Online Resources
Japanese<>English Bilingual Dictionaries and Translators
(Dictionaries are most useful for looking up single words, whereas translators can provide readings for larger chunks of text)
Papillion http://www.papillon-dictionary.org/papillon/Home.po
RATING: ☆ LEVEL: Beginner – Lower Intermediate
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: English / Japanese etc.
An interesting project, but severely limited at this stage. (also translates to French, German, Lao, Thaï, Chinese.)
Denshi Jisho http://www.jisho.org/
RATING: ★★★★★ LEVEL: Beginner - Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: English
Look up words, kanji, and sentences drawn from the WWWJDIC project, with a user-friendly interface.
Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Japanese-English Dictionary Server http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
RATING: ★★★★☆ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: English
A very comprehensive online dictionary, the basis of many online dictionaries, with many search options.
Yahoo翻訳 http://honyaku.yahoo.co.jp/transtext
RATING: ★★★★★ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
TYPE: Trans / Dict INTERFACE: Japanese
An excellent online translator. Also excellent as a dictionary. (Also translates to Chinese and Korean).
理解 http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
TYPE: Translator INTERFACE: English / Japanese
A translation is displayed for words when you point your mouse cursor over them.
POPjisyo http://www.popjisyo.com/WebHint/Portal_e.aspx
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
TYPE: Translator INTERFACE: English
Another translator with pop-up translations for words (although not very good for hiragana words).
英辞郎 http://www.alc.co.jp/
RATING: ★★★★☆ LEVEL: Lower Intermediate – Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: Japanese
Look up words for excellent example sentences (although not very good for hiragana words).
リーディング チュウ太 http://language.tiu.ac.jp/tools_e.html
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Lower Intermediate – Advanced
TYPE: Translator INTERFACE: English / Japanese etc.
A translator with links to translations when you click on them (also translates to German).
三省堂 http://www.sanseido.net/
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Upper Intermediate – Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: Japanese
A well-respected monolingual and bilingual dictionary, with brief English entries.
Jeffrey's Japanese⇔English Dictionary Server
http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/nocolor/dict
RATING: ★★★★ LEVEL: Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: English
A huge, searchable dictionary of general and specialist words, names, terms, compounds, places and verbs.
GOO辞書 http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/index.html
RATING: ★★★★ LEVEL: Advanced
TYPE: Dictionary INTERFACE: Japanese
An online version of Sanseido's Daijirin Japanese Dictionary, 2nd ed. and Sanseido's EXCEED E-J and J-E.
Kanji Dictionaries
LINK http://www.nuthatch.com/kanji/
RATING: ★ LEVEL: Advanced INTERFACE: English
An online kanji dictionary that resembles a traditional paper dictionary, and is not readily searchable.
KANJIDIC http://hwr.nici.kun.nl/unipen/kanji/
RATING: ☆ LEVEL: Advanced INTERFACE: English
An online kanji dictionary organized by code, with no search function.
Other Languages
Dictionnaire français-japonais http://dico.fj.free.fr/traduction/index.php
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
LANGUAGE: French INTERFACE: French
WaDokuJT http://wadoku.de/
RATING: ★★★ LEVEL: Beginner – Advanced
LANGUAGE: German INTERFACE: German / Japanese
DICIONÁRIO DE KANJI http://www.noticiasdobrasil.com.br/lingua.htm
RATING: ★ LEVEL: Upper Intermediate – Advanced
LANGUAGE: Portuguese INTERFACE: Portuguese
Software Dictionaries (Downloadable)
CJE Dictionary http://www.cjedictionary.com/
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: At least Windows 2000 / Windows XP. Fonts: Asian fonts, specifically "Sim Sun". IME: Japanese or Chinese IME optional.
JavaDict http://www.cs.arizona.edu/projects/japan/JavaDict/index.html
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: At least SunOS/Solaris/Linux/Windows '95 / NT 4.0. Files: Java Development Kit v 1.1.3, Edict. Fonts: Microsoft Truetype.
* See the website for more information regarding where to download required files / fonts.
Macintosh Dictionaries
JEDict http://www.jedict.com/
SYSTEM REQUREMENTS: JEDict 4.3.1 requires OSX 10.4 or later. 3.8.1 runs on any Macintosh with Carbon support (MacOS 8.1 - OSX 10.4).
* See the website for more information regarding where to download required files / fonts.