Japanese (Hiragana) Keyboard Online — Type in Japanese (Hiragana) Free

The Hiragana Keyboard for Kana Input

This is a full on-screen hiragana keyboard. Every one of the 46 basic kana, both sound marks, the small kana, and Japanese punctuation is laid out in front of you, so you can build a word one tap at a time without a Japanese IME installed on the machine you happen to be sitting at. You click or tap the keys, the syllables land in the text box, a live counter tracks the length, and a single button copies the whole thing to your clipboard.

Because the keys emit real Unicode hiragana, whatever you type pastes cleanly into a chat window, a search bar, a form field, or a document — the characters are the same ones a native writer in Japan would produce. There is a Clear button to wipe the box and start again, and a handwriting panel for the moments when you need a kanji you cannot spell.

Japanese is written with three scripts at once: hiragana for grammar and native words, katakana for loanwords, and kanji for roots and names. The keys here are the hiragana syllabary — the script every learner starts with and the one that carries the grammar of a sentence.

Try it: こんにちは (hello) · ありがとう (thank you) · にほんご (the Japanese language)

The JIS Kana Layout, Key by Key

The keys follow the JIS kana layout (JIS X 6002) — the direct kana-input arrangement, かな入力, that is physically printed on keyboards sold in Japan. It is a different beast from romaji input, where you spell か by pressing K then A. Here each physical key is a kana, so か is a single keystroke, not two.

Read across the board and the gojūon order is visible. The upper rows carry the vowels and the y-line: あうえお along the top with やゆよ beside them. The home row runs ちとしはきくまのりれけ, and the bottom row holds つさそひこみもねるめ. The two most important non-kana keys — the voiced mark ゛ and the semi-voiced mark ゜ — sit together at the right end of the upper letter row, just past せ.

One tap enters one kana — the layout maps keys to syllables, not to Latin letters.
A single Shift layer sits over the whole board, giving most keys a second character.
The dakuten ゛ and handakuten ゜ live on their own keys rather than being folded into the vowels.
Because it mirrors the JIS standard, the muscle memory transfers straight to a real Japanese keyboard.

Typing Japanese Kana Quickly

1

Tap the plain kana first

Build a word from its base syllables. For はな (flower), tap は then な. Each tap appends to the box and bumps the character counter.

2

Add a sound mark after the kana

Voicing is a separate keystroke that follows the syllable. Tap か, then the ゛ key, to move it toward the が (ga) sound; tap は then ゜ for the ぱ (pa) sound.

3

Hold Shift for the small kana

Turn on Shift and the second layer appears. Shift + つ gives the small っ; Shift + や gives ゃ. On-screen Shift releases itself after one key, so tap it again for the next small kana.

4

Copy and paste

When the sentence looks right, press Copy and drop it wherever you need it. Backspace removes the last character; Clear empties the box for a fresh line.

The sound mark is entered as its own character right after the kana, exactly the way kana input works on a JIS keyboard — type the syllable, then the mark, never the mark alone.

Voiced Marks, Small Kana, and Japanese Punctuation

Beyond the plain syllables, this layout carries the handful of extra signs that make Japanese readable. Here is where each one lives and what it does.

Dakuten and handakuten

The ゛ key voices a kana (k to g, s to z, t to d, h to b); the ゜ key makes the h-line into p sounds. Both sit just right of せ.

Small kana on Shift

Shift reveals the small っ (which doubles the next consonant, as in きって) and the small ゃゅょ that form contracted sounds like きゃ (kya).

The を particle and long vowel

Shift + わ gives the object particle を (pronounced "o"). Shift + ほ gives the long-vowel mark ー used to stretch a sound.

Japanese punctuation

The comma 、 (Shift + ね), the full stop 。 (Shift + る), the corner-bracket quotes 「」, and the middle dot ・ (Shift + め) all live on the second layer.

The one thing the keys do not carry is kanji. For those, open the handwriting panel, draw the character stroke by stroke, and pick the matching kanji from the candidates the tool suggests — a fast way in when you can picture the shape but not its reading.

Japanese Keyboard Questions

How do I write voiced kana like が, ざ, だ, ば, and ぱ?

Tap the plain kana, then tap the sound-mark key that follows it. The ゛ (dakuten) key voices かさたは lines into the g, z, d, and b sounds; the ゜ (handakuten) key turns the は line into ぱぴぷぺぽ. Both keys sit to the right of せ.

Where are the small kana such as っ and ゃ?

They are on the Shift layer. Turn on Shift and tap つ for the small っ, or tap やゆよ for ゃゅょ. The small vowels ぁぃぅぇぉ ride on top of あいうえお the same way. Shift lets go after one key, so re-press it for each small kana.

Can I enter kanji, and what about katakana?

Kanji come from the handwriting panel: draw the character and choose it from the suggested matches, which drops it straight into your text. Katakana is not part of this hiragana layout — the on-screen keys give you the hiragana syllabary plus hand-drawn kanji.

Is this the same layout as a real Japanese keyboard?

Yes — the keys follow the JIS kana arrangement (かな入力) printed on keyboards in Japan, where each key is a kana rather than a Latin letter. That is different from romaji input, where you would spell each syllable out with two roman letters. Practising here builds the same finger memory.

How do I look up a kanji when I do not know its reading?

Open the handwriting canvas and draw the character with your mouse or finger. The recognizer offers a row of candidates ranked by how well they match your strokes; tap the right one and it is inserted. Use Undo to remove the last stroke or Clear to wipe the canvas and try again.

Who This Keyboard Is For

Kana learners

Drill hiragana, the sound marks, and the small kana until the JIS positions feel natural, without touching your system settings.

Travellers and shared computers

Type a Japanese name, address, or phrase on a work or library machine that has no Japanese input installed.

Editors and translators

Drop a clean hiragana word or hand-drawn kanji into a document, subtitle, or glossary and copy it out precisely.

Whether you are memorising the gojūon chart, checking how a word is spelled, or slipping a single Japanese phrase into an otherwise English message, this keyboard puts the whole hiragana set — marks, small kana, punctuation, and a kanji drawing pad — one click away.