Japanese Greetings: Time-of-Day, Workplace, and Seasonal Aisatsu (挨拶)

Japanese greetings (挨拶, aisatsu) change with the time of day and with who you are speaking to. Each one depends on two things: the time it belongs to, and the register, casual or polite, that fits the person in front of you.¹ This guide pairs both forms of every greeting and gives a plain rule for choosing between them. For any first encounter, the polite form is the safe default.

Overview: Why Greetings Come in Pairs

Most daily greetings come as a matched set: a short familiar form and a longer polite form. The polite form usually uses one of three markers: ございます, です, or なさい.²³⁴

The table below is the core of this article. It shows four time-of-day greetings, two workplace greetings, and two occasional ones. Each entry puts the casual and polite forms side by side, with a rule for when to use each one.

Greeting	Casual form	Polite form	When to use which
Morning	おはよう	おはようございます	Casual for family and friends; polite for strangers, seniors, and as the standard morning workplace greeting regardless of rank.
Daytime	(none)	こんにちは	Single neutral-to-polite form. Acquaintances, strangers, semi-formal daytime. Not used with your own family.
Evening	(none)	こんばんは	Single neutral-to-polite form. Anyone outside the family circle, after dark.
Night, parting	おやすみ	おやすみなさい	Casual to family and friends; polite to seniors or when speaking formally.
Workplace	お疲れ	お疲れ様です	お疲れ様です is the safe all-purpose form up, down, and across the hierarchy.
Reunion	お久しぶり	お久しぶりです	Casual with close relations; polite with seniors or in formal speech.
Year-end	よいお年を	よいお年をお迎えください	The short form is everyday; the full form is the polite expansion toward seniors.

Two of these greetings, こんにちは and こんばんは, have no separate casual form. Each has one fixed form used as a neutral-to-polite greeting. There is no distinct familiar variant.¹⁵

The Two Forms: Casual and Polite

The polite form is the safe default with strangers, seniors, and in the workplace. The short form is for family and close friends.²³⁴

おはよう is the plain morning greeting, and おはようございます is its polite version. The dictionary states the pairing directly: the polite way to say it is おはようございます.²

おやすみ is the plain night greeting, and おやすみなさい is the fuller polite form. The dictionary defines おやすみ as an abbreviation of おやすみなさい.³

お久しぶり is the plain reunion greeting, and お久しぶりです is its polite form. Both are built on the base word 久しぶり, meaning "a long interval since something last happened."⁶⁷

The polite form is never the wrong call with someone new

When you do not know a person, or they rank above you, choosing the ございます / です / なさい form is always safe. The short forms can read as too familiar, but the polite form never offends.²³⁴

Greetings Are Social Glue (挨拶)

挨拶 (aisatsu) is the general Japanese word for a greeting or salutation exchanged on meeting or parting. The dictionaries classify every greeting in this article as 「あいさつの語」, "a greeting word": a fixed social formula rather than a literal statement.¹⁵⁴

That framing matters for a learner. These are obligatory set phrases, used because the social moment calls for them, not because they describe the weather or the hour.

Time-of-Day Greetings

The four daily greetings follow the day in a simple arc, from waking to sleep.

おはよう / おはようございます (Morning)

おはよう is defined as the greeting said when meeting someone in the morning.² The polite form is おはようございます.²

This is the one time-of-day greeting with a true, commonly used short casual form distinct from its polite form. Use おはよう with family and friends. Use おはようございます with strangers, seniors, and as the standard morning workplace greeting regardless of rank.²

おはよう。²
"Morning." (casual, to family or a close friend)

おはようございます。²
"Good morning." (polite, to a stranger, a senior, or at work)

こんにちは (Daytime)

こんにちは is the daytime greeting, defined as the greeting used when meeting people or visiting another household during the day.¹ It has only one form, with no separate casual variant. Its register is neutral-to-polite.

The は at the end is written は but pronounced "wa," because it is a frozen topic particle. The greeting is the surviving front of a longer phrase beginning 「今日は…」, such as 「今日はよいお天気です」 ("today the weather is fine"), with the rest dropped away.¹⁸

こんにちは。¹
"Hello." / "Good afternoon."

こんばんは (Evening)

こんばんは is the evening greeting, defined as the greeting used when meeting people or visiting another household at night.⁵ It works like こんにちは: a single neutral-to-polite form, with no separate casual variant.

