100 Traditional Japanese Greetings and When to Use Them

Hi everyone, Fumito here! Welcome back to reading-japanese.com.

Today I want to give you something big — 100 traditional Japanese greetings, all in one place. Not just “konnichiwa” and “sayonara,” but the full range: the ones you say when you leave your house, the ones the shop staff shout when you walk in, the ones you write on a New Year’s card, and the ones your grandmother’s generation still uses.

Here is the thing about Japanese greetings that surprises many learners: in Japan, the greeting is not small talk. It is the relationship. A proper 挨拶 (aisatsu, greeting) tells the other person how you see them, how close you are, and how much respect you are showing. Use the wrong one and it feels strange, even if your grammar is perfect.

So I organized these 100 greetings into 9 situations, so you can find exactly what you need. Every entry has the Japanese, the romaji, the meaning, and a short note from me on when to actually use it.

If you are still learning to read the kana, open my full hiragana guide and katakana guide in another tab — you will get much more out of this list if you can sound the words out yourself.

1. Everyday Greetings (1–14)

These are the daily basics. If you learn nothing else today, learn these.

Fumito’s tip: Notice how many greetings change depending on the time of day. Japanese does not really have a single all-purpose “hello.” こんにちは at 7am sounds odd, the same way “good afternoon” would at breakfast in English.

2. Asking How Someone Is (15–22)

3. Meeting Someone for the First Time (23–30)

If you want to build a whole self-introduction around these, I walk through it step by step in my beginner lesson on greetings and introductions.

4. Saying Goodbye (31–47)

Fumito’s tip: Please do not say さようなら to your friends every day. To Japanese ears it can sound like “goodbye forever.” Use またね or じゃあね instead.

5. Greetings at Home and as a Guest (48–60)

This group is where Japanese really shows its character. These greetings are almost ritual — they mark the door between inside and outside.

The いってきます / いってらっしゃい and ただいま / おかえり pairs are matched call-and-response sets. Learning both halves is the whole point — one without the other sounds incomplete.

6. Shops, Restaurants and Business (61–76)

You will hear most of these long before you ever say them.

7. Seasonal and New Year Greetings (77–88)

Japan’s most important greeting season is New Year. These appear on 年賀状 (nengajō, New Year postcards), which Japanese families still send by the billions.

If you want to see what a real nengajō looks like, Japan Guide’s page on New Year customs has good photos and background.

8. Thanks and Apologies (89–95)

In Japanese these function as greetings too, because so much of daily interaction opens with one or the other.

9. Congratulations and Well-Wishes (96–100)

Three Rules That Make All 100 Easier

After teaching these for years, I think almost all Japanese greeting mistakes come down to three things.

1. Match the level, not just the meaning. Most greetings come in pairs — a casual form and a polite form. おはよう and おはようございます mean the same thing, but they say very different things about your relationship. When you are unsure, go one level more polite. Nobody has ever been offended by too much respect.

2. Many greetings come in pairs. いってきます needs いってらっしゃい. ただいま needs おかえり. はじめまして leads to よろしくお願いします, which is answered with こちらこそ. Learn both sides together and conversations will flow naturally.

3. Greetings mark a boundary. Entering a house, leaving work, starting a meal, ending a year — Japanese puts a greeting at every threshold. Once you notice this pattern, you stop memorizing phrases and start understanding when a greeting is expected.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common greeting in Japan? おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) and こんにちは (konnichiwa) are the most common spoken greetings. In workplaces, お疲れ様です (otsukaresama desu) is heard constantly all day long.

Is it rude to say さようなら? Not rude, but often unnatural. さようなら suggests a long or final parting. For everyday goodbyes, use またね, じゃあね, or お疲れ様でした.

Do I bow when I greet someone? Usually yes, at least a small nod. A light 15-degree bow works for casual greetings, 30 degrees for polite ones. If you are shaking hands with a foreign visitor, a nod is enough.

Can I just say “konnichiwa” all the time? No — こんにちは is tied to daytime, and it is also slightly distant. You would not greet your own family with it. Time of day and closeness both matter.

What does よろしくお願いします really mean? There is no clean English equivalent. It sits somewhere between “please look after me,” “I look forward to working with you,” and “thanks in advance.” Learn it as a social gesture rather than a sentence.

Keep Going

If you got through all 100, you now know more Japanese greetings than many learners who have studied for a year. Here is what I would do next:

• Pick ten greetings from this list that match your actual life and drill only those this week
• Practice the paired ones out loud, both halves — say いってきます, then answer yourself with いってらっしゃい
• Work through my JLPT N5 preparation checklist if you are aiming for the exam
• Read my 10 habits of effective Japanese learners for how to make a short daily routine stick
• If you learn a little differently, my guide to studying Japanese with ADHD and dyslexia has strategies that pair well with lists like this one

For more background on how Japanese politeness levels work, Tofugu’s explanation of keigo is a good outside read, and NHK World’s free Japanese lessons give you native audio for many of these phrases.

Now tell me — which greeting on this list surprised you the most? Leave a comment below. Mine is #13, ごきげんよう. My grandmother used it every single day, and almost nobody says it anymore.

Ganbatte, and I will see you in the next lesson!

— Fumito