Japanese Greetings From Morning to Night: The Full System

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Here is the thing most phrase lists get wrong: Japanese greetings are not a vocabulary set keyed to the clock, they are a social system keyed to three things at once — the time of day, your relationship to the person, and who is arriving or leaving. Learn the system and the right phrase arrives automatically. Learn twenty phrases as a flat list and you will still say こんにちは to your own host mother, which is a small, very audible mistake.

In this guide: the system · morning to night · coming and going · entering a home · leaving work · goodbyes · night and meals · after a long gap · thanks past and present · bowing · the full table

Japanese greetings are a system not a word list

English greetings encode roughly one variable: the time. "Good morning", "good afternoon", "good evening", and after that we improvise. Japanese greetings — 挨拶 (aisatsu) — encode three:

1. Time of day. Only three phrases actually depend on this, and they matter less than you would expect.
2. Relationship. Japanese sorts people into うち (uchi, your inside group — family, your team, your company) and そと (soto, everyone outside it). Several greetings are for そと only, and using them on うち people sounds distant.
3. Direction of movement. Who is leaving, who is staying, who has just arrived, who is going home first. This axis has no English equivalent at all, and it is where half of daily Japanese greeting behaviour lives.

There is a fourth structural feature that transforms how fast you learn this: most Japanese greetings come in pairs. One person's line has a fixed reply. いってきます gets いってらっしゃい. ただいま gets おかえりなさい. お先に失礼します gets お疲れさまでした. If you memorise single phrases you will freeze the moment someone greets you first — which is most of the time. Memorise the pair.

The three time based greetings and their limits

おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) — "Good morning." (polite) おはよう (ohayō) — same, (casual — close friends, family, and downward to juniors only)

Standard until roughly 10 or 11am. It comes from 早い (hayai, "early"), and that origin explains the quirk below.

こんにちは (konnichiwa) — "Hello / good afternoon." (polite-neutral) Late morning to dusk. Written with は but pronounced wa, because it is the topic particle fossilised inside the phrase — the same particle behaviour explained in our particles guide.

こんばんは (konbanwa) — "Good evening." (polite-neutral) From dusk onward. Same は-read-wa rule.

The workplace quirk that confuses everyone

おはようございます is the arrival greeting, not the morning greeting. In broadcasting, restaurants, convenience stores, theatres, factories and plenty of offices, you greet someone starting a shift with おはようございます whatever the clock says. A 10pm shift opens with it. Colleagues arriving at 3pm get it.

That is not an exception to be memorised so much as the phrase's real meaning: it marks the beginning of your time together today, and 早い refers to being early on the job, not early in the day.

Why konnichiwa is wrong with your own family

Both こんにちは and こんばんは began life as truncated sentence openers — 今日は… ("as for today…"), 今晩は… ("as for this evening…") — addressed to someone you needed to be somewhat formal with. That politeness is still baked in, which produces the rule beginners trip over:

Japanese speakers generally do not say こんにちは to their own family, and often not to colleagues they sit next to all day. Saying it to your host mother in the afternoon sounds roughly like greeting your brother with "good afternoon, sir" — not rude, just strangely distant.

What replaces it inside the うち circle:

• At home: the movement greetings. ただいま, おかえり, いってきます, おはよう. Often nothing at all.
• At work: お疲れさまです (otsukaresama desu), which functions as the all-hours default greeting between colleagues and has effectively displaced こんにちは in most Japanese offices.

こんにちは stays useful for shopkeepers, neighbours, strangers, and anyone you meet for the first time. It is a そと greeting, and it is a good one.

Coming and going the ittekimasu set

This is the axis with no English equivalent, and it is worth learning as four exchanges rather than eight phrases.

The literal meanings carry real information:

• いってきます = 行って来ます, "I'll go and come back." It is a promise of return, which is exactly why nobody says it when moving out or leaving a job permanently.
• いってらっしゃい = 行って いらっしゃい, "go, and please come back." The いらっしゃい is honorific, which is why it works upward as well as downward.
• ただいま is short for ただいま帰りました (tadaima kaerimashita) — "I have just this moment returned."
• おかえりなさい is short for お帰りなさい, an honorific imperative meaning roughly "welcome back."

These are not home-only phrases. In an office, stepping out to a client and saying 営業に行ってきます (eigyō ni ittekimasu — "I'm off to a sales call") will draw いってらっしゃい from the room, and ただいま戻りました (tadaima modorimashita — "I'm back") when you return.

Entering a home and entering an office

Two separate sets, one for private homes and one for rooms at work, and mixing them is a recognisable learner tell.

