# Japanese characters not displayed in Windows 7



## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

I have a fair bit of japanese music in my library and some of the songs which are just written in kanji are displayed as rectangles. As I have just found out from writing this, copying and pasting these into a browser results in them looking correct like this -> &#12469;&#12452;&#12463;&#12523; (Cycle).

So basically in explorer and media player 12 japanese characters are not displayed correctly but in my browser (google chrome) they are. Anyone know how to fix this?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Have you installed Japanese?


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## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

@ Elvandil

I have not, and do not know how to. Could you please explain how I would do that?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

OK. Open up the Windows update window. You should find an applet in Control Panel to do that. Japanese is one of the optional updates. You won't notice any big changes after it is installed, just that you will have support for Kanji.

Or, go to Regional and Language options (Control Panel), and find where to install languages (I'm on Vista at the moment, but I'm sure it must be similar).

&#12372;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12426;&#12414;&#12377;&#12290;


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## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

Okay well I checked for updates and the only optional one was Silverlight. Installed that in case more would appear after that but it said I was up to date. Then I checked update history and they were mostly security updates and no mention of language packs or similar.

As for the control panel options, the only available option which seems to make any sense is to add a japanese keyboard set. I added it, but nothing happened.

Do you know of any Windows 7 specific method to do this?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

I'll take a look. I'm pretty sure that I installed it.

Be back.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

OK. On 7 now.

When I click on Windows Update, I have 32 optional programs, all language packs now, with Japanese and Korean missing, since I installed them. I have 7 Ultimate. If you don't seee those options, then your version of 7 may not support them. That is all that I can think of.


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## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

Seems fairly weird that Home Premium wouldn't support Asian language packs....How are you getting to the optional updates? Do you just click check for updates?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

They come up automatically in the Windows Update box. Same as they did for me in Vista Ultimate. I'm pretty sure it is your version that is missing that feature. I wouldn't expect it to be present in a simple Home version.

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...i-install-language-pack-rtm-home-premium.html


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## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

Dunno, I had it on Vista Home Premium and XP Home Edition. Just seems weird that they'd leave it out of Home Premium. I mean I can see the symbols in Chrome so I don't know. There must be a way of getting around it like getting the install like getting the update file from ultimate to home premium. If I really can't get it, then I regret not getting Ultimate (considering I could have got it for £30 being a student)


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

I'm finding quite a bit of conflicting information. Was this an upgrade or a full version?

According to most sites, language packs were only available in the Ultimate versions of Vista and 7. Others say all versions if you purchased the full versions and not the upgrade disks.

Still others say that the language packs may show up for Home Premium later on. I know it was only fairly recently that I got the option to install them in 7 Ultimate, and all updates go to Ultimate users ahead of anyone else.

In those versions that have language packs, the option to add them is in the Regional and Language Options in Control Panel.

If I find anything else, I'll let you know.

This from Technet:

All installations of Windows® 7 contain at least one language pack and the language-neutral binaries that make up the core operating system. Licensing requirements state that Windows 7 can include only a single language, with the exception of the Windows 7 Ultimate and the Enterprise editions. These are referred to as single-language editions. However, the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions can include multiple language packs. These are referred to as multilingual editions.


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## Ryukai (Jul 13, 2007)

I have the upgrade version, so I guess that's that. Thing is though I don't want the entire japanese language pack, I just want support for the symbols...wouldn't have thought Microsoft would find it too hard  Oh well. Thanks a lot for you time and help.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It may still appear down the road. As I mentioned, the packs for Ultimate were pretty recent, so don't give up hope. They may show up as optional updates one of these days.

Yes, there are really 2 forms of "language packs", one that can change everything (menus, etc.) and one that just offers support for Unicode characters. There is a language IME (Input Method Editor). The one that may show up later in updates is the one you want.

To be honest, I'm not sure I believe the guy who said you could not use an upgrade version. The upgrade version contains a full installation of the operating system and I can't see them making 2 versions just to leave language packs out.


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