This is perhaps one of the classic Japanese-English character dictionaries. It contains practically all thre characters and compounds a serious learner of Japanese would ever encounter. Despite its size, this dictionary is certainly one of the most useful Kanji dictionaries to have, comprehensive yet concise.

Each entry lists the On and Kun pronunciations and meanings of the character, compounds beginning with that character, their pronunciation and meanings. Unfortunately, the pronunciations are given in romaji rather than kana, which any reasonable student of Japanese would be familiar with. Although the characters are listed under their simplified forms, the traditional form, where it differs, is also provided in the entry. As such, the entries are very comprehensive and useful.

This dictionary, however, is very much for the reader and not the writer. It helps little in Japanese composition as no indication of usage is included in the description of the character and its compounds. It is rather for readers to ascertain the meanings of unfamiliar characters and compounds they come across, and for this purpose, it fulfils its aims admirably.

However, one extremely grave fault of the dictionary is the order in which the characters are arranged. Departing from the traditional arrangement under the classical radicals, Nelson has devised, in this edition, a strange algorithmic method classifying characters which makes it difficult indeed to locate characters, particularly for those familiar with the traditional system. The departure from the traditional system also means that readers who learn Nelson's odd system will be unable to use other references using the traditional system effectively. Were it not for this flaw, the dictionary would surely have been given a higher rating. The situation, however, is ameliorated by the fact that cross-references have been included to point readers to the new radical at the appropriate spot for the old radical. The dictionary also contains many useful indices and appendices listing characters according to their pronunciation, describing the method of locating characters, historical and geographical tables, and so forth. The phonetic index, in particular, is very useful for finding a character whose pronunciation one knows but whose exact form once cannot precisely recall.

In short, this is one of the best Japanese-English character dictionaries around, particularly with regard to its content. It is essential for any advanced student of Japanese, and will prove very useful to intermediate students as well. Its size and scope is such that only rarely will you be dissapointed with an entry or lack thereof. Although sadly marred by Nelson's unfortunate arrangement of the characters, a very serious flaw in a character dictionary -- imagine if an English dictionary departed from the traditional alphabetical arrangement of words, and adopted an entirely new syllabic arrangement, or altered the traditional alphabetical order so the vowels came first, or something similarly inexcusable -- the dictionary is would otherwise be a great investment.

I believe "The Modern Reader's Japanese - English Character Dictionary" by Andrew Nathaniel Nelson is the best character dictionary available for Japanese readers of intermediate/advanced level. In particular for anybody with a great deal of Japanese reading to do, this dictionary excels.

Some debate has arisen over the construction of the book, since it departs from the "traditional" method of classifying characters and adopts a completely systematic approach.

Traditionally the sub-character, or radical, by which a kanji character is classified is determined by the meaning of the radical and the meaning of the whole kanji, thus if one knows the basic meaning of the radical and can guess the meaning of the kanji by it's context you are able to choose fairly accurately which radical a kanji character is listed under. (Please note this is an inexact science, Japanese themselves are not _always_ able to find a character by this method the first try) Having tried this method, I can say with confidence that although it is possible to find characters with perhaps 70% accuracy for an intermediate level reader in order to find characters with anything approaching 100% accuracy you virtually need to become a scholar in kanji construction and radical meanings. (As was mentioned in a review by Sebastien-Jerome, "the traditional system fixed by the [Chinese] Kangxi dictionary" is the basis of all such dictionaries. Thus if you don't have a knowledge of this system you are in trouble ;-)

OK... So how is this dictionary any different? Andrew N. Nelson was a scholar of the Japanese written system (a missionary to Japan, I believe) and he felt, since there is debate even among Japanese as to the correct organisation of a character dictionary, that a systematic approach to character organisation was the most logical step and provided a good way of finding characters for all the non-scholars. This he proceeded to do. He compiled one of the most comprehensive listings of Kanji and compounds available to non-Japanese at the time (or to date) and then proceeded to place them in the logical order of first radical found in an arbitrary but logically ordered system: is it a radical? no, is it enclosure? no, start from an arbitrary point (he chose the top left or "North-West" corner) and rotate around the character looking for the radical (ie next North, North-East, East etc.) With the end result that, once you learnt his arbitrary system, any person, scholar or no, could find their desired character on the first try. (or in other words with 100% accuracy.) This is a most amazing development, considering even Japanese people with their current dictionaries cannot _always_ find their desired character on the first try. Of course as with any profound paradigm shift many people argued and argue that it is "stepping away from the original system", but there is no one standard for Kanji radical groupings so, on this grounds, Nelson's choice can be only be said to be as arbitrary as any other and surely much more effective.

In all I have been very impressed by the speed with which I can find a character using this dictionary, providing of course you understand the system and know a good percentage of the radicals. Likewise, as has been stated by others, the scope of this dictionary is such that very rarely will you be unable to find your desired character or compound. For any student of Japanese with a lot of reading of Japanese to do this is the only dictionary I can recommend, as I know of absolutely no other that allows you to find your desired character first try _every_time_. For example, if you are trying to read a book, you may have to look up several hundred characters and compounds. This ability to find the character first time every time will save you a lot of time and heartache in the end.

Before buying this dictionary look at your goal in learning Japanese. For scholars of Japanese and its accompanying written system, this dictionary may not be for you, perhaps you would be better off just buying a Japanese Character Dictionary from Japan. But for students, of almost any level, who don't have time to delve into the complexities yet, you can't go past this dictionary. (Don't worry, you can still use other dictionaries... but you will find yourself wishing for Nelson's system ;-) As anybody who has studied languages knows well, achieving fluency is a very difficult thing and staying interested is very important. Pouring over dictionaries is difficult and time-consuming (and really ruins a good book ;), so if you just want to sit down and read a Japanese book, this is for you.

Finally, there is a new version of this dictionary "The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary : Based on the Classic Edition by Andrew N. Nelson" edited by John H. Haig. I know for a fact that this edition tries to revert to a more traditional system of Kanji grouping, and eliminates the original system and also eliminates much of the original speed.

This is THE kanji dictionary for any serious student of Japanese. Years after buying this dictionary in college, I still use it when other dictionaries do not have an entry for the exact combination of characters. It's big, it's heavy, but it is definitely the best when other carry-around dictionaries fall short.