Description

Standard Kanji-ROM contains mainly Kanji characters coming from the Chinese language and used in the Japanese language. Character font is accessible via I/O ports (D8h~D9h). it is coded in JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) format. JIS is a standard that exists since 1949.

Kanji-ROMs for the MSX are available in two different levels:

• Level 1 (JIS1): 128kB ROM with roughly 3000 characters
• Level 1 & 2 (JIS1 + JIS2) : 256kB ROM with more than 4000 characters

In addition some systems or cartridges also have MSX-JE which is an input system for Kanji.

All MSX2+ and MSX turbo R systems have the Kanji-ROM built-in. Some of the more advanced Japanese MSX1 and MSX2 computers, particularly those with a built-in Japanese word processor, also have one of these roms built-in.

There are also cartridges with generally only provided Level 1 (JIS1), and cartridges where in addition to a Kanji-ROM there is also some other software like a word processor. Note that many cartridges use non-standard Kanji-ROM and therefore will not work with software that uses standard Kanji-ROM or of other type.

Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji

The Japanese writing system consists out of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji characters.

While the number of Hiragana and Katakana characters is comparatively small, the number of Kanji characters is in the thousands. The current Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) for Kanji has over six thousand characters.

All Japanese MSX systems have a character set containing Katakana and Hiragana characters. But Kanji requires an additional ROM. Kanji Level 1 (or JIS1) requires a ROM of 128kB which was quite expensive at the time. Kanji Level 2 (or JIS2) requires an even larger ROM of 256kB. As such early Japanese MSX systems do not have Kanji characters, and software developers used either Latin or Katakana and Hiragana characters.

Adding a Kanji-ROM to a non-Japanese system will not add the missing Hiragana and Katakana characters. This can typically be seen as various high ASCII characters being displayed where Japanese writing would have been expected. Likewise, since Hiragana and Katakana characters are part of the regular Japanese MSX character set, non-Japanese software making use of some of the less common characters in the character set may be shown as Japanese Hiragana or Katakana characters on a Japanese system.

Remarks:

• Practically no games require JIS2. The only known exception being Super Shang Hai Dragons Eye.
• Many games correctly display the Kanji and/or katakana/hiragana characters on machines without Kanji-ROM, simply because these characters are drawn on a graphic screen.

Lists

Cartridges with Kanji

Printers with built-in Kanji

Computers with built-in Kanji

(*) MSX2+ appliance - (**) MSX2 appliance

Links

• MSX Japanese Function History (Japanese)