Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST Beginner to Intermediate Dictionary
Review: As a beginner student of Japanese, I found this dictionary to be invaluable. All the listings are in romanji so they're easy to find, but there's also a japanese (kanji) translation as well incase you want to know how it's written in true japanese. It offers about everything a beginner-intermediate learner can ask for. If your serious about learning japanese from scratch, read no further and pick it up right now! It'll be the best 10 bucks you'll ever invest for your japanese.I was reading the previous review about how horrible the japanese section was. I completely disagree with this. I have no idea what kind of words he was looking up. For me, I still believe that both sections were well done. It is normal for the english-japanese section to be larger for English usually has a larger more comprehensive vocabulary than most if not all east asian languages? Well, I know it applies for Thai. ^_^ I'm also a manga and anime maniac so I regularly use it to translate what I hear or read, and so far it has passed every test every word I've looked up, save for a few rare extreme insults. (this is assumed that you know how to conjugate japanese verbs, because the dictionary lists them in their standard form or similar to the english indefinite form: "iku" meaning to go, can be said as ikimasu, iko, itte, etc., so you'll need to recognize these when translating japanese to english.) I've compared this dictionary to many others in its class and none compare to its comprehensiveness and clean layout. It also includes a little explanation about Japanese grammer and also has a table of jap syllables in hiragana, katakana, and romanji. You can compare the listings in the exerpts available on amazon.com for yourself if you want. I don't think that hinder your learning of hiragana/katagana like some people may say. Because they are actually pretty easy to remember, and since hiragana/katagana translates into english romanji letters EXACTLY!, you can make no mistake. Oh! I nearly forgot to mention that it also contains phrases that adds to its general handiness. Actually, it amazed me many times by having the exact phrase I was looking for even when I didn't expect for it from a dictionary. Generally, if you just need to translate ordinary words used in everyday life, this book is definitely for you. I'm even also planning to buy a more permanent hardcover copy soon, because I've used mines so much so often that the cover and pages are getting a little worn out.
Rating:
Summary: Truely amazing! Sugoi!
Review: I bought this book because it was the first Japanese/English, English/Japanese dictionary I clicked on. This is the best Japanese dictionary for beginners. In fact, I suggest buying two--the first will almost definently become worn from extreme usage. A must-buy for any native English speaker wanting to learn Japanese!
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly lacking in usefulness.
Review: I bought this dictionary because it was reasonably priced and seemed fairly decent when I flipped through it at the bookstore. However, I second the reviewer who said its best use is a doorstop. I've found that more often than not, when I go to look up a word, it's nowhere to be found. I've come to rely on internet dictionaries more than this book, unfortunately. A beginner to the language might find this somewhat useful, as well as anyone who gets confused by kana dictionaries (where the 'alphabetical order' isn't the same as English), but overall, I'd recommend saving your pennies and getting a decent electronic kanji/E-J/J-E dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: Great for almost anything
Review: I have been using this book in my Japanese classes for the past four years, and it's been great. There are a few advanced words I have found in newspapers that are not in this dictionary, but they are few. Almost any word you would want for general purposes is available in this dictionary, which is easily searchable by anyone. Another great feature of this dictionary is the inclusion of many alternatives to English loan-words, excellent for those who prefer to avoid them. I ordered the NTC New Character Dictionary to use with this one. I would also recommend a character dictionary for anyone, since being able to look up Kanji is important, but this is the book that every Japanese student should carry around with them.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I picked this book up at a local used book store to help with translating some manga (comics) for a friend. Upon bringing it home, though, I realized why the last person had gotten rid of it. While this is an EXCELLENT dictionary for translating english words to japanese (that part takes up almost 3/4 of the book), it's not worth it's weight in paper as anything else. The japanese to english section is small, incomplete, and basically pretty laughable. Many particles are completely omitted (leaving you wondering what the heck 'wa' does) as are many common nouns that you see everywhere. Also, try looking up jade (hisui) in the english - japanese section, it'll be there. But if you look up 'hisui' in the japanese - english section it wont be there. This happens to A LOT of words, very annoying... If you're only going to be using this book for english - japanese, go ahead and get it. Otherwise I recommend avoiding it unless you need a doorstop.
Rating: 
Summary: Review
Review: It tells you if it is a noun, verb, adj, adv.
Others don't.
Some common phrases.
Not bad at all.
Rating:
Summary: Good All-Around Dictionary for Japanese
Review: Novices and more advanced students and speakers of Japanese alike will find this a very handy reference to have on hand. Broken into two halves--one an English to Japanese dictionary and the other the reverse--the book allows students to easily locate whatever word they need. The one "fault" is that the Japanese-English portion is in Romaji, or the English-letter representation of Japanese sounds, which can make locating some words difficult for a couple of reasons--first, readers may not know the pronounciation of a given word in kanji (which other books better address anyway); and second, Romanization methods differ, yielding some confusion over the proper "spelling" of a given word. Still, a student with some knowledge of grammar should be able to look up spoken, Romanized, or kana-ized words without much difficulty.
Rating:
Summary: Yum
Review: This book is durable and has a very broad choice of words. I was absolutely lost without this. I implore anyone interested in learning Japanese to get it. The only problem I have with it is that it does not come out and say what stem the verbs are (However, if you get a good book like Barron's Japanese Grammar, you'll figure it out).
I translated a song using this and Barron's Japanese Grammar ^^;;
Rating: 
Summary: Good For Students of Japanese
Review: This dictionary has been very helpful for translating back and forth in my studies. I've found translating from Japanese to English harder than the other way around. Because I've just begun learning, I find myself stumbling around trying to find the meaning for words. It lacks any entries for particles. I've been unable to find some words. I believe this book is better for those who have a better understanding of the language, and who know most of the common words already. If you're just starting out I recommend buying a book specifically of basic words and particles first, or with this book. If you're wanting to translate manga, I suggest another book all together.
Rating:
Summary: Only Japanese dictionary I have ever needed
Review: This dictionary is great for anyone in need of a Jap-Eng Eng-Jap dictionary. I was skeptical of buying this, as I had never bought a dictionary from Random House before (I usually go for Oxford, sometimes Webster). But all in all, a good product. I'd reccomend it.
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