Browsing the Web in Japanese at MIT - DOS/Windows/NT

As we do not currently have much direct experience dealing with DOS, Windows, NT or Linux, we are pointing people at the University of Washington's Japanese Computing on DOS and Windows page for detailed information.

There is also a great deal of useful information on Japanese computing in general at the Monash Nihongo ftp Archive maintained by Jim Breen of Monash University.

Windows 95/98/NT Users and Internet Explorer

A simple solution which does allow for display of Japanese text on an otherwise non-Japanese capable machine (but which does not, to our knowledge, allow you to type in Japanese in forms, etc.) is available for Windows users browsing with Internet Explorer.

Users of Internet Explorer version 4.0 and above should look for the multilanguage add-on at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/addon.htm. (Just follow the link, and then choose the OS link from the page and follow the directions from there.)

Also of interest is the Global IME from Microsoft, which allows users of an English-language PC to type Japanese text into any application which allows for entry of HTML text, such as Outlook. Things are changing rapidly, so more applications may be able to use the IME soon.

Windows 95/98/NT Users and Netscape

A curious side effect of the installation of the IME is that Netscape is able to use the fonts installed in the process as well. Just select the "Edit" menu, choose the "Preferences" item, and select "Fonts" under "Appearance" in the dialog box. Then select "Japanese" in the "For the Encoding..." line; choose "MS Mincho" or "MS Gothic" for the two fonts, and then select "OK".

Then when you go to a page with Japanese text, choose the "View" menu, then the "Character Set" item, and select "Japanese (Auto Detect)" and the Japanese should be readable.