Typing Japanese on XP

In order to make your computer (XP) be able to type in Japanese, youwould need Visual Keyboard from the Microsoft website. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=86A21CBA-E9F6-41DB-86EB-2ADFE407E620&displaylang=EN

Just download and install, and look in Start Menu > Programs > Microsoft Office Tools to find the shortcut. When it's run, there are instructions for setting it up in the help menu.
Here are some detailed instructions for Visual Keyboard. By default, the user will be typing Hiragana characters. These instructions are only for Windows XP users. Although Visual Keyboard is an Office XP/2000 add-on, it seems to work with other things, like Notepad. If you need setup instructions for another platform, just let someone here know.

1. Download and then run the Visual Keyboard installer at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=86A21CBA-E9F6-41DB-86EB-2ADFE407E620&displaylang=EN
After installation, you should see a shortcut for it under Start > Programs > Microsoft Office Tools

2. Next go to Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options

3. Click on the Languages tab

4. Make sure that there is a check in the checkbox for "Install files for East Asian Languages"

5. Still in the Languages tab, click on Details...

6. Under the Settings tab > Installed Services, click on Add

7. Select Japanese from the Input Language droplist box and click OK

8. Keep clicking OK until you are out of the Regional and Languages Options

9. Start up Word or some other word processor

10. Start up Visual Keyboard

11. You should see the letters EN on the taskbar, near the clock (right side)

12. Click on EN and select Japanese

13. Create a new document in Word if there isn't one already

14. Then go back to Visual Keyboard. The title bar should be in the foreground, while Word should be grayed out in the background.