Keigo : Keigo (honorific language) is a form of omotenashi (hospitality), a way of speaking that shows respect and treats the other party with deference. Since Keigo's purpose is to show hospitality to the other party, respectful expressions (sonkeigo) are used for individuals on the other party's side – for example, their children, parents, elders, superiors, or company presidents. Conversely, humble expressions (kenjōgo) are used for individuals on one's own side, such as one's own parents, elders, superiors, or company presidents.

As this example demonstrates, Keigo is not differentiated by social hierarchy. Rather, it is an expression of one's willingness to extend hospitality to the other party. Conversely, not using Keigo with someone with whom one has no private relationship can be interpreted as a deliberate act of treating that person roughly and rudely. Furthermore, using Keigo with someone with whom one has no private relationship also serves to confirm the absence of such a private connection.

Whether or not to use Keigo is not an obligation, but rather the speaker's freedom. Precisely because it is a matter of choice, the recipient feels a sense of being special, and it functions as a form of hospitality. However, if Keigo is not used in public settings, the speaker is regarded as uncultured and rude or having hostility. Indeed, Keigo is challenging. However, it is precisely because of its difficulty that it holds significant value as a form of hospitality.

Even for Japanese people, distinguishing the proper usage of Keigo is extremely difficult. Therefore, there's a "magic phrase" that Japanese people invariably say, especially when meeting someone for the first time: That is "Yoroshiku-onegai-shimasu." This phrase conveys, "I am inexperienced, and I might inadvertently act or speak impolitely towards you. Should that happen, please kindly interpret my actions in a positive light. I ask for your understanding and favor in advance."

Keigo -1 Keigo -2

Ambiguous expressions : Japanese ambiguous expressions are one form of "omotenashi" (hospitality). When imagining the use of direct expressions, one anticipates that the other party might feel offended. Therefore, to prevent causing discomfort, it is important to avoid direct language.

Ambiguous expressions-1 Ambiguous expressions-2

Ambiguous expressions-3 Ambiguous expressions-4

Honne and Tatemae : The Japanese concepts of Honne (true feelings) and Tatemae (public facade) can be considered forms of "hospitality." It involves prioritizing the values and expectations of others or society (Tatemae), while setting aside one's own desires or judgments (Honne) temporarily.

This act often requires sacrificing one's ego in order to avoid making others uncomfortable. As Tatemae is a form of hospitality, similar to honorific language (keigo) or ambiguous expressions, it is typically used with people who are not close or with whom one does not have a personal relationship.

Furthermore, when Tatemae is used with someone close, it often signifies the desire to maintain a harmonious and favorable relationship with that person moving forward.

Even if you wish to live completely openly and honestly, always expressing your true selves, you cannot attend a formal ceremony completely naked. This is because we live in society.

Honne and Tatemae-1 Honne and Tatemae-2

~ San : "The Japanese honorific "~sama" is equivalent to English "Mr." or French "Monsieur." In contrast, there isn't a direct equivalent or similar term in foreign languages for "~san." "~sama" corresponds to honorific language (sonkeigo), while "~san" corresponds to polite language (teineigo). The use of "~san" implies a relationship where both parties are considered equal, regardless of social status or gender, and simply expresses a desire to treat the other person politely.

Because the relationship implied by "~san" is one of equality and parity, it's considered rude to use it for someone you want to show respect to. For teachers, superiors, or clients, you would use terms like "〇〇-sensei" (for teachers), "〇〇-bucho" (for department managers), or "Okyaku-sama" (customer)."

To this connection, "KAMI-sama" means "GOD", while "KAMI-san" means "my wife" and "o-KAMI-san" signifies "your or his wife".

bow : It is said that originally, the act of bowing (ojigi) was a human gesture of greeting towards gods. Islamic prayer is a prime example of this; similarly, in Shintoism, people bow their heads to greet gods. On the other hand, Shintoism is pantheistic, believing that gods reside in all things. Gods are present in mountains, rivers, plants, and animals. Naturally, this also includes recognizing the presence of gods within human beings. Therefore, it was a natural progression for Japanese people to eventually extend the act of bowing to other human beings.