The は is again the frozen topic particle, written は and pronounced "wa." The phrase is the shortened remainder of 「今晩は…」 ("this evening...").⁹

こんばんは。⁵
"Good evening."

おやすみ / おやすみなさい (Night, Parting)

おやすみなさい is the greeting used when going to bed or when parting from someone at night.⁴ It is a parting or before-sleep greeting, not a greeting for meeting someone.

おやすみ is the short form, recorded in the dictionary as an abbreviation of おやすみなさい.³ Use おやすみ with family and friends, and おやすみなさい with seniors or when speaking politely.³⁴

おやすみ。³
"Night." (casual, to family or a close friend)

おやすみなさい。⁴
"Good night." (polite)

Workplace Greetings: お疲れ様 and the ご苦労様 Trap

お疲れ様 / お疲れ様です / お疲れ

お疲れ様 is defined as a word used to express appreciation for someone's labor, and also as a greeting to a person leaving the workplace.¹⁰ Keep that dual role in mind: it serves both as a passing greeting at work and as a "thanks for your work" sign-off when someone heads home.¹⁰

The same casual-to-polite gradient seen in the other greetings runs through this one. お疲れ alone is casual and used among peers. お疲れ様 is semi-formal. お疲れ様です is the polite, all-purpose form. The です suffix is the standard polite marker. It is also one of the core Japanese business phrases you will hear constantly in any workplace.

The key fact is that お疲れ様(です) can be used toward both colleagues and superiors. The dictionary states it plainly when contrasting it with ご苦労様: お疲れ様 is used toward colleagues and toward people above you.¹⁰

お疲つかれ様さまです。¹⁰
"Thanks for your hard work." (polite, all-purpose; also used in passing as a workplace "Hi")

お疲つかれ様さまでした。¹⁰
"Thank you for your work today." (said as someone finishes or leaves)

ご苦労様 (です): Why It Is Risky

ご苦労様 is the parallel labor-appreciation expression, but it has a built-in direction. The dictionary contrasts the two terms directly: ご苦労様 is said by a superior to a subordinate, whereas お疲れ様 is used toward colleagues and toward superiors.¹⁰

Never say ご苦労様 to someone above you

ご苦労様(です) is conventionally said downward, from a superior to a subordinate. It can sound condescending when aimed upward at a senior. Do not use it toward your boss or anyone who ranks above you. Use お疲れ様(です) instead, the safe form in every direction.¹⁰¹¹

This rule has official backing. NINJAL records that the description "ご苦労様 cannot be used by a junior toward a senior, and お疲れ様 is used instead" appears in 『敬語の指針』 (Guidelines for Honorifics), the advisory report of the 文化審議会 (Council for Cultural Affairs), and in several Japanese dictionaries.¹¹¹²

Reported usage lines up with the rule. The デジタル大辞泉 entry cites the 文化庁 (Agency for Cultural Affairs) national language survey: when addressing a superior, 69.2% reported using お疲れ(様) and 15.1% ご苦労(様).¹⁰¹³

Treat the 目上 / 目下 (senior / junior) rule as the workplace norm and the safe default, not an absolute law of grammar. NINJAL frames the strict version as a simplifying business convention and notes real-world counterexamples where ご苦労様 is used upward.¹¹ For everyday use, the safe default still holds: say お疲れ様(です), and keep ご苦労様 out of upward speech.

ご苦労くろう様さまです。¹⁰
"Thanks for your effort." (conventionally said by a superior to a subordinate; risky if aimed upward)

Seasonal and Occasional Greetings

お久しぶり / お久しぶりです (Long Time No See)

お久しぶり is the greeting exchanged when you reunite with someone after a long interval.⁷ It is built on 久しぶり, the noun for a long gap since something last happened.⁶

Use お久しぶり with close relations. Use お久しぶりです when speaking politely or to a senior, following the same plain-to-polite です contrast that governs the other greetings.⁶⁷

お久ひさしぶりです。⁷
"Long time no see." (polite)

お久ひさしぶり。⁷
"Long time no see!" (casual)

よいお年を (Year-End)

よいお年を is a year-end parting greeting, exchanged when the next meeting will be after the New Year.¹⁴ It is the shortened form of the fuller phrase よいお年をお迎えください, "please welcome a good new year."¹⁴

The short よいお年を is the everyday form. The full よいお年をお迎えください is the polite expansion preferred toward seniors. The politeness here comes from restoring the omitted お迎えください.¹⁴ This is a seasonal greeting, not a daily one.

