[1] The text was originally published in French as Le Japon: Dictionnaire et Civilisation in 1996, and written by Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum.
The English version was translated by Käthe Roth and published by Harvard University Press in 2002.
Describing Nussbaum as "one of the greatest experts on Japan", political scientist René Servoise deemed the French original "an excellent dictionary" with a comprehensive scope and "an exceptional bibliography".
"[6] James Hoare, writing for the journal Asian Affairs, found that among historical and cultural dictionaries of Japan "none covers as much ground as this", despite the presence of a few errors that "do not detract from the overall value of the book.
"[7] Roy Andrew Miller, on the other hand, in his 2003 review of the work in the Journal of Asian History, harshly criticized it for its errors, which he concluded were present in the vast majority, if not all, of his sample of several hundred articles.