I test drove Heliboard the past week and I quite liked it, especially the customization options. I’ve been trying to escape Gboard for years but viable options with swipe typing support are few and far between.

Unfortunately, the lack of Japanese input makes it a total non-starter for my use case so I had to go crawling back.

Thanks for this. I was about to ask if Japanese input was supported. Why is it so hard to find a good keyboard for both Japanese and English? I usually have to end up sacrificing convenience in one or the other.

Unfortunately, the lack of Japanese input makes it a total non-starter for my use case so I had to go crawling back.

Ack, I also need that. Oof. Guess I’ll have to keep looking.

It’s a pity it doesn’t work for you right now, but I’d recommend to keep an eye on it since it under active development and you might see Japanese input added soon. You could also check open issues on GitHub or open a new one and give feedback about this need.
I had looked into it but given this response it’s not looking likely.
Japanese ime in the some distant future? · Helium314 HeliBoard · Discussion #415

Just wondering how many openboard users would benefit from it. Implementing it would be a bit challenging considering you have completely different layout and input logic than qwerty(12 key toggle/...

GitHub
I personally use Moxc whenever I need japanese input
Mozc is available on android? Guess I got some looking to do.
Yes it is, it’s based on Gboard tho