Furthermore, communication with gods is often non-verbal and implicit. Consequently, people infer the will of the gods. From their surroundings, weather conditions, natural disasters (volcanic eruption/ashes, earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, flood, heavy snow, avalanche, drought, cool summer, thunderbolt, etc.), and divination, they imagine and predict what the gods desire or what would please them.

In other words, just as it was a natural development for Japanese people to begin bowing to other human beings, it was also natural for them to start offering "Omotenashi" (Japanese hospitality, characterized by anticipating others' needs or feelings) to other human beings.

This consideration of mutually imagining and anticipating the needs, intentions and feelings of others has become an implicit behavioral foundation among Japanese people in various aspects. This includes not only customer service and other service industries, but also interpersonal relationships at schools and workplaces, manners in public spaces like trains, collective action during disasters, the development of new products in companies, and work ethics in agriculture and manufacturing.

In this way, quietly observing various others, imagining or anticipating their intentions, thoughts, and feelings, and then acting—or refraining from acting—in a manner that respects them is called “omoiyari.” ”Omoiyari lies at the heart of Japanese culture, rooted in the pantheistic tradition of Shinto. This spirit pervades everything from classical performing arts like 'Noh' to the custom of saying 'itadakimasu' before every meal.

＜Language＞ Characteristics

Case Particles : Particles (joshi) are attached after nouns to clarify their grammatical roles. Similarly, in English, prepositions serve to explicitly indicate the roles of nouns. In English, prepositions are placed before nouns to form prepositional phrases—set expressions like "preposition + noun." In Japanese, however, particles are attached after nouns to create what is called a complement—sets of "noun + particle." Case particles specify whether the complement is the object or the subject. This allows complements to move freely within a sentence. For example, you can place the object at the beginning of a sentence or the subject immediately after the verb, and the case particles will identify whether they are the subject or the object.

　　 Many people claim that "Japanese word order is the opposite of English," but the truth is, Japanese essentially has no fixed word order. Because the role of nouns is understood through particles, even without a grammatically required word order—that is, syntax or fixed relative positioning—"subject positioning" is unnecessary in Japanese sentences. There are no SVOO or SVOC structures. Speakers can place elements they wish to emphasize (such as complements, verbs, adverbs, or circumstantial phrases) at the beginning or end of a sentence. Conversely, elements that do not require emphasis, even subjects or verbs, can be omitted. The ability of HAIKU to convey meaning in just 17 syllables is largely attributable to this "freedom of Japanese" afforded by particles.

　　　For beginners, Japanese communication is easy, because they don't need to organize their speech as sentence structure. Furthermore, Japanese lacks articles, singular/plural distinction, grammatical gender for nouns, verb conjugations based on person, the subjunctive mood（接続法）, and has only two tenses (non-past/incomplete and past/complete). There are also only five vowels, and no intricate tones (like the four tones in Chinese). Therefore, Japanese is not the 'difficult language' it is often portrayed to be."

Basic Advanced

Sentence-final particles : An emoji is a symbol appended to the end of a sentence to express the speaker’s evaluation, feelings, or nuance regarding that sentence. In Japanese, there are symbols that, like emoji, exclamation marks, and question marks, are attached to the end of a sentence to express the speaker’s intent, emotions, evaluation, or nuance. These are called sentence-final particles. Sentence-final particles are added at the end of a sentence and add the speaker’s subjectivity and nuances to the utterance—for example, signaling that one is informing or seeking confirmation from the listener, calling attention, posing a question, expressing exclamation, seeking agreement, indicating a lack of certainty, or showing admiration for the situation.

Sentence-final particles 1 Sentence-final particles 2

Personal Pronouns : Cosplay (or Costume Play) is a form of play in which people dress up as characters from manga, anime, video games, and other media, fully embodying those characters to momentarily escape everyday life and enjoy performing a preferred persona. To enjoy cosplay, elaborate costumes are typically required. However, in the Japanese language, there is a way to change character without any costume at all—through the use of first-person pronouns.

