Maya and Japanese Characters in paths/filenames
This has been a problem with Maya on Windows 11. It usually crops up when you get a new machine with Windows 11 English pre-installed. But when the problem does happen, it's a real pain in the butt. I've fixed this a couple of times in the past, but I keep forgetting how to fix it. Therefore, I'm making this post! For you, and for my future-self. Step 1 (Change the Locale of your computer) 1. Open Control Panel ā Clock and Region ā Region 2. Go to the Administrative tab 3. Click Change system locale... 4. Set it to Japanese (Japan) and check the box for Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support (if the checkbox is available) 5. Restart your computer Now, your Maya will be able to read/write files and paths that have Japanese characters! BUT... Maya's interface is now all in Japanese... :cries: To change the Maya interface back to English you will need to add two Windows environment variables (NOT Maya environment variables!). The two variables are exactly the same, but one needs to be added to your User env vars and the other to the System env vars. Step 2 (Add Windows env variables) 1. Open Windows Search and type Environment Variables, then select Edit the system environment variables. 2. Click Environment Variablesā¦. (bottom-right button) 3. Under System Variables, click Newā¦. 4. Set: Variable name: MAYA_UI_LANGUAGE Variable value: en_US 5. Add the same variable to the User variables on the top of the window. Reboot the machine and startup Maya. Maya should now be able to read/write Japanese characters, and the UI should be in English!
















