First, I'd like to say that one of the things I've always liked about FFXI and that makes XI a little unique from other MMOs is having servers that aren't limited to regions, allowing players to communicate and experience Vana'diel from players all around the world.
The Auto-Translate function helps to bridge the language barrier between regions, mainly between Japanese and non-Japanese players. On the POL Play Guide, the Auto-Translate function is introduced as follows:
This assumes that no players from non-Japanese regions know any Japanese and would therefore require the Auto-Translate function to help communicate with said players. The Auto-Translate system works for the majority of players in getting across requests and tactics, however there are those in non-Japanese regions that have learnt Japanese and would like to communicate to Japanese players/friends.Originally Posted by Official POL Play Guide
With that being said, I'd like to make the suggestion of allowing non-Japanese region clients the IME functionality to enable Japanese characters to be input into the game. Japanese players can currently type both, but non-Japanese players are left with having to type Japanese in romaji which I feel (and I assume others that are with a similar opinion) takes away from the experience of being able to communicate to Japanese players. As not all players would be interested in this functionality and the IME itself would somewhat change the input bar, I would also like to suggest that if this functionality could be implemented, either a checkbox in the FFXIConfig application or an in-game config window option be added to enable/disable this.
Thanks.