It is said that Japanese has over 100 types of first-person pronouns. In other words, the language itself offers more than 100 ready-made character outfits. Many Japanese men use the neutral pronoun 'watashi' at work, but switch to 'ore', 'boku', or 'jibun' outside the office to change their character. This allows them to shed the “public role” of 'watashi' used in the workplace and relax among friends—like changing from formal attire into casual clothes.

Incidentally, Natsume Sōseki wrote a novel titled ”Wagahai wa Neko de aru”. The pronoun 'wagahai' evokes the persona of a dignified gentleman, so just reading the title conjures an image for many Japanese readers: a snobbish aristocrat reclining proudly, stroking his majestic Kaiser mustache, and pompously declaring his presence. It’s a scene that often elicits a quiet chuckle. But translated into English, the title becomes : "I am a cat."

First-person pronouns-1 First-person pronouns-2

Onomatopoeia : In Japanese, there are some 4,500 onomatopoeic expressions listed in the Nihongo Onomatopoeia Jiten (“Dictionary of Japanese Onomatopoeia”). By comparison, English has about 500, French 600, and Chinese around 450. Moreover, while onomatopoeia are used only sparingly abroad, they play a very large role in Japanese—not just in children’s picture books, manga, and anime, but in everyday adult conversation, business meetings, advertising, and corporate taglines.

Japanese onomatopoeia can be broadly divided into giongo: words that imitate sounds actually heard in reality, and gitaigo: words that express the state of things that make no sound, bodily sensations, and psychological states. Japanese is unusual among the world’s languages in having many gitaigo—sound-based expressions for soundless phenomena—and in using them so broadly.

Gitaigo tend to follow certain patterns. For example, high vowels like "i" and "e" convey a sharp, small impression, while low vowels like "o" and "u" suggest a large, thick feeling. Voiceless consonants express lightness, agility, and delicacy; voiced consonants convey weight and heaviness; sibilants imply sharpness; and nasal sounds evoke softness. These tendencies are known as sound symbolism or the Bouba-Kiki effect, and they are innate across all races and language speakers. Just as music can evoke imagery and emotion, this primitive sensitivity is shared by all humanity—not just the Japanese.

EEG studies conducted at Kyoto University have shown that when Japanese speakers hear onomatopoeia, there are strong responses not only in the auditory cortex but also in the visual cortex, somatosensory regions, and prefrontal areas involved in emotion processing. It is thought that for Japanese people, sounds trigger sensory and memory mechanisms, producing quasi-experiences of bodily sensations and emotional memories. In Japanese, onomatopoeia functions as a channel system that, through sound, directly—without the mediation of rational deliberation—lets people resonate with and share sensory impressions, scenes and moods, the atmosphere of a situation, and subtle shades of psychological state.

Although Japanese contains thousands of onomatopoeic words, Japanese people do not study them at all; they are neither taught nor memorized in school. That is because onomatopoeia are not something to understand but to feel. It is like being moved by music without having studied it. When you encounter onomatopoeia, picture the situation and try reading the characters with various accents and intonations—feel them and savor them. Repeat this a few times and a feel for onomatopoeia will come to you naturally. And if you are a fan of manga or anime, this primitive sensibility may already be awake within you, even without working hard to study onomatopoeia.

Bouba - Kiki Sound Symbolism

Onomatopoeia - 1 Onomatopoeia - 2

Characters : The alphabetic writing system is used in Europe, Russia, Armenia, and other regions, whereas the Chinese character (Hanzi or kanji) writing system was historically used in China, Vietnam, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. Subsequently, Vietnam and Korea (both North and South) abolished the use of Chinese characters. In mainland China, although Chinese characters were never completely abolished, there were periods when they were not the primary writing system.

For instance, Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty—the last imperial dynasty of China— and a leader of the Jurchen people, conquered and ruled the Han Chinese, establishing the Manchu script as the official writing system. Similarly, Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty and a Mongol, occupied and dominated the Han Chinese, using the Mongolian script as the official writing system.