A private home

• ごめんください (gomen kudasai) — "Excuse me, is anyone there?" (polite) Called out from the 玄関 (genkan, entrance) when nobody has come to the door yet. Slightly old-fashioned, still in use.
• おじゃまします (o-jama shimasu) — "I'll be intruding." (polite) Said as you step up from the genkan into the house proper, after the host says どうぞ (dōzo) or どうぞお上がりください (dōzo o-agari kudasai — "please come up").
• おじゃましました (o-jama shimashita) — "Thank you for having me", literally "I have intruded." (polite) Said at the door on the way out. Past tense, because the intruding is now finished.

The literal meaning is the useful part: おじゃま frames your presence as an imposition the host has generously accepted. That framing is why the phrase is obligatory rather than optional — skipping it reads as taking the invitation for granted.

A room at work

• 失礼します (shitsurei shimasu) — "Excuse me." (polite) Entering someone's office or a meeting room, and also leaving one. Also the standard way to end a phone call.
• 失礼しました (shitsurei shimashita) — "Excuse me / sorry about that." (polite) Past tense, used after the fact: leaving a room you have finished in, or apologising for a small blunder.

Notice the pattern forming, because it recurs three more times below: present tense as you begin, past tense as you finish.

Leaving work the otsukaresama set

お疲れさまです (otsukaresama desu) is the most useful phrase in a Japanese workplace and the hardest to translate — it works as hello, goodbye, thanks for your work, and acknowledgement that someone has done something, all at once. Learn it as a social signal, not a sentence.

ご苦労さまです flows downward only. It means almost the same thing, and saying it to a boss is a genuine mistake with a slightly patronising flavour. Superiors say it to subordinates, and delivery drivers hear it constantly. Use お疲れさまです upward, always.

Going home before your colleagues has its own exchange:

• お先に失礼します (o-saki ni shitsurei shimasu) — "Excuse me for leaving before you." (polite) Said by the person leaving.
• お疲れさまでした (otsukaresama deshita) — the reply from everyone staying. (polite, past)

That pair is close to mandatory in a traditional Japanese office, and the two lines are not interchangeable — the person leaving does not say お疲れさまでした first. If you are working in Japan, our business Japanese guide covers the keigo layer that sits on top of these.

Goodbyes and why sayounara feels final

さようなら (sayōnara) is the textbook goodbye and the one adults use least. It derives from 左様ならば (sayō naraba) — "if that is so…" — the opening of a longer farewell that got worn down to the greeting itself, and it kept the weight. It suggests a parting with some distance in it, so Japanese speakers rarely use it on someone they will see tomorrow. Where it survives most visibly is school: students say it to teachers at the end of the day.

What people actually say:

• では、また (dewa, mata) — "See you then." (polite, safe with almost anyone)
• じゃあ、また (jā, mata) / じゃあね (jā ne) / またね (mata ne) — "See you." (casual)
• また明日 (mata ashita) — "See you tomorrow." (neutral) Swap the time word: また来週 (mata raishū, next week), また今度 (mata kondo, next time).
• 気をつけて (ki o tsukete) — "Take care / get home safe." (neutral) Said to the person leaving, not by them. Politer: 気をつけてください, softer: 気をつけてね.
• お大事に (o-daiji ni) — "Take care of yourself." (polite) Only to someone who is ill.

The have-a-good-day problem

There is no everyday Japanese equivalent of "have a good day", and this is worth being honest about rather than papering over. What fills the same slot:

• いってらっしゃい at a door, to someone heading out — this does the actual job of "have a good day" in Japanese.
• 良い一日を (yoi ichinichi o) — "Have a good day." Grammatical, understood, and noticeably translated-sounding. It appears in media and in Japanese written to foreigners more than in everyday speech.
• 良い週末を (yoi shūmatsu o) — "Have a good weekend." (polite) This one is genuinely used, on a Friday. So is 良いお年を (yoi o-toshi o) at the end of December.
• お気をつけて (o-ki o tsukete) — "Take care", the go-to when someone is travelling.

Night greetings and meal greetings

おやすみ (oyasumi) (casual) / おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai) (polite) — "Good night." From 休む (yasumu, to rest). Not bedtime-only: it is the correct goodbye any time you leave a group late at night, or end a late phone call.

いただきます (itadakimasu) — "I gratefully receive." (neutral, said by everyone) Before eating, every time, including alone. It is the humble form of もらう and the gratitude points at everyone in the chain — cook, farmer, the food itself. Hands together is common but not required.

