Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary

A review of the 2013 publication. It modestly calls itself "a basic vocab of 14,000 of the most common English words". That's a tad more than a basic vocab, plus it has a lot of useful, `real life' examples of the use of some words in Japanese. Certainly, as another reviewer has mentioned, the vocab is not exhaustive, but I'm sure that's a trade-off to keep the book to a portable size. There is no `romaji', so you need to know hiragana and katakana.I used to waste a LOT of time looking up Japanese words in the vocab lists of Japanese grammar books, so this dictionary is definitely a 'sanity saver'.The well-spaced text is set in a clear typeface. Yes, the `furigana' IS tiny, so unless you have exceptional eyesight, you will probably need to use a magnifier to read them; however, I regard this as a minor disadvantage, as you save a lot of time, and you learn a lot of kanji along the way.The soft-cover edition is light in weight, and easily carried in a bag or handbag. Excellent value, and indispensable for any serious student.

This is a decent dictionary. I use it in the high school Japanese class that I teach, though the actual version is the hardcover Japanese-English, English-Japanese version. (Which is bigger and more expensive)Furigana is only used when going from English to Japanese. Furigana is the placement of the hiragana reading for above a Kanji. In other words, if you can read hiragana, then you will be able to read the kanji that it denotes.The problem with this dictionary is that it does not have exhaustive vocabulary and occasionally we are unable to find the words we are looking for.The best furigana dictionary that I have seen is Kenkyusha's Furigana Dictionary. I think that it is out of print, but if you can afford it, that is the one to get for personal use. For the classroom, I am satisfied with Kodansha's dictionary.

This dictionary is for beginners. Not enough vocabulary.

This is the dictionary I drag around with me whenever I am out and about in Japan. Not exactly pocket size, but not large enough to make it annoying to carry around. This has saved me on countless occasions when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone at the bar/restaurant.

I used this dictionary tons! The main selling point is the example sentences. Often, just the definition isn't enough...which is why i purchased both eng to jap and the jap to eng versions of this dictionary to replace my older one. Again, not super useful for advanced japanese, but always a good resource.

Fair

Comprehensive for its size, and reasonably priced.Lot of example sentences, and would be useful for Japanese speakers who are learning English also.

I'm studying Japanese and I needed a good dictionary. My teacher recommended this one and it is very good.Especially because I can see not only the meaning of the word in English but also the meaning of a Kanji in Hirgana.

After looking around for a comprehensive Japanese dictionary I'm happy with this choice. The only reason I drop a star is i just wish the font size was slightly bigger as it can be a bit of a strain on the eyes.It's also worth grabbing the Japanese-English version also in my opinion, whilst you can buy both in one book I imagine it's easier for quick reference having two smaller books and it doesn't cost a lot more.

I accidentally purchased this exclusively english to japanese dictionary when I intended to by one containing english to japanese AND vice versa. However this was not a problem - I just purchased to other dictionary aswell. Very easy to use and has a wide range of words and useful tips. the furigana (kana symbols above the kanji) is incredibly useful for an intermediate like me (I'm english but am learning japanese)Very useful for my studies and I will make good use of it.

At my uni, I was lucky enough to test out these dictionaries before I brought them. The Kodansha dictionaries were the best, easily beating the oxford dictionary and a couple others. Would highly recommend, especially to use with the partner dictionary, Kodansha furigana Japanese to English as this book is only English to Japanese.

A very fine study aid for the European learner.

thanks