Japanese Greetings: The Right One for the Time, Place, and Person

You learned konnichiwa on day one. Then you walk into a Japanese office at 9 a.m., say it, and get a slightly puzzled look. Greetings in Japanese are not one word you swap in for “hello.” They are chosen by three things: what time it is, where you are, and who you are talking to. Get those three right and you sound natural before you can even hold a conversation.

This guide walks through the real situations: the morning office, a friend on the street, a convenience store, a first meeting, and the moment you leave. If you want to drill these aloud afterward, the phrase practice tool covers every greeting here.

Greetings by time of day

The clock is the first axis. Japanese has three time-based greetings, and only one of them changes with formality.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
おはよう	ohayō	Morning, casual: family, close friends, kids
おはようございます	ohayō gozaimasu	Morning, polite: coworkers, teachers, strangers, anyone older
こんにちは	konnichiwa	Roughly 11 a.m. to sunset, any politeness level
こんばんは	konbanwa	After sunset, any politeness level

Notice the asymmetry. Ohayō has a plain form and a polite form, but konnichiwa and konbanwa do not change. There is no “more polite konnichiwa.” If you need to be extra respectful at midday, you do it with a deeper bow and what comes after the greeting, not with the greeting itself.

A note on the kana: こんにちは ends in は but is pronounced wa, because it is historically the topic particle. Writing こんにちわ is a common native typo, but learn it with は. If you are still shaky reading these, run the kana quiz until they are automatic.

The morning cutoff is soft. Most people switch from ohayō gozaimasu to konnichiwa somewhere between 10 and 11 a.m. in general life. But there is a giant exception, which is the next section.

The workplace morning ritual

Walk into a Japanese office at the start of your day and the greeting is ohayō gozaimasu, full stop. You say it to the room, or to whoever you pass first, and people return it. It marks “I have arrived and I am starting work,” which is why in some industries it detaches from the clock entirely. In broadcasting, restaurants, hospitality, and anywhere with shifts, people say ohayō gozaimasu when they clock in at 6 p.m. It means “good start of shift” more than “good morning.”

Then there is the phrase that does most of the work in Japanese offices:

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
お疲れ様です	otsukaresama desu	Passing a coworker in the hall, starting a call, opening an email, mid-day “hey”
お疲れ様でした	otsukaresama deshita	To someone who has finished work or finished a task
ご苦労様です	gokurōsama desu	Only downward, boss to subordinate; avoid as a learner

Otsukaresama desu literally acknowledges the other person’s tiredness from work, but in practice it is the all-purpose coworker greeting: hello, thanks for your effort, and acknowledgment rolled into one. You will say it dozens of times a day in a Japanese workplace and never once feel it is too much. The workplace scenario lesson Day One at the Office runs this whole ritual as a dialogue, from the door to your desk.

Meeting someone for the first time

First meetings have a fixed script, and following it is half the battle.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
はじめまして	hajimemashite	Opening line, first meeting only
○○と申します	○○ to mōshimasu	Giving your name, humble and safe
よろしくお願いします	yoroshiku onegaishimasu	Closing the introduction

So: Hajimemashite. Jon to mōshimasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. That is a complete, polished self-introduction.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu has no clean English equivalent, which is why textbooks mangle it into “please be kind to me.” What it really does is formally open a relationship: “we will be dealing with each other from now on, and I am counting on that going well.” You also say it when joining a team, asking a favor, or ending a business email. Treat it as relationship glue, not a literal sentence. The full first-meeting flow, including the handshake-or-bow question, is the focus of Introducing Yourself.

With a deep bow and dōzo yoroshiku onegaiitashimasu you reach job-interview formality. With friends of friends at an izakaya, a light yoroshiku and a nod is enough.

How friends actually greet each other

Here is the part textbooks skip: friends mostly do not say konnichiwa to each other. It sounds like greeting your neighbor, polite but distant. What you actually hear:

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
やあ	yā	Light “hey,” spotting a friend
おーい	ōi	Calling out to someone at a distance
久しぶり	hisashiburi	”Long time no see,” casual
お久しぶりです	ohisashiburi desu	Same, polite version
元気？	genki?	”How’s it going?” between friends

Very often the greeting is just the person’s name with rising intonation, or no greeting at all: friends launch straight into “did you see the game?” The absence of a formal hello is itself the marker of closeness. Running into a Friend plays this out with natural-speed audio so you can hear how clipped these exchanges really are.

Greetings you receive but never return

Step into any shop, restaurant, or konbini and you will be hit with:

Japanese	Romaji	What it is
いらっしゃいませ	irasshaimase	”Welcome,” called out as you enter
ありがとうございました	arigatō gozaimashita	”Thank you,” as you leave
またお越しくださいませ	mata okoshi kudasaimase	”Please come again”

These are one-way service phrases. Do not say irasshaimase back; it would be like a customer at a drive-through saying “welcome to McDonald’s” to the cashier. The correct response is nothing, or a small nod. When you leave, a quiet dōmo or gochisōsama deshita after a meal is a nice touch that staff genuinely notice, but silence is not rude. At the Konbini walks through an entire shop interaction, including which lines are yours and which belong to the staff.

Saying goodbye, by formality

Goodbyes scale with formality the same way hellos do.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
じゃあね	jā ne	Friends, “see ya”
またね / また明日	mata ne / mata ashita	Friends, “later” / “see you tomorrow”
バイバイ	bai bai	Very casual, common among young people
お先に失礼します	osaki ni shitsurei shimasu	Leaving work before others
失礼します	shitsurei shimasu	Leaving a room, ending a formal call
さようなら	sayōnara	Rare: school settings, long or final partings

The surprise for most learners: natives rarely say sayōnara. It carries a sense of finality, of parting for a long time or forever, so using it with coworkers you will see tomorrow feels off, almost ominous. Kids say it to teachers at school, and that is most of its modern use. Default to mata ne with friends and osaki ni shitsurei shimasu when leaving work; whoever stays behind answers otsukaresama deshita.

Bowing: the two bows you actually need

You do not need a chart of fifteen bow angles. Two cover daily life:

The nod (会釈, eshaku, about 15 degrees). A small dip of the head and shoulders. Use it when passing a coworker in the hallway, thanking a cashier, acknowledging a driver who stopped for you, or pairing with konnichiwa to a neighbor. It is constant, light, almost a reflex.

The standard bow (敬礼, keirei, about 30 degrees). Bend from the waist, back straight, eyes following down, hold for a beat. Use it with hajimemashite and yoroshiku onegaishimasu, when greeting a client, when apologizing, when thanking someone for real help.

Two things to avoid: do not bow while speaking (bow, then talk, or talk, then bow), and do not bow repeatedly like a metronome out of nervousness. One clean bow beats five shallow ones. Among friends, skip bowing entirely; a wave or a nod is right. And when someone offers a handshake, just shake it. Doing both at once is the classic flustered-foreigner move everyone will forgive but no one requires.

Putting it together

Time, place, person. Morning at work is ohayō gozaimasu no matter what the textbook clock says, midday with strangers is konnichiwa, friends get a yā or just their name, shops greet you and expect nothing back, and almost nobody says sayōnara. Master otsukaresama desu and yoroshiku onegaishimasu and you have covered eighty percent of Japanese social grease. Drill the full set in the phrase practice tool, then go say them to actual humans.