This tutorial will show you how to set up and install Japanese input method IME (日本語入力方法) on Linux Mint 12 Lisa so you can type in Japanese. Linux Mint is quickly becoming one of the more popular Linux distributions. Linux Mint 12 comes in a Gnome 2 and Gnome 3 variety. This tutorial works for either version, however, the menus look a little different in Gnome 2.
Linux Mint 12 Japanese IME Setup Procedure
Click on the Mint Menu and navigate to Other → Software Manager.
In the Software Manager, search for ibus.
Select ibus.
Click Install.
In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate.
Sotware Manager will now download and install IBus in the background.
While IBus is installing, search for anthy.
Select ibus-anthy and click Install.
In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate.
Software Manager will now download and install ibus-anthy in the background.
When the activity bar on the bottom shows 0 ongoing actions, installation is complete.
Close Software Manager.
From the Mint Menu, navigate to System Tools → System Settings.
Open Language Support.
Note: If language support was not installed during the Mint install process you may get a pop up dialog indicating that the language support is not installed completely. In that case, select Install to install the language support. In the Authentication Required dialog box, enter your system password and press Authenticate. The Applying changes screen will display and show the installation progress. When the language support has been fully installed, the Language Support screen will display.
On the Language Support screen, select Install / Remove Languages….
Scroll down and check Japanese, and then press Apply Changes.
On the Language Support screen, press the Keyboard input method system: drop down and select ibus.
Then press Close.
Click on the Mint Menu and select System Tools → IBus.
You should now have the little IBus keyboard icon displayed somewhere on the right side of your Gnome top panel.
Click on the IBus keyboard icon and select Preferences.
On the IBus Preferences screen, go to the Input Method tab.
Press the Select an input method dropdown and select Japanese → Anthy.
Press Add on the IBus Preferences screen to add the Anthy Japanese input method.
Open a text application like Text Editor. While the cursor is in the text field, press the Ibus keyboard icon in the top panel and select Japanese – Anthy.
The Japanese Anthy toolbar should appear and you can now type in Japanese. Place the cursor in a text input application like Text Edit and try to type in Japanese.
That’s all there is to it. Linux Mint is known to be a very easy to use distribution, but it takes quite a few more steps to install Japanese input than the latest versions of Ubuntu or Fedora.
Note: I had issues with the Anthy toolbar not appearing and instead showed this icon which usually means no input window found. But, I could still type in Japanese in this mode, so no worries if this happens to you.
Note: I had trouble when trying to add Japanese on the Install / Remove Languages screen. It worked fine in the Gnome 2 version of Mint 12 I installed in a virtual machine, but it gave a Software database is broken error message in the Gnome 3 version of Mint 12 I installed on a physical laptop. I tried reinstalling twice but I kept getting the same problem. It may have been a problem with the laptop because I also had issues when trying to install drivers for the wireless card. I had no issues with Japanese input on Mint in a VM.
Had to log out and back in to get it to work (using Live CD).
I’m facing similar problem with Korean and Chinese input with ibus. I didn’t have this when using Linux Mint 11 Katya.
Thank you very much for the clear instructions. Everything is working fine.
Just as a quick note, you don’t need to install ibus separately- installing ibus-anthy will install all dependencies automatically.
Everything seems to work great thanks for the great instructions. Note that what the window with a crossed circle means is that there is that the icon that was looked for was not found. It should in no way affect one’s experience with ibus.
How do I do the same for the KDE desktop? I can’t find the “Language Support” option anywhere.
Do you know if there is a way for the ‘crown’ Anthy icon to show up. That way you can create a shortcut to write only in katakana… I had the previous linux mint version and it worked fine but not with Lisa.. any ideas? thank you so much!
From Fermin FM in another post.. it might be interesting:
“You can also change hiragana to katakana, while the text is highlighted (underlined), by pressing the F7 key. Here’s a list of what other function keys do:
F6: Hiragana
F7: Katakana
F8: ‘Narrow’ katakana
F9: ‘Wide’ romaji
F10: ‘Normal width’ romaji”
I’m having trouble with this. I’m running Linux Mint 12 KDE edition, and so some of the steps are a little different. I end up with the ibus icon and the Anthy IM selected, but no matter what I do it won’t enter text in Japanese.
Under preferences, I set the “Enable/Disable” shortcut key to “Zenkaku_Hankaku” (the button to the left of the “1″ key on my Japanese keyboard), but I still can’t activate Japanese typing at all. It’s very frustrating… any help?