Setting your computer’s (and other devices’) language to Japanese is an important step if you are serious about any degree of self-immersion.

It isn’t just the limited number of words you will be using in computer-ese. It has a much deeper psychological significance in making Japanese a part of the reality of your life, forcing you to see and think Japanese at unexpected moments, which helps to re-adjust the balance of your mind toward Japanese.

You can, and almost certainly will, switch back occasionally when you need to understand something complex. It is very little trouble to do so (just enough to stop you cheating all the time!) Don’t worry when you need to do that. The main thing is to have your interface in Japanese 90% of the time, and that really isn’t difficult.

Navigating a Japanesed computer or tablet is easier than you think. A lot of the menu items are actually just katakana-ized versions of the regular English names. If you can’t work out things like ウインドウ、ツール、ブックマーク and ヘルプ you can always type them into Denshi Jisho or use the sneaky Dolly shortcut of typing them into any typeable area of any webpage (the search box usually) and Rikaichan them. And of course everything is still where it was before, so you will find most things naturally.

Also, most of the regular menu actions have keyboard shortcuts, and you can recognize them in the menu by the bracketed shortcuts. Even so I would recommend saying the Japanese names to yourself each time you use them until you know them well.

As for the kanji, some of them are easily recognizable (開く, open for example) others probably aren’t. Don’t forget to pronounce them to yourself as you use them (きびしい人形ね).

List of Japanese Computer Menu Terms

In alphabetical order of English terms
Note: This list has become rather long. Please don’t be daunted by it. The aim is to give you a reference for anything you might run into. Actually a lot of what you encounter won’t be on this list. It will simply be katakana-ized versions of the English terms you know already. You don’t need to know this list! Just bookmark it and use it when you need it.

操作　そうさ　action
追加　ついか    add
適用　てきよう　apply
閉じる　とじる　close
環境設定　かんきょうせってい　configuration (preferences)
作成　さくせい　create
切り取り 　きりとり　cut
削除　さくじょ    delete
編集　へんしゅう　edit
検索　けんさく   find (also the term for “search” in general)
次を検索　つぎをけんさく   find next
強制終了　きょうせいしゅうりょう   force quit
書式　しょしき　format
全画面　ぜんがめん　full screen
履歴　りれき　history
入力　にゅうりょく　input
言語 げんご　language
一覧　いちらん　list
読み込み中　よみこみちゅう　loading
場所　ばしょ　location
管理　かんり　manage
新規　しんき　new
開く　あく　open
上書き　うわがき　overwrite
貼り付け　はりつけ　paste
印刷 　いんさつ　print
再生　さいせい　playback
終了　しゅうりょう　quit
最近　さいきん　recent (as in 最近開けたファイル, recently opened files)
ゴミ箱　ゴミばこ　recycle bin
やり直す　やりなおす　redo
再読み込み　さいよみこみ　reload
再起動　さいきどう   restart
実行　じっこう　run
保存　ほぞん    save
保存先　ほぞんさき    save location (destination)
検索　けんさく   search
設定　せってい　settings
表　ひょう　table
元に戻す　もとにもどす　undo
取り消す　とりけす　undo
無題　むだい　untitled
利用　りよう　use
使用　しよう　use
利用者　りようしゃ　user
表示　ひょうじ　view

We will be adding to this list over time. Please do not hesitate to add new words in the comments (we will pop them into the main list), or ask about ones you can’t work out.