Is there any way to surf Japanese web pages on a US cell phone?

November 29, 2007 7:40 AM

I have a US cell phone (LG Muziq, Sprint is the provider). I would REALLY like to be able to read Japanese web pages on it, but whenever I surf to a page with Japanese text it just shows up as garbage. I've installed Opera Mini on my phone, but that didn't help, even though the demo on their website does show Japanese characters. Is there any way to get this to work? I don't need to be able to type in Japanese, or send Japanese text messages. I just want to be able to read Japanese web pages. If I can't do this on the phone directly, then maybe there's another website I could visit that would convert the Japanese text to images?
posted by Vorteks to technology (4 comments total)

With a built-in browser, you're going to be limited to the fonts installed on the phone, and I really doubt most North American phones are going to include that unless it's a special feature or you've obtained a Japanese version of the phone.

Do you have a way to transfer Opera Mini from your PC to the phone? It looks like there's a Japanese version of the browser you can download. It might still just use the system font, in which case you'd be out of luck, but it's possible they bundle a font with the Japanese character set.
posted by mikeh at 7:56 AM on November 29, 2007

Using the Japanese version doesn't help. It seems to be the a problem with the system fonts.
posted by Vorteks at 8:19 AM on November 29, 2007

Ok, I have a workable (although frustrating) solution. this page will convert Japanese characters to images so you can view them on non-Japanese machines, and it works on my cell phone. Really slows down access time, but it's good enough. But please don't hesitate to share if you have a better solution!
posted by Vorteks at 9:16 AM on November 29, 2007

I've tried looking, but I couldn't find anything. Unless you're really into your phone, you may just want to consider getting a different one. You can find quite a few unlocked Japanese Nokia phones on Yahoo Auction. Or a Windows Mobile phone.
posted by m3thod4 at 10:52 PM on November 29, 2007