Japanese Input under Linux

Getting Japanese input to work under Linux was a major pain back in the day. For work reason I did not use a Linux system for quite some time privately. So when I switched back to Linux I had to get Japanese Input working and please as simple and universal as on MacOS X.

Turns out that the newest kid on the block ibus is getting me what I want. On my PPC Debian wheezy box it took less than 15 minutes including the installation. Below is short reminder for myself how to do it.

Software installation

sudo apt-get install ibus ibus-anthy

Configuration

All the steps below are to be run as normal non-privileged user.

• From the command line run the im-config command.
• Click [Yes] until a choice of input methods is available. Choose the default one.
• Next run ibus-setup onfigure the keyboard shortcuts of choice and under the [Input Method] tab add Japanese -> Anthy.
• Edit ~/.bashrc and add the following lines

export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus

• Restart X session