GUIDE
Typing Japanese: romaji, kana and the conversion step
Japanese is typed on an ordinary QWERTY keyboard. Romaji input means typing the sound — ka produces か — and pressing space to convert a phrase into kanji where you want it. Kana input types the syllables directly on a layout of their own. Most speakers and nearly all learners use romaji.
Three scripts and no keyboard
Ordinary Japanese writing mixes three scripts in the same sentence. Hiragana carries the grammar, katakana handles foreign words and emphasis, and kanji supplies most of the meaning — several thousand characters, of which around two thousand are in general use.
No keyboard can hold that, and nobody has ever pretended otherwise. What exists instead is an input method: you type something the software can read, and it produces the text. This is why the lessons here can draw you a keyboard for Russian or Hindi and cannot draw you one for Japanese. The keyboard is the one you already have.
There are two established ways to drive it. Romaji input takes the sound in Latin letters. Kana input takes the syllables directly, on a layout that spreads fifty-odd kana across the keys. The first needs no new keyboard and is what most people use; the second takes fewer keystrokes and considerably longer to learn.
What you actually press
In romaji input you type the syllables and the kana appear as you complete each one. Nothing is held down, and the Latin letters are not left behind on screen — ka becomes か as soon as the a lands.
Two shapes are worth knowing before they surprise you. A small y-kana fuses with the one before it, so きょ is three keys rather than four: k, y, o. And a small tsu doubles the consonant that follows, which is why がっこう is typed gakkou with two k's — the doubled letter is the small tsu, not a stutter.
One more thing that trips people up early: more than one spelling is accepted. し can be typed shi or si, つ can be tsu or tu, ふ can be fu or hu. The table below uses the spellings a textbook would have taught you, and the other ones work exactly as well. This is not a setting to get right; it is a genuine either-or that every input method allows.
| Word | Keys you press | Kana against keystrokes |
|---|---|---|
| きょう | k y o u | 3 kana, 4 keys |
| かのじょ | k a n o j o | 4 kana, 6 keys |
| がっこう | g a k k o u | 4 kana, 6 keys |
| しごとば | s h i g o t o b a | 4 kana, 9 keys |
| ともだち | t o m o d a c h i | 4 kana, 9 keys |
| しごと | s h i g o t o | 3 kana, 7 keys |
The conversion is where the time goes
Everything above produces kana. Turning kana into the mixture of kana and kanji that real Japanese is written in takes one more step: you type a phrase, press space, and the software offers the ways it could be written. You accept one and move on.
That step is most of what Japanese typing speed actually measures, and it is not a typing skill. Japanese has a very large number of homophones, so the list can be long, and choosing correctly means recognising the right characters quickly — which improves by reading Japanese, not by drilling keys.
It is worth being clear about the consequence, because it is the honest limit of a typing tutor here. A words-per-minute figure in Japanese is not comparable to one in English or Korean. The hands are doing less work and the eyes are doing much more, and the same person's number will move with their vocabulary rather than with their fingers.
Why these lessons drill hiragana only
The practice words here are hiragana and nothing else, and that is a decision rather than a gap.
The part of Japanese typing that responds to drilling is the mapping from sound to keys: knowing without thinking that ぜ is z then e and that ちゃ is c, h, a. That is exactly what a typing exercise is good at, and it is the part that stays useful whichever input method you eventually settle on.
The conversion step is not improved by repetition — it is improved by knowing more kanji, which a typing tutor cannot teach and should not pretend to. Drilling kanji through an input method would measure your vocabulary while calling it typing speed.
Everything physical carries over from touch typing in any Latin-alphabet language, because the keys are the same keys. If you already touch type, you already have the harder half of romaji input.
Questions
Is there a Japanese keyboard layout?
There is a kana layout, which places the syllables directly on the keys, and it is a minority choice. Most Japanese text is typed on an ordinary QWERTY keyboard using romaji input, where you type the sound in Latin letters and the software produces the kana.
How do I type っ, the small tsu?
By doubling the consonant that follows it. がっこう is typed gakkou — the second k is the small tsu. You do not type it as a character of its own in romaji input, which is why it looks like a spelling mistake until you know.
Is it shi or si?
Both. Input methods accept the Hepburn spellings a textbook teaches — shi, chi, tsu, fu — and the Kunrei ones a keyboard-first user often prefers: si, ti, tu, hu. Neither is more correct at the keyboard, and it is worth picking one and being consistent rather than switching.
Does touch typing help with Japanese?
For romaji input, enormously: the keys are the ordinary Latin keys and everything transfers. What does not transfer is the conversion step, where you choose among the ways a phrase could be written — that is reading, and it improves with reading rather than with drills.
Why is my Japanese WPM so much lower?
Because it is measuring something else. Every phrase needs a conversion and a choice, so a Japanese figure includes reading a candidate list and an English one does not. Compare your Japanese speed to your own over time, not to a number from another language.
Put it into practice
The language this guide is about: Japanese.
Reading about typing is the smaller half. The beginner course starts on the home row, the speed test will tell you where you stand, and all of it works in 86 languages without an account.