Aisatsu 挨拶

In Japan the interactions that take place with people on a daily basis are very structured and are intrinsic to adult Japanese social culture. From the initial greeting, a complex process of awareness and comprehension follow. It is within both the body language and spoken language of the people interacting  where these many intricacies take place. As Japan is such a socially aware nation, these actions are very important in Japanese society.

Aisatsu is what can be defined as a "greeting" but the cultural understanding of the word is much more than just that of the definition.  The "act" of Aisatsu occur on every level of interaction, ie: child to parent, child to teacher, adult to friend, adult to boss, adult to stranger, clerk to customer and so on and so forth. English speakers also have varying ways of interacting with higher or lower status people but the variances are more slight and are not nearly stressed to the extent as they are in Japan.

Basic Aisatsu:

Ohayou Gozaimasu （おはようございます） - Generally a greeting of "good morning" that is used with adult friends or coworkers before 11am (approximately). Gozaimasu is a part of polite Japanese speech and when used it raises the level of speech being used towards the listener therefor making the sentence more formal. Ohayou used by itself is much more common among younger people, in the home, or with close friends. Depending on the relationship, ohayou can be used as a "hi" or "hello" any time of day.

Konnichiwa （こんにちは）- Meaning "good afternoon" or "good day" is a pretty generic greeting for all social relationships (unless using more formal speech patterns). It is used from approximately 11am to 5pm when the sun begins to settle in the sky.

Konbanwa （こんばんは）- "Good Evening" similar to konnichiwa is a fairly generic greeting that is used after 5pm with relationship statuses across the board.

It is not just what words are used during interaction that make things special about Japanese culture but the actions that take place with them. For example:


Trading business cards with both hands, with the  information properly facing the recipient for easy readability.






Bowing the proper level depending upon the interaction.









The "Irasshaimase!" or "Welcome!" that is heard so often while entering stores or markets is also included in this umbrella of proper greeting etiquette.






When it gets down to it there are extensive, specific practices that are engrained in every different part of Japanese social interaction. Entire books are devoted to topics such as Japanese aisatsu  and are even more narrowly defined downed to specific social situations.  If you are a foreigner in Japan, it is not expected that you know all of the aisatsu customs. However, if you can perform them well in the proper situation, native Japanese will be quite impressed with your understanding of their  social culture.