PURPOSE: To attain the input of Japanese words even with the pronunciation of a foreigner in his/her native language and without increasing the candidate selecting frequency in the Japanese reading ways by using a mode switch means to perform the switch between a KANA (Japanese syllabary)/KANJI (Chinese character) conversion dictionary and a Roman character/KANJI conversion dictionary.

CONSTITUTION: A foreign language mode or a Japanese word mode is designated by a mode designating means 2, and the sector of a dictionary to be retrieved is set to a Japanese word reading KANA/KANJI conversion dictionary 3 or a foreign language reading Roman character/KANJI dictionary 4. When an input means 1 detects the input of KANA, a retrieving means 6 is started to retrieve the dictionary 3 for conversion of KANA into desired KANJI. While the means 6 is started to retrieve the dictionary 4 for conversion of a Roman character into desired KANJI when the means 1 detects the input of the Roman character. When the KANJI conversion is decided, a mode switch means 5 detects this conversion. Then the means 5 is started to return the foreign language mode to the Japanese word mode.