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.