The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary is a complete revision of The Original Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company in 1962. Long the foremost Japanese-English character dictionary, adopted by Japanese-study programs around the world and used at all levels of Japanese language study, the Nelson, as it is familiarly called, has been enhanced in this edition with several fundamental changes.
- The Universal Radical Index, an significant advance on the traditional character indices, has been created as a handy appendix that enables users to search for any main-entry character's reference number in Morohashi's Dai Kanwa Jiten.
- Over 1,200 characters have been added and more than 2,000 new on-kun entries included.
- Definitions have been modernized to reflect current usage and translation.