Just bought a pretty good book from Kinokuniya:

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Japanese … amp;sr=8-1

The title is a bit of a misnomer - it doesn't teach you how to speak polite business Japanese - rather, it lets you learn 熟語 that's often used in business, industry, and finance.

The book is broken out into 50 steps.  A step consists of:
1. A list of 15-30 Vocabulary Words
2. English translation of the list in 1
3. Example sentences of 1. (not translated)
4. A practice reading section to make sure you have learned the vocabulary

GOOD POINTS
Based on frequency from Nihon Keizai Shimbun: list of 1,700 business terms.
Lessons are bite-size so you can finish a lesson in 30min-1hr.
Furigana only used about 5-10% of the time.
With sample sentences, you get to learn in context: no real need to SRS.

BAD POINTS
Format is raw (looks like someone typed it) - no nice red letters/red sheets for vocab.
Book is bulky/hard to carry around.
No conversational vocab: this will only help you read business periodicals.
No business phrases.

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This is an intermediate+ text: you probably need around JLPT2 vocabulary/grammar to use this book comfortably: it is definitely beyond KO and somewhat overlaps KiC.  I think it is a good resource as a stepping stone towards reading newspapers.  If you see it in the bookstore, I would definitely recommend that you take a look, if this is your level. 

I will see if I can go through the book over the next couple of months.

Last edited by kfmfe04 (2009 January 28, 8:10 am)