You need Japanese fonts in your system in order to view Japanese characters (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji) properly.
Installation of Japanese font is only necessary, when instead of Japanese signs shown in picture A - you see f.e. something like this, shown in a picture B.
A. 
B. 
or other strange signs 
It's time for a little test. Below, I will show you the same word, which is shown in picture A. Compare them. In case, if this word is the same as in picture B, it means that it is time for work
はじめまして
I'm showing you ways to install fonts for each operating system.
Win98
From Microsoft webpage download „jamondo.exe” file, then just install the file and restart computer.
Win 2000
In the control panel, find keyboard settings, then choose “local languages” and add Japanese. Later on, just choose Japanese IME setting.
Win XP
In the control panel find „Internet and regional settings”, click „Language” tab. In the next step, install file for East Asian languages. At the end, add Japanese language.
More information:
Windows 95, 98, ME and NT / Windows 2000 / Windows XP and Server 2003 / Mac OS X
In Word, writing in Japanese
Suprisingly, this is a simple operation ^ - ^
You don’t need a special keyboard, like the one on the picture…
In language settings, on the right side click „Additional icons in the task manager”, choose options and add Japanese language installed earlier. Next, choose either hiragana or katakana.
It only depends on, what you want to write. On the regular keyboard, syllable “ko” – it will automatically change to こ in Word.
If you need to write something in Kanji, you need to click Space after writing in hiragana, and you will have several options to choose.