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US keyboards don't have enough keys, so I switched to Japanese

US keyboards don't have enough keys, so I switched to Japanese

by smnrg·Apr 15, 2026·7 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemBig Brain

Repurposes unused JIS keyboard keys for Hyper modifiers and Vim navigation without layers.

Strengths
  • •Physical extra keys eliminate layer-switching fatigue for modifiers and accents.
  • •Works across all Apple hardware with a single JSON import.
  • •Solves input-source switching friction for European language accents cleanly.
Weaknesses
  • •Requires buying specific Japanese hardware to access the extra physical keys.
  • •Depends entirely on Karabiner-Elements, which breaks occasionally on macOS updates.
Category
Productivity
Target Audience

Developers and writers on macOS needing extra modifiers or European language support.

Similar To

Karabiner-Elements · Kinesis Glove80 · QMK Configurator

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