I found that using \setscript{nihongo} breaks the functioning of \hskip. Here is a minimal example. MKIV required. Text source is UTF-8 encoded text. In the first case without \setscript the Japanese \hskip properly functions, but just after the \setscript macro it fails (without err or mention). However, it is interesting to note that \hfill does work in both cases with standard alphabet text. %-------------------------------- \usemodule[simplefonts] \setmainfont[ipaexm] % using a font having Japanese characters \starttext \underbars{Without setscript:} Alphabet\hskip 2cm text 漢字\hskip 2cm 文書 \setscript[nihongo] \underbars{With setscript:} Alphabet\hskip 2cm text 漢字\hskip 2cm 文書 \stoptext %-------------------------------- end