A couple of months ago, after one Windows 11 update, my laptop’s default language switched to Japanese and I can no longer change it.

Basically, Windows is saying that my license only allows one language – and for some reason, it chose Japanese as that language. It might be because I have Japanese set-up as a secondary language while I was taking online Japanese classes. But that doesn’t mean I want to set it up as the default language?

Maybe there is a benefit to this – as a Japanese language learner, it can be considered as an immersion. I’m now a lot more familiar with words used on the computer. But, sometimes, it can be a bit “めんどうくさい” (bothersome) especially when I’m in a hurry. My mind takes time to translate, and sometimes, I need Google to translate! Also, it’s not just the operating system that’s in Japanese, but all apps that have language support.

I guess I need to live with it for now. I’ve done all of the troubleshooting steps I can find on the internet, and apparently, this is a common issue. At least it’s not a language that I’m totally not familiar with.

In case you have this problem and you’ve found a way to resolve it, let me know!