National Diet Library

As a part of the electronic library project, the NDL started to provide Web-OPAC, Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet, Rare Books Image Database, and others on its web site. However, some contents are available only in Japanese, and the texts may be displayed in garbled characters. To view Japanese text on non-Japanese OS, you must have the appropriate Japanese language support and font installed on your system. This page presents some information about displaying and inputting Japanese characters on the web pages on your English operating system.

Windows 2000
Windows95/98, Windows NT 4.0 + Microsoft Internet Explorer
Windows95/98, Windows NT 4.0 + Netscape Communicator
Windows 3.1, word-processors and others
About the NDL Web site

For users of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft provides a free multi-language pack for East Asian languages to view and input Japanese characters.

1. Obtain Japanese language support

* If you do not have Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)

Download Microsoft IE 4.0 or later version from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ together with the Microsoft Global IME for Japanese with Language Pack from http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/ie/Features/ime.asp.


If you just want to read Japanese, to install Microsoft IE5.x is enough for the purpose. When you visit a site written in Japanese, IE5.x displays download instruction for Japanese text display support.

* Users of Microsoft IE 4.x

You can download the Microsoft Global IME for Japanese with Language Pack as add-on from http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/ie/Features/ime.asp.

* If you already have Microsoft Office 2000, you do not need other Japanese language support.


2.  After you install Japanese IME, Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 displays the little blue Global IME icon on the task bar whenever Internet Explorer 4/5 or Word 2000 is active.
3. To view Japanese characters, from 'View' menu select 'Encoding', then 'Auto Select' or 'Japanese (Auto Select)'.

If you are using Microsoft IE 4.x, in addition to them, from 'View' menu choose 'Internet Options', then click on 'fonts' at the bottom of the 'General' tab. For the 'Character Set', choose 'Japanese (Auto Select)', then click 'Set as Default'.
4. To input Japanese characters, just click the IME icon, select 'Japanese', choose input mode from the list (example at right), and start typing. You can also select a desired IME keyboard.

For further details, click on the little book with a question mark for help.

If you prefer Netscape Communicator as a browser ........

You can view Japanese characters using Netscape Communicator. Besides, beginning with Communicator 4.72, Netscape offers limited input support for Japanese with the use of Microsoft Global IME modules. Download Netscape Communicator 4.72 or later version from http://home.netscape.com/download/, Microsoft IE 4.0 or later version from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/, and Microsoft Global IME from http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/ie/Features/ime.asp. For further details, see: Global IME Support in Communicator 4.72.
When you input Japanese characters using Communicator 4.72 through 4.75, garbled characters will appear on the display. Don't worry, your computer will recognize them as proper Japanese text.

Users of Netscape Communicator versions earlier than 4.72 can only view Japanese characters by using the following procedure:

1. Install Japanese font(s)

* Easiest way is to download above mentioned Microsoft Global IME for Japanese with Language Pack. Once installed, MS-Gothic font will be available on your computer.

* MS-Mincho font is included in Microsoft Office97/98/2000 CD-ROM.

* Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM includes Japanese font. For furhter details, see HOWTO: Add and Enable Additional Languages in Windows NT on the Microsoft site.

2. From the Netscape Communicator 'Edit' menu, choose 'Preferences'.
3. In the 'Appearances' window, choose 'Fonts'. Choose 'Japanese' for the Encoding, choose 'MS-Gothic' or other Japanese font for both 'Variable Width Font' and 'Fixed Width Font', and click on OK.
4. From the Netscape Communicator 'View' menu, choose 'Character Set' ('Encoding' in NC4.0x) and select 'Japanese (Auto-Detect)'.
5. Now, you can view Japanese characters.

For Windows 3.1, other browsers and commercial softwares, please look up
Information on Japanese-Language Software on the Japanese Studies Network Forum site.

Japanese Characters, Word-processors and the Web on the Monash University site includes useful information about Japanese word-processing and reading Japanese on the web.

Web-OPAC: http://webopac2.ndl.go.jp/
You can search the database with both Roman and Japanese characters. For further details, read 'searching help'
Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet: http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/
You can search only with Japanese characters. If an unintelligible sequence of characters appears on the screen, right-click on each frame and choose 'Japanese' from the language list.
Rare Books Image Database: http://www3.ndl.go.jp/rm/index.html
You can search only with Japanese characters.

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