Do I need a Japanese keyboard to type Japanese?

No. You type the romaji spelling on your normal keyboard and an input method editor (IME) converts it to kana as you go: type ka and you get か. You only need to switch the IME on; every modern computer and phone has one built in, so no extra hardware or special keys are required.

How do you type the small っ or the ん?

For the small っ (sokuon) just double the next consonant: type kitte and you get きって. For ん, type n twice (nn) or type n then an apostrophe; a single n followed by a consonant also becomes ん. So shinbun is しんぶん and kon'nichiwa is こんにちは.

How do you turn kana into kanji while typing?

Type the word in kana, then press the space bar. The IME shows a list of kanji candidates; press space again to move through them, pick the one you want, and press Enter to confirm. If you don't convert and just press Enter, the text stays as kana.

kana.

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How to type Japanese on a keyboard

Here's the part that surprises everyone: you type Japanese with the same QWERTY keyboard you already have. There's no special hardware and no hunting for characters. You type the romaji — ka — and a small piece of software called an IME turns it into か on the fly, then helps you swap kana for kanji when you want. This is exactly the romaji-to-kana mapping the typing game drills, so once you can play, you can already type.

What an IME actually is

IME stands for Input Method Editor. It sits between your keys and the screen: you type Latin letters, it watches the letters pile up, and the moment they spell a kana it replaces them. Type sushi and you'll see すし appear character by character. Every modern system ships one — Microsoft IME on Windows, the Japanese input source on Mac, and the Japanese keyboard on iPhone and Android. You just have to switch it on.

Turning Japanese input on

Adding and toggling the Japanese IME
Device	One-time setup	Switch to/from Japanese
Windows	Settings → Time & language → Language & region → Add a language → Japanese	`Win`+`Space`, or click the language button in the taskbar
Mac	System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → + → Japanese — Romaji	`Ctrl`+`Space` (or the menu-bar flag)
iPhone / iPad	Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Japanese — Romaji	Tap the 🌐 globe key on the keyboard
Android	Gboard already includes it: Settings → Languages → Add keyboard → Japanese → choose the QWERTY layout	Tap the globe key, or long-press the space bar

Pick the “Romaji” layout, not the kana one. Windows and Mac default to romaji input already, but on phones you'll be offered both a Romaji (QWERTY) keyboard and a 12-key Kana flick keyboard. If you're learning by spelling sounds out — the way the game works — choose Romaji. The kana flick keyboard is fast for native speakers but is a separate skill.

Typing plain hiragana

The everyday kana come out exactly as you'd spell them: ka → か, mi → み, ne → ね. A handful of kana have a “textbook” spelling and a faster shortcut — the IME accepts both, so you can type whichever you think of first:

The kana with two valid spellings
Kana	Type either	Note
し	shi or si	"shi" matches how it sounds
ち	chi or ti	the t-row, sounds like "chee"
つ	tsu or tu	the t-row "u" sound
ふ	fu or hu	the h-row "u" sound
じ	ji or zi	voiced し
を	wo	the topic-marker particle

Voiced kana need no special move — just type the voiced sound and the dakuten appears for free: ga → が, za → ざ, da → だ, ba → ば, pa → ぱ. If those marks are new to you, the dakuten and small-kana guide explains what they do.

The four keystrokes worth memorising

Almost everything types itself. These four are the only ones that trip people up, because the keys don't match the shape one-to-one.

The tricky ones — and the keys that make them
You want	Type	Why
ん	nn (or n')	A single n can wait to see if a vowel follows. Type nn to force ん. konnnichiwa → こんにちは.
っ	double the next consonant	The small tsu = a doubled consonant. kitte → きって, gakkou → がっこう. (Or type it alone with ltu / xtu.)
きゃ	kya	Small ゃゅょ combos type as one unit: sha → しゃ, cho → ちょ, ryu → りゅ. (A small kana alone: lya / xya.)
ー	`-` (hyphen/minus)	The katakana long-vowel bar (chōonpu) is the minus key: ra-men → ラーメン, ko-hi- → コーヒー.

The ん rule in one line. A lone n turns into ん by itself when the next letter is a consonant (shinbun → しんぶん) or when you finish the word. It only gets confused before a vowel or y — tani would be たに, not たんい. When in doubt, type nn and it's always ん.

Turning kana into kanji: the space bar

This is the step that makes the IME more than a kana keyboard. Type a word in hiragana, then — before you press Enter — hit the Space bar. The IME offers a list of kanji candidates that match what you typed:

Type the reading in kana, e.g. nihon → にほん.
Press Space. The IME proposes 日本 (and other words that read nihon).
Press Space again to step through the candidate list, or press the number next to one.
Press Enter to lock in your choice. Done.

If the kana was already what you wanted, skip the space bar and just press Enter — the text stays as kana. That's how you write a word that has no kanji, or keep something in hiragana on purpose. The IME quietly learns which candidates you pick, so common words float to the top over time. If you only know the reading, this guide to how kanji readings work explains why one spelling can offer several characters.

Getting katakana

You don't switch keyboards for katakana — you convert into it. Two ways:

Convert as you type: type the word, press Space, and katakana usually appears as one of the candidates (it's the automatic choice for obvious loanwords like terebi → テレビ).
Force it: on Windows, type the kana and press F7 to convert the whole thing to full-width katakana instantly (F6 forces hiragana, F8 half-width katakana, F9 full-width Latin, F10 half-width Latin). On Mac the same job is done from the candidate window or the Ctrl+letter shortcuts.

Not sure when a word should be katakana in the first place? The hiragana vs katakana page covers which script does which job.

Punctuation and symbols

While the IME is on, the everyday punctuation keys produce their Japanese twins automatically, so you rarely reach for anything special:

Common keys while the IME is active
Press	You get	What it is
`.`	。	maru — the full stop
`,`	、	ten — the comma
`[` `]`	「」	corner brackets (quotation marks)
`-`	ー	long-vowel bar (in katakana words)
`~`	〜	wave dash (ranges, "from…to")

Need a full stop in the middle of English while the IME is on? Switch back to your normal language with the toggle, or type the Latin first and convert with F10.

The whole flow, end to end

Switch on the Japanese IME (Win+Space / Ctrl+Space / the globe key).
Type romaji and watch kana appear: nihongo → にほんご.
Remember the four: nn for ん, double the consonant for っ, kya-style for combos, - for the ー bar.
Press Space to convert to kanji and pick a candidate — or just press Enter to keep it as kana.

The fastest way to get fluent at this is to get fluent at the kana. Typing Japanese is the romaji-to-kana mapping — the better you know which keys make き, しゃ or づ, the less you stare at the screen. The kana typing game shows a character and asks you to type its romaji against the clock, so it trains the exact muscle memory the IME relies on, and a mastery tracker surfaces the kana you keep missing.

Play the kana game →

New to the scripts? Start with the hiragana chart & reading guide or the katakana guide. The marks behind が, きゃ and っ are covered in dakuten, small kana & long vowels.