Peer-reviewed research
Japanese college students' typing speed on mobile devices
Chris Houser and Patricia Thornton, Kinjo Gakuin University (conference paper, copy hosted by Universidade Federal de Pernambuco), n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- A study of 24 Japanese university students who copied Japanese and English text for two minutes on five input methods, including cellphones, onscreen keyboards and desktop PCs. It is one of the few published measurements of typing speed in Japanese on a range of devices.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed paper by university researchers, but the publication year is not printed in the copy we read and the sample is small (24 students, two minutes per task). Treat the numbers as indicative of a 2000s-era comparison, not as current typing speeds.
Facts taken from this source
- In the same two-minute tasks, Japanese university students typed Japanese at 17 words per minute on cellphones, against 10 on onscreen QWERTY keyboards.
“In 2-minute transcription tasks, 24 Japanese university students typed Japanese:English at 8:7 wpm on miniature QWERTY thumb keyboards, 10:9 on onscreen QWERTY keyboards, 17:5 on cellphones, 23:14 on desktop PCs, and 31:30 with pencil and paper.” (Abstract)
- In a two-minute transcription task, Japanese university students typed Japanese at 23 words per minute on desktop PCs.
“In 2-minute transcription tasks, 24 Japanese university students typed Japanese:English at 8:7 wpm on miniature QWERTY thumb keyboards, 10:9 on onscreen QWERTY keyboards, 17:5 on cellphones, 23:14 on desktop PCs, and 31:30 with pencil and paper.” (Abstract)