In this updated edition of the best-selling kanji dictionary, hundreds of new entries have been added to reflect recent revisions to the Joyo and Jinmei Kanji lists, or the sets of characters prescribed by the Japanese government for general use and in the formation of names. Three thousand and two kanji entries-772 more than the first edition-fill its pages. Hiragana (the basic Japanese syllabary) instead of Romanized Japanese, is used throughout to show the readings of the characters and of the compounds in which they appear. As with the first edition, the dictionary's basic goal is to give the learner a thorough understanding of Japanese characters by providing a wealth of useful information on their meanings, readings, and usage in compounds. Normally the learner must memorize numerous kanji compounds as unrelated units. A unique feature of this dictionary that overcomes this difficulty is the core meaning, a concise keyword that defines the dominant sense of each character. By studying the core meaning in tandem with the detailed character meanings and usage examples that follow, learners will see how thousands of kanji are combined to form compound words. Another unique feature is the System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP), an indexing system that enables the user to locate characters as quickly and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries. Modern linguistic theory has been effectively integrated with sophisticated information technology-and now, powerful design software-to produce the most accessible kanji dictionary ever compiled. With The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded, learners have at their fingertips up-to-date information that is linguistically accurate, easy to use, and carefully adapted to their needs.