Job Discussion Forums

griffitp12 · Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 1:05 am Post subject: Buying computer stuff in Japan

Hey all
I would like to buy an external hard drive for my laptop. I'm worried, however, that I won't be able to use it at first (install drivers maybe, etc.) because I don't read Japanese. Will this be a problem?

Thanks in advance

seklarwia · Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 1:25 am Post subject:

If you are getting a regular usb external hard drive you shouldn't have to worry. Unless you have an ancient computer with an equally decrepit OS, as soon as you plug the thing in, your computer should detect it and automatically install it (the same as when you plug in a usb memory stick the first time). You just go to "My computer" and click on the hard drive. You shouldn't need to use any additional software to browse/add/delete data from the hard drive, so you won't have anything Japanese to read. Same often applies for many other peripherals such as printers, etc.

Gone are the days when we had to run annoying installation programs for everything little thing that we attached to our computers.

Even if you do pick up the odd thing that does require some installation, most installation CDs are extremely user friendly. Just clicking the next button a few times will set in motion the recommended installation procedure which for regular users should have your hardware up and running sufficiently in minutes.

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

Further to the above, many of the computer-related terms in Japanese are transliterated from English with katakana, so you should be able to navigate your way around a Japanese program with a little effort, provided you have enabled non-unicode support for Windows. Linux will render the fonts without needing to be tweaked, and OSX can be set to Japanese from a menu (can't remember which one).

If you don't know any katakana, it should take you a day or so to teach yourself. You can find posters to put up on the wall. A friend of mine had their hiragana poster on the fridge door, and their katakana poster on the toilet door.

Some hardware, like USB sound cards on Windows XP or a truly obscure USB device that does something non-standard, might require an installation disk. An external HDD will not.

You may be a little unsure at first but it's unlikely you'll be able to break anything from the desktop environment and, as seklarwia said, mass storage devices are usually plug-and-play anyway.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

The "next" button is rarely if ever in katakana, as is the "finished" button. Either learn them, or ask a sales clerk if you can see a sample of the installation guide.

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

Installations are always basically the same... even if you don't know the words, it's easy to figure out what's what.

Diceman · Joined: 01 Nov 2010 Posts: 13

move · Joined: 30 May 2009 Posts: 132

Just bought a external hard drive and got it working with my mac. Didn't have any install discs, just had to go to utilities to partition the drive and it was good to go. I know enough Japanese to figure out the 3 steps that it required. If you can't figure it out, you could always download the manual in English from the internet. Or instead of that, ask somebody at your work to translate it for you.