SCIM entry hangs oowriter on main display, not "switch user" display

On a 6.06LTS system with all updates, a Japanese user recently developed trouble entering Japanese text with SCIM into oowriter. The symptom is that oowriter hangs after SCIM input converts a Kanji and the user types "enter" to accept the conversion. The characters are never un-hilighted and oowriter is unresponsive (does not repaint after exposes, but also does not use any CPU time). SCIM input into other programs still works OK.

An unusual twist: if the user logs in over another session using "Switch User," then SCIM and oowriter work OK. (IOW, if DISPLAY=:20.0, SCIM works.)

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
Linux version 2.6.15-29-686 (buildd@terranova) (gcc version 4.0.3 (Ubuntu 4.0.3-1ubuntu5)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Sep 24 17:24:47 UTC 2007
$ apt-cache showpkg scim
Package: scim
Versions:
1.4.4-1ubuntu12(/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_dapper_main_binary-i386_Packages)(/var/lib/dpkg/status)
$ apt-cache showpkg openoffice.org
Package: openoffice.org
Versions:
2.0.2-2ubuntu12.5(/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_dapper-security_main_binary-i386_Packages)(/var/lib/dpkg/status)
2.0.2-2ubuntu12(/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_dapper_main_binary-i386_Packages)