What’s your level of comfort in reading Japanese/using J-J dictionaries? The dictionaries are surprisingly different in character. If you’re just starting out with J-J dictionaries I’d definitely recommend Sanseido’s Kokugo Jiten (the orange logo). It’s the least expensive, is fairly up to date with modern slang/new words, and is designed to be accessible for middle-high schoolers so the definitions tend to be more simple and concise. Shinmeikai (red logo) is closely related to Kokugo Jiten (produced by the same folks) but tends to have longer and more nuanced entries that give a greater sense of the feel of a word. Daijirin (purple logo) has a standard dictionary feel and is more comprehensive, as it has more entries than the previous two.
I’ve accumulated *cough i.e. spent way too much on*cough a lot of their dictionaries…I use them for my job, read a lot, sometimes when tutoring folks, and am studying for the Kanken (pre-level 2), so it’s been worth it for me. I’ve actually found it really quick and useful to be able to jump from dictionary to dictionary within their ecosystem. If anyone has any questions about the following I’d be happy to answer them. I’ve got:
- Wisdom 3 (J-E, E-J, only one that allows bookmark exports)
- Sanseido Kokugo Jiten (三省堂国語辞典 第七版)
- Shinmeikai Kokugo Jiten (三省堂 新明解国語辞典 第七版)
- Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (shorter edition, 精選版 日本国語大辞典)
- Daijirin 4 (大辞林 第四版)
- Shinjigen (角川新字源 改訂新版) - good for knowing loads of details about specific kanji (i.e meanings, readings, jukugo, origin)
- Kanken (漢検 漢字辞典 第二版) - like above but more concise with useful info for Kanken studying
- Kogo 5 (旺文社 全訳古語辞典 第五版) - Useful for obscure historical names/words that sometimes pop up. Also can be good for some Aozora Bunko stuff that contains older Japanese.
- Ruigo Jiten (類語辞典) - would not recommend now that Roget’s Nihongo Thesaurus is out
- Roget’s Nihongo Thesaurus (日本語シソーラス 類語検索辞典 第2版) - Worth it if you have to compose text in Japanese