NEC M-System keyboards History
In 1983, NEC 日本電気 came out with a new keyboard and new Japanese input system, called M-system (M式), designed by Dr. Masasuke Morita at NEC.
M-system is 2 things:
- A physical keyboard design that has 4 or more thumb keys, and symmeric (typically have dedicated sections for left hand and hand).
- A efficient Japanese input system. It's a romanji input system. (you type English Letter then convert to kata (Japanese alphabet)) The English letter arrangement is optimized for kana.
Over the years, there are several M-system keyboard designs. Here's a list of them.


Reference
- [【NEC】 Keyboard based on new input system (M system) By Information Processing Society Of Japan. At http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/word/0027.html ]
2020-05-06 Thanks to NimShiko [https://medium.com/@elderiomeersky] for correction.
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