The latest and newest Ubuntu such as Oneiric Ocelot version makes setting and tweaking the OS simple. One of the simple way offered by Ubuntu OS is its customization to your language both as display window and keyboard input. This article will review step-by-step to make Japanese characters: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana are enabled in your Ubuntu. So, you can write in Kanji or Hiragana to your friends via email, chat and other.
First, open the dash home (in Unity) and type : Language. What you need is both Language Support Option and Keyboard Input. Please see figure below, to have more detail.
In the Language Support, press the Install / Remove Languages… button.
In the Installed Languages screen, scroll down to Japanese and check Input methods and Extra fonts, and press Apply Changes.
