Give us our hiragana

[Zirael]

I agree. A lot of people in Japan would also like to try to play in English for fun or for studying, but this is made impossible by the fact you can't type in Japanese.

It's also impossible to type European characters on a JP version, although it's possible on the USA and Euro versions. While this is not a big problem, I don't see why the game should block someone from typing "ü" etc.

Also, it would be nice to make all languages available to all versions. EU version has 3+ languages when JP and USA versions have only one. Unfair...

SE would only sell more copies of the game if they allowed it, so why have these limitations?

Hmm, from what I understand, it looks something like this: Community has asked for this functionality years ago, SE replied "No" and "PS2 Limitations" so community went ahead and fixed the problem for themselves and doesn't bother asking SE more for basic functionality.
It doesn't look like you'll get any help from SE about IME any soon, deal with it Same goes for other things, like enhanced graphics, better macros, not losing focus on players/mobs when blinking, more autotranslate phrases (hell, even for zone, spell and job ability names), etc. For all of these aforementioned issues SE has already said "No" numerous times, even on these forums.
Sorry to destroy your hopes.

[Karbuncle]

I found it kinda upsetting that the JP Client can type both English and Japanese figures.

While the EU or NA Client can only type in English, And if someone attempt to install things to allow us to Type in JP/kanji, we can actually be banned for this act. I know its a Third party tool, and as such is an absolute violation of the ToS, But the logic behind it has always bugged me.

I Mean, Being able to type in Japanese in itself would be able to break down so many language barriers between the NA, EU, etc, and the JP Community.

I remember back on BG, Elmer the Pointy did a thread about some questions the NA's asked JP, and the JP asked NAs, one of them was what was the reason for some of the "JP Only" Attitude. a lot of the responses were "The language barrier". its easier to do things with people whom you can speak to without auto-translate, than it is trying to use the Auto-trans to make a decent battle plan or describe what to do.

[Nashreen]

one of them was what was the reason for some of the "JP Only" Attitude. a lot of the responses were "The language barrier"
(...)
I found it kinda upsetting that the JP Client can type both English and Japanese figures.

It's normal because Japanese uses the roman alphabet commonly, in the game things like "STR" and all, are in alphabet, while English never uses Japanese characters. Even for normal conversation, we need roman letters.

As for the "problems" between the communities, it's the language barrier but also, the playstyle and manners. Americans have a different way of playing and behaving in the game.

[Karbuncle]

It's normal because Japanese uses the roman alphabet commonly, in the game things like "STR" and all, are in alphabet, while English never uses Japanese characters. Even for normal conversation, we need roman letters.

As for the "problems" between the communities, it's the language barrier but also, the playstyle and manners. Americans have a different way of playing and behaving in the game.

Not all Japanese find American playstyles so different to stop interaction however. This Q:A between the JP/NA that was done on BG Really shed some light on a lot of subjects. I Wish I could dig it up

Plus i didn't say it would erase all animosity, But it would definitely help in some way. But i think its been made clear that we will likely never get to use Japanese on an English Client.

[Alhanelem]

It's normal because Japanese uses the roman alphabet commonly, in the game things like "STR" and all, are in alphabet, while English never uses Japanese characters. Even for normal conversation, we need roman letters.

Stuff like this originally came about due to technical limitations of early computer and video game systems (which were originally invented by/developed by/borrowed from the US) that weren't designed to handle Japanese script- all programming/assembly languages i've ever heard of use a roman character set for their instructions. In their early days, Japanese people wouldn't have known what these meant without explanation in an instruction manual.