Rating: 
Summary: Great, but terrible
Review: I was rather disappointed with this book for how much it costs.
All entries are VERY detailed, giving great care to example sentences and explanations. I like the kana order, and the furigana. I love the binding, you won't find a more durable book than this no matter how hard you look.The problem is, it has a VERY limited amount of entries.. Anything other than the very basic of the basic words, you will NOT find in this dictionary. My random house dictionary that I purchased when I first started learning Japanese has far more entries, and is about a quarter of the price.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for the price
Review: I was taken aback when I opened up this dictionary: it's organized by the Japanese kana system (a-i-u-e-o) rather than by the roman-ji ABC, so it certainly is not for the beginning student. However, any student advanced enough to look up a Japanese word in its kana version is not going to be satisfied with this volume. There aren't that many entries, the definitions and kanji versions of each word are not that comprehensive, and the typeface is so fine it requires a good magnifying glass (or a well-trained squint) to read. The problem, I suspect, is that this book is actually a translation of a dictionary written for "juniors," elementary school-aged students. The vocabulary level is too simple for the older or adult student. If you're looking for a real Japanese-English dictionary to invest in, try NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary, edited by the witty, erudite Jack Halpern.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: It's the most helpful dictionary to dat
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Kodansha really offered up a great dictionary with this one. I truly have to disagree with a certain other reviewer on this one. Using romaji is futile in learning real Japanese except for at the MOST basic level, which this dictionary goes far above. The vocabulary listed is FAR from basic, just compare it to similar dictionaries. Check out the E-J section on ANY page and see what I mean. I guarantee beginning through intermediate students will find EVERYTHING they need and more WITH great usage examples in this book. I must admit that I am only an intermediate student, but this dictionary has put me a head and shoulders above my classmates in sheer lexical ability! Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Beginners
Review: Kodansha's Furigana dictionary is simply one of the best Japanese<->English dictionaries I have seen on the market, especially for students of Japanese. The English-Japanese volume of this wonderful dictionary is simply indispensable to beginners of the language once they have mastered the two kana scripts, viz, hiragana and katakana, as would be expected of any serious student, since the dictionary does not contain any Romanised entries. One great feature about this dictionary particularly valuable to beginners who may not know many kanji is that all the kanjis, be they in the entries or the examples, have small kanas printed over them indicating their pronunciation, i.e., furigana. The definitions themselves are up-to-date, clear, being written for English speakers, and most entries contain illustrative example sentences indicating of usage. The English-Japanese section lists some 14,000 entries of commonly used English words. This section is rather limited in scope, for the native English speaker is likely to find that the word he wishes to translate into Japanese is not listed, and an alternative need be found. In the Japanese-English section, the entries are listed in kana, in the kana order, which is much better than other Romanised dictionaries which list Japanese words in English alphabetical order. If kanji exists for that entry, then it immediately follows the headword, after which comes the definition. Synonyms are also indicated in the entries, and ample example sentences are given. Three appendices are included, listing verb conjugations, numerical counters and place names. The book itself is physically well produced, with a hardcover. The paper is of good quality, and the print is clear although none too large. Moreover, the size of the book is neither so large nor so heavy as to become cumbersome or inconvenient to use. Many of the typographical errors in the previous separate editions have been corrected in this combined edition. In summary, then, the Kodansha's Furigana English & Japanese dictionary is a great boon to any serious beginning or intermediate student of Japanese. For the advance learner, however, its limited scope of some sixteen thousand words makes it perhaps not quite as useful. Two of its features, i.e., doing away with romaji (Romanised script), which is very irritating to users familiar with kana, by using kana instead (as the Japanese would, in any case), and indicating the reading of all kanjis with furigana, sets this dictionary apart from others in the market, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any serious student embarking on a study of the Japanese language.
Rating:
Summary: Essential
Review: No Japanese student can be without this. Get it early on in your studies and be sure to wear it out.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST ENTRY-LEVEL JAPANESE DICTIONARY OUT THERE
Review: Paying the extra dollar for this dictionary will make all the difference in the world. Here is a summary of its good points: 1) All words come with extremely useful example sentences. This feature along is valuable beyond comparison. I can't tell you how many practical expressions I gleaned from this book. 2) All Kanji are spelled out in Furigana (Hiragana), so you will never get lost. This is such an important feature, as looking up Kanji seperately is a difficult, time-consuming task that will drive you crazy. 3) It's extremely compact and durable, so you can take with you anywhere without fear of damaging it. The lather binding makes it practically indestructable. After using mine everyday for over three years now, it is still good as new. 4) Although compact, the selection is superb, and the translations are very clear and modern (perhaps the best feature of this dictionary). Although Japanese is full of difficult idioms and metaphors, this dictionary is both clear and accessible. For those you who are not yet compitent with Hiragana and Katagana, Kodansha also makes a "Roma-ji" version (aka, an English version) which I highly recommend. This version is also useful for those who are already compitent in the Kana, because entries are listed in alphabetically order, as opposed to Kana order (a, i, u, e, o, etc); and the example sentences are written in both Roma-ji and Japanese, with their corresponding English translations. Whether you buy the Furigana or Romaji edition, you will not be disappointed. Kodansha is the best out there, hands down.
Rating:
Summary: full of mistakes
Review: This book contains many typos and outright mistakes. I don't remember there being so many in the old Kodansha romaji dictionaries. My advice is to buy the old dictionaries and wait until a new edition of this comes out.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners, frustrating for more advanced users.
Review: This book is no doubt an excellent dictionary for beginning or intermediate students of Japanese; it provides good examples of usage for most entries. BUT BE WARNED: Don't buy it if you're looking for depth or difficult/advanced words. This dictionary is basically a pocket dictionary with frills; in fact, my tiny Random House pocket dictionary has words that this book doesn't. Anyone with a few years of study completed will be far better served by a more comprehensive dictionary that doesn't waste space with examples of usage.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Examples, Mediocre Listings
Review: This dictionary is one of the best that I've used for 3 reasons. First, it gives very useful, clear example sentences with most words that leaves no doubt as to how to use the word in a sentence. A must for any dictionary used to help with conversation. Second, it is a furigana dictionary to help us foreigners through those annoying, yet important, characters known as kanji. Third, it has a very useful appendix section which, among other things, includes a listing of most (all?) counter words (dai, to, mai, etc.) and when to use each. The biggest shortcoming of this dictionary is its word coverage. All too often I have needed a word for a conversation only to find that it's not in the dictionary. Don't get me wrong, the coverage is decent, just not superb. All in all, though, on its own, this is a good dictionary to use for most conversations. But for more advanced ones, using it in conjunction with another, more comprehensive dictionary may be necessary.
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