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How to Set Up a LaTeX (Japanese) Environment on Windows and Build PDFs

ひかり

This post summarizes the steps for setting up an environment to produce a PDF from document.tex (using the ltjsarticle class, which assumes LuaTeX-ja) with LuaLaTeX. It assumes Windows + winget.

1. Install a TeX distribution​

Install MiKTeX via winget.

winget install MiKTeX.MiKTeX --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --silent

By default it installs to a user-local location (e.g. %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\MiKTeX). Immediately after installation, the current shell's PATH may not be updated yet, so either open a new terminal or temporarily add it to PATH as shown below.

$miktexBin = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64"
$env:PATH = "$miktexBin;$env:PATH"

2. Enable automatic package installation​

MiKTeX can fetch missing packages on demand at build time (luatexja, ltjsarticle, the haranoaji fonts, and so on). Enable automatic installation with the following command (only needed once).

initexmf --set-config-value [MPM]AutoInstall=1

With this enabled, the packages required when running lualatex (the full luatexja set needed for Japanese typesetting, the bundled Haranoaji fonts, etc.) will be downloaded and installed automatically. There's no need to manually select package collections.

3. Build​

cd C:\Users\hikari\lualatex
lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode document.tex
  • The first build can take a few minutes since missing packages need to be downloaded.
  • To correctly resolve cross-references and bookmarks (hyperref), you typically run it twice in a row.
lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode document.tex
lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode document.tex

On success, document.pdf is generated.

Output written on document.pdf (2 pages, ...)

4. Verify the result​

You can extract the text from the PDF to check that the Japanese text is typeset correctly (pdftotext ships with MiKTeX).

pdftotext document.pdf - | Select-Object -First 30

Fonts in use​

When no font is explicitly specified, ltjsarticle (LuaTeX-ja) defaults to Haranoaji (原ノ味フォント). Since this font is fetched automatically via MiKTeX's on-demand installation, the output looks the same on any machine, regardless of whether Windows' standard fonts (Yu Mincho, Yu Gothic, etc.) are present.

5. Compiling again later​

Once the environment is set up, you can regenerate the PDF afterward with just the following command. In a fresh terminal where PATH isn't set up, run the $env:PATH setup from step 1 first.

cd C:\Users\hikari\lualatex
lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode document.tex
  • If you want to update the table of contents, cross-references, or bookmarks, run it twice in a row after each change.
  • To compile a file other than document.tex, substitute the filename (e.g. lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode other.tex).
  • Intermediate files such as .aux, .log, and .out are regenerated automatically on rebuild, so they can be deleted safely. Remove them if you no longer need them:
Remove-Item document.aux, document.log, document.out -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Troubleshooting​

The listings package doesn't recognize language=javascript​

The listings package bundled with MiKTeX doesn't support JavaScript syntax highlighting out of the box (there's no definition in lstlang*.sty). This is worked around by adding a \lstdefinelanguage{javascript}{...} block right before \lstset{...} in document.tex, as shown below.

\lstdefinelanguage{javascript}{
  keywords={break,case,catch,class,const,continue,debugger,default,delete,do,else,export,extends,finally,for,function,if,import,in,instanceof,let,new,return,super,switch,this,throw,try,typeof,var,void,while,with,yield,async,await,static,get,set,of},
  keywordstyle=\bfseries,
  ndkeywords={true,false,null,undefined},
  ndkeywordstyle=\bfseries,
  sensitive=true,
  comment=[l]{//},
  morecomment=[s]{/*}{*/},
  morestring=[b]',
  morestring=[b]",
  morestring=[b]`,
  stringstyle=\itshape,
}

The lualatex command isn't found​

Right after installation, PATH may not be updated yet. Reopen your terminal, or run the $env:PATH setup from step 1.

initexmf: major issue: So far, you have not checked for MiKTeX updates.​

This is a notification message that appears on the first run. The build continues regardless, and document.pdf is generated normally. If it bothers you, check for updates from miktex-console.

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