Japanese file formats

JIS Format

JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) is now only used for Japanese e-mail, since some old e-mail servers in use on the Internet don't correctly send Shift-JIS (see below). Eudora-J, for example, automatically converts Shift-JIS on a Japanese computer to JIS for sending through the Internet e-mail system. When Eudora-J is used to receive mail, it then converts the JIS e-mail back into Shift-JIS.

Shift-JIS Format

Shift-JIS is the standard format that has been devised by Microsoft to allow Japanese characters to be saved in text files. The Macintosh (running KanjiTalk) and PC (running Japanese DOS and Japanese Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT) both use Shift-JIS as the standard format for files and data.

EUC Format

EUC stands for Extended Unix Code and is used only on Japanese UNIX systems. EUC is mainly used for WWW servers that are UNIX-based. If, for example, you save the source of a Japanese web site to a file for translating it may be in EUC format instead of Shift-JIS format.

What is an "FEP"

FEP stands for Front End Processor. It is a piece of software which allows the user to enter Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji into a document using a standard English keyboard.

Would you like to know more? Contact future implications today. Alternatively, click here to have us call you.