I'm just wondering if anyone as tried one of these. As you can see below the layout is considerably different than US version.
Japanese:
US:
Some Notes:
1) They are the same size
2) The Japanese version has two Fn keys so you don't have to give up a meta key to have Fn on both sides of the board.
3) 4 extra keys that can be used layer activation keys for key short cuts.
4) Cursor/Arrow keys
5) bad location for right shift maybe remap up arrow to shift and shift to up arrow.
6) Most all of the number row would have to be remapped to US standard that I'm used to. Along with some other keys as well.
7) I think the biggest issue for me will be where the BS/Delete key is located. I've finally gotten myself trained for the location on the US version but I think I can deal with it.
I guess the real question I have though is can I use those extra keys on the space row for layer keys in Linux. Because Linux supports I believe 4 layers per key if you turn it on. Layer one Normal key press, Layer 2 shift -> key, Layer 3 (you have to define) -> key, Layer 4 shift->Layer 3 key-> key but I think I have read somewhere that you can remove the shift part on layer 4 if you have the keys.