ごちそうさまでした (gochisōsama deshita) — "Thank you for the meal." (polite) / ごちそうさま (casual) After eating. 馳走 (chisō) literally means running about — the effort of preparing a feast — so the thanks are for the trouble taken. Say it to a host, to whoever paid, and on your way out of a restaurant, where staff will hear it as a compliment.

Present tense to begin, past tense to finish. Same rule again.

Seeing someone after a long time

• 久しぶり (hisashiburi) — "Long time no see." (casual)
• お久しぶりです (o-hisashiburi desu) — same. (polite)
• お久しぶりですね (o-hisashiburi desu ne) — same, warmer, invites agreement. (polite)
• ご無沙汰しております (go-busata shite orimasu) — "It's been a long time", literally "I have been neglectful in contacting you." (humble, business) The formal ceiling of this group, standard in business email and on a call to a client you have not spoken to in months.

The natural follow-up is お元気でしたか (o-genki deshita ka) — "How have you been?" (polite) — in the past tense, because it asks about the gap. お元気ですか is not the daily "how are you?" that English uses; save it for a real interval. The 50 daily conversation phrases list covers the small-talk moves that follow this opening.

Arigatou gozaimasu versus arigatou gozaimashita

One tense rule explains four separate pairs, which is the highest-leverage paragraph in this guide.

ございます is for something ongoing or happening now. ございました is for something now finished. A shop assistant says ありがとうございました as you walk out, because the transaction is over. Someone still helping you gets ありがとうございます.

Get the axis right and you get eight phrases for the price of one rule. Get it wrong and it is still perfectly understandable — but ありがとうございました to someone mid-favour has an unintended "well, that's over then" flavour.

Casual versions exist for the top row: ありがとう (arigatō) and, more clipped still, どうも (dōmo), which floats freely between "thanks", "hello" and "sorry" depending on tone. どうも is convenient and slightly under-polite — safe with shop staff and peers, thin with a boss.

How to bow without overdoing it

Bowing (お辞儀, ojigi) travels with almost every greeting above, and learners consistently get it wrong in one direction: too deep, too often.

The mechanics that make a bow look right:

• Bend from the hips, back and neck in one straight line. Nodding the head alone is the most common learner shape and reads as a half-effort.
• Let your eyes go down with you. Holding eye contact through a bow feels confrontational in Japan, the opposite of the English instinct.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, rise a little slower than you went down. Speed is what separates a respectful bow from a hurried one.
• For formal bows, say the words first, then bow — this is 語先後礼 (gosen-gorei, "words first, bow after"). In everyday situations bowing while you speak is completely normal.
• Do not bow and shake hands at the same time. Pick one. With a foreign counterpart a handshake often replaces the bow entirely, and a small nod alongside it is plenty.

The honest version: nobody expects a foreign speaker to get the angle right, and nobody is measuring. The failure mode people actually notice is over-performance — four deep bows at a convenience-store register, or a 45° bow to a classmate. Default to the nod, save the 30° bow for introductions, and you will never look wrong. If you are visiting rather than working, our travel Japanese phrase guide covers the situations where a nod is all you will ever need.

The full greeting table

The bottom line

Three axes, and the clock is the least important of them. Time gives you three phrases. Relationship tells you whether to use them at all — こんにちは for そと, movement greetings and お疲れさまです for うち. Direction of movement gives you the pairs, which are where the real fluency signal sits: いってきます / いってらっしゃい, ただいま / おかえりなさい, お先に失礼します / お疲れさまでした.

Layered on top, one tense rule covers eight phrases: present as you begin, past as you finish. And one register rule keeps you safe: ございます and です forms by default, casual forms only after the other person drops first.

Greetings are also the single best thing to drill out loud, because they are short, high-frequency and reflexive — you need them to arrive without thought, which is a motor skill rather than a knowledge one. For ambient exposure, NHK News Web Easy gives you free short articles with slow audio, and the Japan Foundation publishes learner materials organised around real communicative situations. If a certificate is also on your list, the official JLPT site sets out what each level tests — reading and listening only, which is precisely why greetings you can recognise are not greetings you can produce.

Where to go next: the Japanese self-introduction template covers what you say in the sixty seconds after はじめまして, with the register ladder and a fill-in-the-blank frame; the 50 daily conversation phrases list gives you the shop, restaurant and phone expressions this page deliberately skips; and if kana is still slowing your reading down, the hiragana and katakana guide is the shortest way through.

Pick three pairs from the table above. Say both halves out loud, ten times each, today.

🗣️ Greetings only become reflex once they have left your mouth a hundred times. Practise Japanese greetings free →

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