First (and current) edition：1995
Publisher：角川学芸出版
Number of words：52.000 words
Number of pages : 1504 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-4040132006
A dictionary with quite a small headword count, so the chance of pulling it up and not finding the word you are looking for is quite big. In my eyes the biggest downside of all on this dictionary is the fact that it hasn’t had a revision since its first edition back in 1995, this means that it is quite outdated and it is getting more so by the day. Furthermore, the things that set this dictionary apart back in the day, and that (to this day) have gotten it a dedicated fanbase have since been replicated and improved on in other dictionaries. Things such as columns on synonym usage, analysis of old terms back to ancient language, … Can be found in many other dictionaries that are better for the task, still, the one thing it has still going for it is that it has quite detailed entries on Japanese Language studies. Do they make this a worthwhile purchase for a language learner, though? In most cases I would argue it doesn’t, but exceptions do always exist.