MojiHako

Kana Pad

Type hiragana, katakana, and Japanese punctuation directly in your browser — no Japanese keyboard or IME required.

Send result to another tool Full/Half Width Hiragana/Katakana Genko Paper

What is Kana Pad?

Kana Pad lets you type hiragana, katakana, and Japanese symbols directly in a web browser — no Japanese keyboard layout or IME required.

If you frequently need Japanese characters on mobile, bookmark Kana Pad for quick access.

How to use Kana Pad

  1. Select a tab: あ Hiragana, が voiced hiragana, ア Katakana, ガ voiced katakana, ゃ Small kana, or 「」 Symbols.
  2. Click a character to insert it at the cursor position in the text area. Use Copy to copy the full result.
  3. Arrow keys move within the character grid; Enter or Space inserts the selected character.
  4. Tab and Shift+Tab move between the text area, action buttons, tabs, and character grid when using keyboard only.

Supported characters

Kana Pad covers the basic gojūon hiragana and katakana tables, plus voiced and semi-voiced kana (が・ざ・だ・ば・ぱ / ガ・ザ・ダ・バ・パ・ヴ series), yōon and sokuon (ゃ・ゅ・ょ・っ), small kana (ァ・ィ・ゥ・ェ・ォ), and Japanese punctuation including kuten, toten, quotation brackets, the long vowel mark (ー), iteration mark (々), and ellipsis (…).

Traditional Kana chart

Turn on Traditional Chart to display kana in the Japanese chart order, with the あ row on the far right and columns running from right to left.

Search examples

Romaji

ka → か, カ

Kana

つ → つ, っ, ツ, ッ

Korean

쿠 → く, ク, ぐ, グ

Related tools

Type Hiragana and Katakana Without a Japanese Keyboard

There are many situations where you need to enter Japanese text but do not have a Japanese keyboard or IME set up — a work computer, a shared device, a mobile browser where switching input languages is inconvenient, or simply a machine you use too rarely to bother configuring. Kana Pad solves this by letting you click or tap characters directly from an on-screen gojūon grid, with no installation and no settings to change.

📌 When Kana Pad comes in handy

Situation How Kana Pad helps
No Japanese keyboard or IME on the device Enter kana characters directly from the browser — no system settings needed.
Japanese shopping or booking sites Quickly compose product names, furigana readings, or short Japanese phrases for form fields.
Mobile, on the go Open in any mobile browser and tap characters — no app to install. Bookmark it for repeat use.
Japanese punctuation and special symbols Insert the long vowel mark (ー), Japanese comma (、), period (。), brackets (「」), and more with one tap.

1. Entering kana without setting up a Japanese keyboard

If you only occasionally need Japanese, setting up an IME and learning a romaji or kana input method can feel like more trouble than it's worth. Kana Pad displays the full gojūon character table on screen so you can find and tap any hiragana or katakana character visually — no memorizing keyboard layouts required.

When you need to type a Japanese word in a search box, fill in a furigana field on a form, or add a short phrase to a message, compose the text in Kana Pad and copy it across in one step.

2. Characters available in Kana Pad

Beyond the basic hiragana and katakana tables, Kana Pad includes characters that are harder to find on a standard keyboard. Switch tabs to access each group instantly.

  • Basic hiragana and katakana: あ・い・う・え・お / ア・イ・ウ・エ・オ
  • Voiced and semi-voiced kana: が・ざ・だ・ば・ぱ / ガ・ザ・ダ・バ・パ series
  • Yōon and sokuon: ゃ・ゅ・ょ・っ / ャ・ュ・ョ・ッ
  • Japanese punctuation: 。　、　「 」　『 』　ー　々　… and more

3. Finding characters quickly with search

Rather than scanning the grid manually, type in the search box to narrow down results instantly. Search accepts romaji, kana, and Korean phonetic input.

  • Type ka → か, カ
  • Type つ → つ, っ, ツ, ッ
  • Type 쿠 (Korean) → く, ク, ぐ, グ

This is especially useful for tricky characters like small kana and voiced variants that are easy to confuse at a glance.

4. Japanese punctuation and symbols

Japanese writing uses 、 (toten) and 。 (kuten) instead of the standard comma and period. Dialogue and quotations use 「 」 and 『 』 brackets. Loanwords written in katakana often include the long vowel mark ー.

These symbols can be hard to locate on a non-Japanese keyboard. Keep Kana Pad open as a secondary input panel and grab any symbol you need with a single click.

5. Passing text to other tools

Copy the composed text and paste it wherever you need it, or send it directly to another MojiHako tool for further processing.

6. Keyboard-only operation

Every feature is accessible without a mouse.

  • Arrow keys: move within the character grid
  • Enter or Space: insert the selected character
  • Tab / Shift+Tab: move between the text area, action buttons, tabs, and character grid

FAQ

Q. Is my text sent to a server?

No. Your text is processed locally in your browser and is not sent to our server.

Q. Does it work on smartphones?

Yes. Kana Pad works in mobile browsers. If you use it regularly, add it to your browser bookmarks or home screen for quick access.

Q. I typed in hiragana — can I switch it to katakana?

Yes. Copy the composed text and paste it into the Hiragana / Katakana Converter. Katakana → hiragana works the same way.

Q. Can I type half-width katakana?

Kana Pad outputs standard hiragana and katakana by default. If you need half-width katakana like ｶﾀｶﾅ, send the result to the Full/Half Width converter.

Go to Full/Half Width Converter