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ADDENDUM 2005.10.26:

This bug is not 100% reproducible. I don't know what the conditions are that cause this bug to arise. Also I belatedly figured out that this bug is not serious because it is still possible to type an intended command into Notepad (where the IME should work because it's not a console application) and copy and paste to the cmd.exe window. It's still pretty irritating though.

ORIGINAL POSTING 2005.10.25:

In Windows XP SP2 Japanese, of course the Start menu is localized, but I'll translate the names to English to explain these actions.

Start - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt ordinarily opens a command prompt window owned by the current logged-in user. When typing a command (e.g. a CD command to the user's Desktop folder or user's Start menu folder etc.), or when typing input to a program, the initial input mode is direct input which allows typing from among roughly 90 single-byte JIS-Romaji characters (mostly the same as ASCII). To input any of the other thousands of characters, the procedure is to hold the Alt key and press the hankaku/zenkaku-Kanji key to turn on the IME. In this setting, it works.

Start - Programs - Accessories - put the mouse cursor on Command Prompt, hold a Shift key on the keyboard, do a right-click and select Run As. Type the account name of Administrator and the administrator's password. This opens a command prompt window owned by the Administrator account. When typing a command or when typing input to a program, the same roughly 90 single-byte JIS-Romaji characters can be input. But the other thousands of characters cannot be input. There is no way to turn on the IME. Pressing Alt+Kanji accomplishes nothing. The language bar has nothing useful to click on.

In order for Administrator to type any of the vast majority of characters, the Administrator has to log in as Administrator. Furthermore the existing logged in user has to be logged out, because fast user switching plus two presses of Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't bring up the old style login window where the account name Administrator could be typed. (Fast user switching allows logging into a different account that is in the Administrators group, but not to the Administrator account.)

So much for the idea of trying to run with least privileges as often as possible and trying to use Run As only when needed. In order to do input to console programs we have to log in as Administrator in the first place. Security: Will Microsoft ever get it?