How to get Japanese Kanji characters as an input mode?

Question

I am learning Japanese and I have found that after installing Japanese (Anthy) through the gnome-control-center that I have several input modes available to type with now under that, Hiragana, Katakana, Halfwidth Katakana, Latin, and Wide Latin. However, there is no Kanji. I could probably install it by installing the Chinese input source, but I may not be able to find the correct characters because of difference in meaning and pronunciation so it would be preferable if I could get the Japanese one (so that I can type watashi instead of I to get 私 - I would be for the Chinese one, and watashi for the Japanese one).

So how does one install Kanji? And can one use it as an input mode? I am running Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 with GNOME 3.18.

Just to clarify: I want Kanji and not Kana (the name for individual Hiragana and Katakana characters) as I've already found that.

@GunnarHjalmarsson: Ok, I have installed that now, so how do I get access to Kanji? Do I need to reboot or something as well? — , Mar 14 '16 at 12:17
@GunnarHjalmarsson: Ok, well, after a restart I can't find Kanji, where exactly would it be and how would I access it? — , Mar 14 '16 at 15:08
Well, on Unity it appears in Text Entry. I'm not sure, but there might be some stupid "whitelist" or "blacklist" in Ubuntu GNOME which hides certain input sources by default. If so, it needs to be modified, but I can't tell how. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 15:37
In this bug report (comment 1) you find a terminal command which might help. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 15:42
I installed ibus-kkc on my Ubuntu GNOME (Xenial), and after a relogin, "Japanese (Kana Kanji)" showed up among the Japanese input sources in Region & Language, without a need to enable that "show-all-sources" option. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 16:31
@GunnarHjalmarsson: Ah! Thanks! Didn't see it there (though it would be much more useful as an input mode of Japanese (Anthy))! Please post an answer on this so I can accept it. — , Mar 14 '16 at 17:09
@GunnarHjalmarsson: Wait, it says Kana Kanji, this is Kanji and not Kana right? — , Mar 14 '16 at 17:11
I have absolutely no idea. ;) As regards an answer, please post it (and accept it) yourself if the ibus-kkc package is what you want. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 17:37
@GunnarHjalmarsson: No, I think that's actually Kana which is not what I want... — , Mar 14 '16 at 17:41
Unlike Anthy it includes a "direct input" mode. (So does ibus-mozc, btw.) — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 18:02
@GunnarHjalmarsson: Well, that just seems to type in English unless I've got the wrong idea about this feature? — , Mar 14 '16 at 18:32
Then I don't know. I just saw "Kanji" in the name of the input source. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Mar 14 '16 at 18:41
@GunnarHjalmarsson: Ah, well maybe I'll have to make a Kanji input source then! — , Mar 14 '16 at 18:46

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '16 at 22:26

The Anthy input method that you are using is able to input kanji.

After you type a word (or even a long phrase) in kana, just press the Space bar in order to bring up the kanji conversion.

Anthy will provide several options based on frequency of use in Japanese, words and phrases commonly used together, and on your local frequency of use.

How to get Japanese Kanji characters as an input mode?

1 Answers1