Review of Inoue's Japanese-English Dictionary by Mark Barton

This could actually be a sensible choice for a pocket dictionary for the more advanced learner with good eyesight because it has a very large number of words in a very small volume at a low price. The keywords are romaji and in alphabetic order. However the following mental health warning is in order: this is an old dictionary. The copyright of the "First Tuttle edition" is 1983, but you have to read the foreword to discover that in fact it was first published in 1926! Moreover a quick look at some of the entries shows that the people at Tuttle have grossly exaggerated the extent of their labours by using the word "edition" - the body of the dictionary has clearly been reprinted from very old plates (pre-WWII?) and all the kanji are old-fashioned non-simplified forms (see, e.g., "hiroi"). Thus it is close to useless as an aid to writing.

☆ See all reviews by Mark Barton.