have to install Japaneses fonts.To know what Japanese fonts are available on the system, use:

dnf search font|grep Japanese

This command above returns a list of Japanese available fonts.

japanese-bitmap-fonts.noarch : Free Japanese Bitmap fonts
google-noto-sans-japanese-fonts.noarch : Sans Japanese font
mona-bitmap-fonts.noarch : Bitmap Japanese font for text arts
vlgothic-p-fonts.noarch : Proportional Japanese TrueType font
hanazono-fonts.noarch : Japanese Mincho-typeface TrueType font
texlive-zxjafont.noarch : Set up Japanese font families for XeLaTeX
sazanami-gothic-fonts.noarch : Sazanami Gothic Japanese TrueType font
sazanami-mincho-fonts.noarch : Sazanami Mincho Japanese TrueType font
ipa-mincho-fonts.noarch : Japanese Mincho-typeface OpenType font by IPA
ipa-gothic-fonts.noarch : Japanese Gothic-typeface OpenType font by IPA
ipa-ex-gothic-fonts.noarch : Japanese Gothic-typeface OpenType font by IPA
ipa-ex-mincho-fonts.noarch : Japanese Mincho-typeface OpenType font by IPA
texlive-jfontmaps.noarch : Font maps and configuration tools for Japanese fonts
sazanami-fonts-common.noarch : Common files for Sazanami Japanese TrueType fonts
mona-sazanami-fonts.noarch : True Type Japanese font for text arts based on
mona-vlgothic-fonts.noarch : True Type Japanese font for text arts based on
ipa-pmincho-fonts.noarch : Japanese Proportional Mincho-typeface OpenType font
ipa-pgothic-fonts.noarch : Japanese Proportional Gothic-typeface OpenType font
motoya-lcedar-fonts.noarch : Japanese Gothic-typeface TrueType fonts by MOTOYA
motoya-lmaru-fonts.noarch : Japanese Round Gothic-typeface TrueType fonts by
texlive-wadalab.noarch : Wadalab (Japanese) font packages
texlive-pxchfon.noarch : Japanese font setup for pLaTeX and upLaTeX

Choose the ones you want to use.

For example, to install the sazanami fonts, use:

su -c 'dnf install sazanami*'

Imput Method Engine

Characters of the Japanese language are so numerous (thousands) that, of course, they cannot be laid out on a keyboard with only roughly 100 keys. Thus we have to use some software that will transform phonetically entered text into Japanese characters (kana or kanji). Such a piece of software is call an Input Method Engine (IME). As the input method will not be the only one we want to use, we also need some software to manage all the input methods (occidental direct method, or mozc and anthy for Japanese). The method manager we will use is already shipped with Fedora and is called ibus.

A Japanese IME, such as mozc or anthy, does much more than converting phonetically entered text into characters. It is also able to parse long phonetic strings an convert them into words. This conversion often ends in a lot of potential candidates to be proposed to the choice of the user. It is the richness of the underlying dictionary and the order in which candidates are ranked that makes the performance of the IME.

Installing the Input Methods

You have to install at least one IME but you can install severals.

To install mozc, use the following command:

su -c "dnf install ibus-mozc"

To install anthy use:

su -c "dnf install ibus-anthy"

Setting the IME up

In GNOME, go to All Settings -> Keyboard

In the lower-left corner click the link Input Sources. Click the + button in the new windows that opens, and choose Japanese then Japanese(Mozc) or Japanese Anthy