Acknowledgements

Firstly, I wish to express my deepest gratitude and respect to the staff and faculty of the University of Aizu, Japan, and all the people in Fukushima prefecture who support this institution. The nine years there, which I was able to devote to the research of Japanese lexicography, were the most productive of my life. I am also thankful to my colleagues at the University of Aizu with whom I discussed the problems of computer kanji look-up in the early stages of the project, namely: Subhash Bhalla, Harvey Abramson, Lothar Schmidt, Kile Christianson and Sergei Duzhin. Their comments and suggestions have been most helpful.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of Jim Breen and his team who compiled KANJIDIC and EDICT dictionary files. Even though the data from these files are not utilized in today's version of JiShop, these were of great help in the initial experimental stages of my research.

Next, I would like to thank Oleg Mikhailik (Kiev, Ukraine) who has been my consultant in programming for about five years. His explanations were always detailed and clear. He found solutions to some of the really complicated problems. I should also not forget Igor Sedukhin (currently living in NY), who gave me some invaluable advice on using Delphi during his stay in Aizu in 1996.

My biggest gratitude goes to my wife Sian, for being a native English speaker with an impeccable sense of the language. She has proofread the English translations in the database, and edited the help pages. All data in the future versions of JiShop will also go through her editing and proofreading.

Finally, I sincerely thank all Japanese people who helped me master their language throughout the nine years I stayed in Japan. It is impossible to list all their names here. I thank everyone.