When I switch from English (US) to Japanese (Mozc), the default option is “Direct input” meaning my US keyboard layout. Im sure if I check in settings I could change the default.

I have a dropdown menu on my Desktop Dock for Input mode. I have to change it over to Hiragana to start (I haven’t figured out the keyboard shortcut yet for that step).

So I hit Super + Space to switch to Japanese Mozc Then I use my mouse to change from “Direct Input” to “Hiragana”

Not sure if that’s where you were having issues, but yeah there’s probably some youtube guides that’ll help.

Install Mozc Japanese instead and then learn the keyboard shortcuts to toggle between english and japanese, and the F keys to toggle between english(direct input), hiragana, katakana with width variations. You can edit the shortcuts in settings if you like.

I use mozc in android and linux.

https://github.com/google/mozc Search the web or watch youtube videos for guides if you need help installing.