Japanese for Busy People is, as the title suggests, a concise course for ''busy'' students who want to learn natural spoken Japanese as effectively as possible in a limited amount of time. This worldwide bestselling series was prepared by a working group of experienced Japanese language instructors who reviewed and tested the material in an authentic classroom environment.

The Romanized Version uses romanized Japanese throughout, with kana in the Opening Dialogues of each lesson. The Kana Version-exposing students to hiragana and katakana from the very beginning-uses only kana. The content of the two books is otherwise exactly the same.