How
To Use the Japanese IME
2. On the multilanguage menu (represented by an EN button on the taskbar), click Japanese IME to select the Japanese IME keyboard layout.
3. After you select the Japanese IME keyboard layout, a floating toolbar is displayed on the screen. At this point, the Japanese IME keyboard layout is selected but inactive (off).
4. Activate the Japanese IME keyboard layout by pressing ALT+~ on the 101-key keyboard. To de-activate the Japanese IME keyboard layout, press the ALT key in combination with the ~ key a second time. You can also toggle the Japanese IME keyboard layout state by clicking the pen button in the status area of the taskbar, and then clicking On/Off on the shortcut menu.
5. Start typing in Hiragana (phonetic). For example, type the word tora (tiger). The Japanese Hiragana characters are displayed in the document.
6. Press SPACEBAR once. The Hiragana characters change to Kanji characters. You might think of Kanji as symbols that represent the meaning of a word instead of a symbols that are phonetic representation of the word.
7. Press SPACEBAR a second time. You see a "Candidate List" that allows you to choose among alternate versions of the word in Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana.
8. To select the characters that you want from the list, press the arrow keys. Alternately, you can press the corresponding number on your keyboard, which is displayed next to the character in the list. The character now appears in your document.
(Microsoft kb: 263513; 308539) http://support.microsoft.com/