Kōjien

It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions.

[1] Kōjien was the magnum opus of Shinmura Izuru, 1876–1967, a professor of linguistics and Japanese at Kyoto University.

After studying in Germany, Ueda taught comparative linguistics and edited foreign-language dictionaries in the latter part of the Meiji era.

Iwanami Shoten currently publishes Kōjien in several printed and digital formats, and also sells dictionary subscription services for cell phone and Internet access.

Before the release of the 7th edition, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan issued an official statement, requesting Iwanami Shoten to correct the entry.

Changes include 10,000 new words were added from 100,000 words collected by its editors firstly, including "apuri"(app), "Isuramu-koku"(Islamic State), LGBT, "hanii torappu" (honey trap), "jidori" (selfie) and "diipu raningu" (deep learning).

[10] In response, the publisher revised the definition to "in broad terms, people whose sexual orientations are not heterosexual or people whose gender identity does not match the sex they were identified with at birth.”[11] The Kōjien, like most Japanese dictionaries, writes headwords in hiragana syllabary and collates them in gojūon ("50 sounds") order.

Baroni and Bialock (2005) describe the Kōjien as "an old standard that gives extensive definitions, etymologies (as always take care with these), and variant usages for words, places, historical and literary figures, and furigana for difficult or old terms."

The Kōjien dictionary had a censorship policy before it became politically correct (see kotobagari), and omitted taboo words such as sexual slang or offensive terms.

It includes encyclopedic information such as 2700 illustrations and maps, and mini-biographies of notable people (both living and dead foreigners, but only deceased Japanese).

Because it gives definitions in historical order, it is the best single-volume choice for people interested in how the meanings of words have changed over time."