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Putting Japan's first bilingual WP to the test

Mixing English and Japanese was no easy task

By Mark Schreiber

Nov 15, 2002

In my previous installment, I noted that Toshiba launched the first dedicated Japanese-language word processor in 1979. Five years later, the Japan subsidiary of MicroPro International Corporation, publisher of WordStar, the pioneering English word processing software, was preparing to launch "WordStar 2000" for the IBM PC.

MicroPro's strategy was to port this new program, code-named "Kanji Ivan," to run on Japanese PCs as the first bilingual Japanese-English software.

Excited to have a chance to work in this promising new sector, I joined MicroPro Japan in April 1984.

Putting Japan's first bilingual WP to the test

Mixing English and Japanese was no easy task

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