Using Emacs and org-mode with Japanese Text

Before you proceed, check that your system is capable of displaying Japanese text. The built in command view-hello-file, invoked with the C-h h keystrokes will display a text file containing many languages. You should see "Konnichiwa" written in Hiragana characters:

Further down the file you will see more Japanese text:

If your Emacs displays are similar to these screen captures, then you can proceed with this tutorial.

Japanese text can not be saved in a single byte ASCII file. Instead, a double-byte coding is used. I choose the UTF-8 encoding.

• Step 1. Create a new buffer
  

  The word RET means to press the Enter key.

  C-x C-f FILENAME RET

• Step 2. Enable multibyte characters
  

  M-x toggle-enable-multibyte-characters RET

  This long command name can be entered quickly by entering tog ESC en ESC then the RET

• Step 3. Set the Language Environment
  

  C-x RET l Japanese RET - a shorter version of M-x set-language-environment RET Japanese RET

  Learn more about the Japanese language environment with the command:

  C-h L Japanese RET.

  

  Click on the first link labelled Japanese for more information about the input method.

• Step 4. Enter Japanese text
  

  Both Japanese and English text can be entered in the buffer. Enter the command C-\ to toggle between English and Japanese. The mode line will indicate Japanese mode when the Hiragana letter for A is displayed:

  

• Step 5. Save the file in double-byte encoding
  

  Force the file to be saved in double-byte characters using the command:

  C-x RET c utf-8 RET C-x C-s

• Step Opening an existing file
  

  The file created in the previous section will be correctly recognised as a multi-byte file when you reopen the file next time.

  After you next run C-x C-f filename, you can swicth immediately to Japanese input.

Toggle the input method C-\ and ensure the mode line shows Japanaese mode (similar to the previous screen capture).

I find it necessary to increase the font size for greater clarity and this can be done with a shift-left mouse click and choosing a larger font size from the dialogue.

Start typing phonetically. For example, to type the word "Watashi" (which means "I"), type the letters watashi. In Japanese, this is represented by three hiragana symbols, wa-ta-shi. You can see these displayed as you complete each syllable:

The underline means this is an active text entry. At this point you can type a space to replace the characters with Kanji. This lookup is based on a phonetic dictionary which is part of Emacs.

If there is only corresponding Kanji character, it is replaced, otherwise continue typing a space to select from more than one match. If you want revert to the Hiragana type H.

To enter Katakana, enter a capital K before hitting Return. For example, to type the word Coca Cola, type kokakora then K. You do need to know how to pronounce foreign words (such as "Coca Cola") in Japanese syllables in order to type the word. The result is:

Conversions to Kanji can be made on regions of Hiragana and Katakana text.

First of all, mark the beginning of the text with C-space, go to the end of the region then M-x followed by one of these commands:

japanese-katakana-region

Convert Hiragana to Katakana

japanese-hiragana-region

Convert Katakana to Hiragana

japanase-hankaku-region

Convert to half-width Katakana

japanase-zenkaku-region

Convert to full-width Katakana

The command names can be entered quickly by first entering Esc x jap ESC. Hit Tab for a list of commands or instead, enter the first two letters of the command then Tab.

The input method is called utf-translate-cjk-mode. Refer to this command for a description.

Insert an org-mode export template wih the command C-c C-e t. Change the Language line to look like:

 #+LANGUAGE:  jp

Now you can export the page and view in a browser.

The attached text file japanesetest.org is converted to japanesetest which you can open in your browser. It should look like the following:

• Chapter 19 of the GNU Emacs Manual.
• http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/languages/japanese.html

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