"Whether full-time students, businesspeople, or casual readers, all have felt the need for an up-to-date, practical kanji dictionary. Something that would be compact enough to fit inside a backpack or briefcase and yet big enough, in terms of its vocabulary, to enable the user to read most contemporary texts. Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary is precisely that. It includes all of the 1,945 Joyo Kanji, the core kanji recommended by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture for use in newspapers and magazines. Knowing these kanji, the student can recognize virtually every Chinese character appearing in the daily press." The Essential Kanji Dictionary also features some 18,000 kanji compounds, those with Chinese readings (on-yomi) as well as those with Japanese readings (kun-yomi). These compounds have been carefully selected for practicality, usefulness, and timeliness; and in all cases the living language has been given exclusive priority.