よいお年としを。¹⁴
"Have a good New Year." (said at year-end parting)

よいお年としをお迎むかえください。¹⁴
"I wish you a good New Year." (polite, full form)

Good to know

The は in こんにちは / こんばんは Is Pronounced "wa"

こんにちは and こんばんは are frozen topic phrases, so the final は keeps its particle reading, "wa." こんにちは is the shortened remainder of 「今日は…」, and こんばんは is the shortened remainder of 「今晩は…」. The surviving は is the original topic particle, always written は but read "wa."¹⁸⁹

This is why writing こんにちわ or こんばんわ counts as a spelling error: the sound is "wa," but the character is the particle は.¹

Do Not Use こんにちは at Home

The dictionaries define both こんにちは and こんばんは as greetings used when meeting people or visiting another household.¹⁵ They are for meeting others or calling at another home, not for addressing your own family.

For a beginner, the safe takeaway is to use these with acquaintances, strangers, and in semi-formal daytime or evening situations. Aimed at your own household, they sound oddly formal.

When in Doubt, Go Polite

The dictionaries present the ございます, です, and なさい forms as the polite versions of each greeting. Choosing them with strangers and seniors is safe, while the short forms can read as too familiar.²³⁴

This ties straight back to the workplace rule. When unsure, お疲れ様(です) is the safe greeting in every direction, and ご苦労様 should be avoided upward.¹⁰¹¹

おはようございます Is Not Only for Morning

In some workplaces, especially in broadcasting and entertainment, おはようございます serves as the start-of-shift greeting at any hour, not only in the morning. One reason is how it sounds: of the three time-of-day greetings, おはよう is the only one with an established polite ございます form. That makes おはようございます easy to reuse as a single start-of-work greeting regardless of the clock.²

Treat this as a narrow custom rather than a general rule. The dictionary-backed part is that おはようございます is simply the polite form of おはよう. The any-hour shift usage is reported mainly in industry and language-learning sources.

See also

• Self-Introduction in Japanese (自己紹介): はじめまして to よろしく
• Japanese Speech Levels: Plain, Polite, Formal, and Literary Register
• Keigo (敬語): A Complete Cultural Introduction to Japanese Honorific Language
• Senpai and Kōhai (先輩・後輩): Vertical Seniority and Asymmetric Politeness
• Teineigo (丁寧語): Japanese Polite Language with です, ます, and ございます

References

Footnotes

1. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「こんにちは【今日は】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/今日は-505820 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「おはよう【▽御早う】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/御早う-453948 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「おやすみ【▽御休み】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/御休み-455048 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「おやすみなさい【▽御休みなさい】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/御休みなさい-455049 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「こんばんは【今晩は】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/今晩は-506576 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「ひさしぶり【久しぶり】」. via Weblio辞書. https://www.weblio.jp/content/久しぶり ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. 実用日本語表現辞典, s.v. 「お久しぶり」. via Weblio辞書. https://www.weblio.jp/content/お久しぶり ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. 小学館. 精選版 日本国語大辞典, s.v. 「こんにちは【今日は】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/今日は-505820 ↩ ↩²

9. 小学館. 精選版 日本国語大辞典, s.v. 「こんばんは【今晩は】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/今晩は-506576 ↩ ↩²

10. 小学館. デジタル大辞泉, s.v. 「おつかれさま【▽御疲れ様】」. via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/御疲れ様-453042 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

11. 国立国語研究所 (NINJAL). 「『ご苦労様』と『お疲れ様』は結局どう使い分ければよいのでしょうか」. ことば研究館. https://kotoba.ninjal.ac.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-220/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

12. 文化審議会. 『敬語の指針』(答申). 文化庁, 2007. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/kokugo/hokoku/pdf/keigo_toshin.pdf ↩

13. 文化庁. 「平成17年度 国語に関する世論調査」(quoted within the デジタル大辞泉 「御疲れ様」 entry). via コトバンク. https://kotobank.jp/word/御疲れ様-453042 ↩

14. 実用日本語表現辞典, s.v. 「良いお年を」. via Weblio辞書. https://www.weblio.jp/content/良いお年を ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