By the way, what exactly is a logogram or an ideogram? Today, Arabic numerals have been borrowed all over the world and function as logograms. For instance, the symbol “4” is called four in English, quatre in French, yet it always signifies exactly “●●●●.” Another noteworthy feature of ideographic characters is their ability to create new words. Since each character carries its own meaning, when they are combined to form a new term, the meaning of that term can often be inferred. During the Meiji period, Japanese people coined new words by combining Chinese characters in order to translate entirely new “Western concepts.” They created a large number of so-called Japanese-made Chinese compounds (wasei kango), and even ordinary people without scholarly knowledge could grasp the general idea of unfamiliar “Western concepts” simply by looking at the characters. ex. : proletariat ⇒無産階級（無＝no 産＝assets 階＝degree 級＝class）,bourgeoisie ⇒有産階級（有＝have 産＝assets 階＝degree 級＝class）Furthermore, whenever new concepts emerge in the future, by combining characters to create new words, even non-specialists can often guess the meaning of technical terms just by seeing them.

The reason Japan continues to use Chinese characters is that Japanese people find the mixture of kanji with hiragana and katakana both convenient and clear. Not kanji alone, or hiragana alone, or katakana alone, but a hybrid of all three is best. In Japanese writing, the coexistence of these distinct character types makes text far easier to read. Moreover, if you skim a Japanese passage by picking out just the kanji you instantly grasp its basic outline—much as one might skim an English text for numerals or capital letters. By contrast, there is a “language” made up of only the symbols “0” and “1”: machine code. Though it indeed uses very few characters, it is notoriously difficult for humans to read.

Basic Advanced

Benefits of Kanji Key to modernize : Wasei Kango

＜Arts＞ roots of MANGA

Wooden statue KohMokuTen MuChyaku & SeShin Ashura-Chan

Frolic animals ChouJyuGiga-1 ChouJyuGiga-2

Wood Block Print UkiYo-E-1 UkiYo-E-2

HokuSaiManGa HoKuSai(1760-1849)

HiroShige(1797-1858)-1

HiroShige-2 HiroShige-3

Japanes pictures HASEGAWA TohHaku(1539-1610)

OGATA KohRin(1658-1716)

YOKOYAMA TaiKan(1868-1958)

UEMURA ShoEnn(1875-1949)

HIGASHIYAMA Kai-i(1908-1999)

Tattoo IreZumi

Family emblem KaMon

Swastika 卍 Manji

emoji E-MoJi

＜Music＞ Gagaku & Kagura

Traditional music GaGaku KaGura

HaUta DoDo-Itsu MinYoh

Instruments ShyaMiSen TaiKo

ShyaKuHachi ShinoBue

Contemporary music J-POP City-POP

＜Amusement＞ Noh & Kabuki

Theater Noh KyoGen

KaBuKi BunRaku

Dance KyoMai AWa-Odori

Rakugo RakuGo

Haiku HaiKu-1 HaiKu-2

Origami OriGami-1 OriGami-2

Magic TeZuma

＜Foods＞ What is UMAMI ?

Fish Sauce (roots of soy sauce) Garum (Western) Nuoc Mam (Eastern)

Soy Sauce Jiang You (Chinese) ShowYu (Japanese)

Soybean paste MiSo Miso Soup

koji mold Koji-1 Koji-2

Alcohol NiHon-Shyu-1 NiHon-Shyu-2

ShowChu-1 ShowChu-2

MiRin

Umami IKEDA KiKuNae(1864-1936)

Umami-1 Umami-2 MSG

Soup stock DaShi

Needles UDon SowMen

SoBa-1 SoBa-2

fish Blowfish Eel

Ikejime IkeJime-1 IkeJime-2

Sushi Origin Wasabi

Sukiyaki SukiYaki

Superfoods Healthy Foods

Sweets WaGaShi

Drinks Japanese Tea AmaZake

Haute cuisine KaiSeki-Ryori

Vegetarian dishes ShowJIn-Ryori

Concepts : Eating is not merely the act of consuming proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. All food was once alive. To eat is to take over and inherit the life, the future, and the possibilities of that living being. Saying “Itadakimasu” is both an expression of respect for life and a vow to carry them forward.

Itadaki-masu Arigato