3. Typing Special Characters

1: Built-in Special Characters

Most built-in Japanese Input Method Editors (IMEs) include powerful shortcuts for generating special characters and symbols. While the examples below are Windows-based, similar functionality is typically available on macOS and other operating systems.

You type:	What it means:	Hiragana:	Special characters:
m i g i	right	みぎ	→
h i d a r i	left	ひだり	←
u e	up	うえ	↑
s i t a	down	した	↓
m a r u	circle	まる	○ ◎ ●
s i k a k u	rectangle	しかく	◇ ◆ □ ■
s a n k a k u	triangle	さんかく	△ ▲ ▽ ▼
k a k k o	parentheses	かっこ	( ) [ ] { } 〈 〉 《 》 「 」 『 』 【 】 " "
h o s i	star	ほし	★☆
e n n	yen	えん	￥
d o r u	dollar	どる	＄
d o	degree	ど	℃　°
o n p u	musical notes	おんぷ	♪
s h a - p u	sharp	しゃーぷ	♯
h u r a t t o	flat	ふらっと	♭
i t i, n i, s a n n , ...	one, two, three, ...	いち, に, さん, ...	①②③...
k i g o u	symbol	きごう	All of the above and more
Emoji Samples
w a r a	laughing	わら	( ´∀｀ )
a s e	sweatting	あせ	(-_-;)
b i k k u r i	surprised	びっくり	(*_*)
g a k k u r i	despair	がっくり	＿|￣|○

Test typing here: