Planning on buying a laptop but concerned about OS language.

19 comments

1. Any version of Windows since 8/10 or so can install language packs. Prior to this you needed Pro version or etc, but now with 10/11 its available on all. Being a language pack, it’s still going to have some Japanese weirdness, like default non-unicode apps locale will be set to Japanese, and your ‘s will look like yen signs even in English mode. Not too big of a deal really.

   That said, reinstalling Windows is pretty easy these days, and with all the crapware preloaded by vendors, is basically a requirement anyway. You can download Win11 installation tool directly from Microsoft, make a bootable USB, and do a clean install of the English-language version.

2. Are you dependent on Windows? Else with Linux (and possibly macOS, but I am not a specialist) you can choose your language anytime on login.

3. As u/bloggie2 said, for Windows 10/11 you can change the language. If memory serves me correctly, when you go through the initial system setup it’s like the first or second thing that you can choose.

   The bigger potential concern for you is that the keyboard layout on Japanese keyboards is different. It not only has keys for toggling between Japanese and English, but symbol keys (such as @, $, #, and so on) are all placed in different locations. You can get used to it. I have. But some people choose to get a U.S. laptop in order to get a standard English keyboard.

4. Had a friend order a gaming laptop through Asus JP’s website a few years back. First time setup will allow you to set the language that you want, then add/change languages after the fact.

5. Please ignore people who suggest Linux. Most Windows and Mac machines would support language packs.

6. Almost all relatively new Windows versions will allow installing language packs that let you switch between languages or have different languages for different accounts on the same machine.

   The only real drawbacks to installing, say, an English one in an originally Japanese Windows 10 (or, I assume, 11) setup are these:

   First, non-GUI messages will sometimes still be in Japanese. For example, when I update the OS, the progress messages are in Japanese. Some blue screen messages are in Japanese, too.

   Second, really old software—the example I’m thinking of is some *hagaki* software published in the early 1990s—in Japanese will sometimes not display messages correctly because they’re encoded in old systems.

7. IIRC so long as you have a “key” you can download and install any language version of windows via a USB drive flashed with the iso image.

8. The biggest issue is the keyboard layout.

   The OS language can certainly be changed, but a Japanese keyboard, although it has and supports English characters, has a slightly different layout.

   Some of the Dell models will allow selecting a US English keyboard layout as well which is not something most direct to Japan OEM support.

9. My experience ordering a Dell XPS15 (9570) with English OS and US keyboard layout in Tokyo was not great. Took over a month to arrive and I didn’t notice right away that there was a small crack in the corner of the screen. For the most part, aside from some random Japanese popping up during updating, it’s been okay but doesn’t get used much.

10. Recently the Windows 10/11 license doesn’t seem to bind to a single language, I bought a Dell gaming laptop for my wife, Dell told me only Japanese Windows available, but in fact after Windows activation, I went to Microsoft website to download their Windows 10 ISO to wipe the laptop and install a native US English version without any issue.

    I’ve also purchased a China branded mini PC which has Simplified Chinese Windows, did the same thing and now it’s with US English now.

11. I would have a bigger concern with the Japanese keyboard, rather than software which can easily be changed.

12. I had this issue about 13 years ago. Back then english OS cost an extra 20000. Someone told me Mac was turn on and choose. So I bought an iMac. I became a mac person. Lasted 11 years. Then got a Mac mini, same deal. Turn it on, choose english. All the built in programs. Mac at home. Windows at work.

13. Just watch out for regional keyboard layouts.

14. Some people mentioned the keyboard differences. I would suggest a compromise.

    The thing with keyboards and Windows is that how input is interpreted is via the language setting in play in Windows. In some(?) Linux dist. there are ways for hardware itself to be relevant to whether or not a certain key layout is recognized over another (someone can correct me if wrong).

    The issue with ENG/JPN in Windows is that using a US layout means mainly switching between ENG and [A] (JPN) modes in IME.

    1. The US layout (the US keyboard 101/102) and JPN layout (JPN keyboard 106/109) setting is only in the Japanese language settings of IME itself. This is a manual setting.
    2. In English settings, this same keyboard business is under the “Keyboards” section which by default just has a US keyboard. Adding a Japanese keyboard adds a sort of “additional” ENG selection (ENG JP) which is ENG mode with a Japanese keyboard.
    3. This ENG JP mode is basically equivalent to the JPN [A] (romaji) mode.

    So a typical US layout user never adjusts this JPN mode’s keyboard setting in IME (as it defaults to US 101/102). When introducing a JPN keyboard (like via BT/USB) this needs to be set to the 106/109 to work properly.

    With the above in mind the compromise position is though you can set the OS language to ENG and the IME setting might as well always be JPN. You would never really need ENG (in either US or JPN layout per #2) since JPN [A] (romaji) mode is the basically the same thing. Losing the converting keys just to have a US layout ends up feeling inconvenient if you are typing JPN more often in daily use.

    Just for background, asides from using a JPN layout laptop at work, I use a US layout at home for English composition and US tax season, and very recently started using a portable JPN layout for a lot of local stuff. (Logitech UltraX (US) and a Logicool MX Mini Keys (JPN) )

15. Anything after Windows 8 and all MAC OS will have multilingual options for both OS display and input, so don’t worry. You just need to navigate it once to set the language, download the language pack and it will be in whatever language you want.

16. I bought my last laptop from Japan and I needed to use Google translate on my phone to be able to read the setup screens and the updating screens but otherwise that I didn’t really have any issues with language.

17. The language is no concern in modern operating systems, it’s the Japanese keyboard which will come with the laptop. It has few extra keys and the layout is slightly different from the US keyboard.

18. Fortunately my Asus laptop had full English support. Bought from their site directly.

19. Pretty sure you can set the language during the initial setup