Concern for the decline in polite behavior among young people has led to “greeting” campaigns being launched at schools all over the country.

Entryways are festooned with banners that say Genki-na aisatsu o shiyoo (“Let's greet each other energetically”). The banners include examples of polite phrases used in everyday conversation: o-hayou (“good morning”), konnichiwa (“good afternoon”), sumimasen (“excuse me”), gomennasai (“I'm sorry”), and sayoonara (“goodbye”). The effects of these signs are yet to be determined.

Good Morning

Step out onto the street, flip on your radio or TV, and you will hear o-hayou gozaimasu being said everywhere and by everyone in Japan. It is the standard greeting among family members, coworkers, TV talk show hosts, and friendly neighbors. Family members may also use a shortened form, o-hayou, when stumbling out of bed in the morning.

To accompany the greeting, there are many words to describe the act of waking up, or being wakened. The verb okiru means “to get up,” or “rise.” But the verbs sameru and okosu have closely related meanings. Sameru is most often used in the phrase me ga sameru (“my eyes open”). Okosu means “to waken.”

Hayaoki suru is the act of getting up early or being an early riser. In this phrasal verb, the adjective hayai (“early,” “fast”) and the noun form of okiru (oki) create a compound word that is then combined with suru.

Note the difference in meaning between the command forms of okite and okoshite. The former is demanding that someone wake up. The latter is requesting that someone wake you up.

After Noon

Following the noon meal, hirugohan, greetings change to konnichiwa. Broken down into its kanji elements, kon means “now,” nichi means “day,” and wa is the subject indicator. Veteran Japanese speakers will emphasize both n sounds, savoring the enunciation of each one individually. Konnichiwa can be likened to “hello,” in English, and is therefore appropriate in most situations regardless of what time of day it is. If you cannot remember any other greeting, konnichiwa is the one to keep in your back pocket.

The root word for day, hiru, can be found in many different sayings when talking about the afternoon. Hirumeshi is another name for lunch or the noon meal. Hiruyasumi is a lunch break or noon recess. A hirune is an afternoon nap. People may talk about having something to do in the afternoon using either hiru or hiruma:

Go is another link to after-lunch activities. Shoogo means “twelve noon” and gogo means “afternoon”:

When the Sun Goes Down

It is rare to hear the phrase “good evening,” in English anymore, but its Japanese counterpart, konbanwa, is still in circulation. Like konnichiwa, the kanji for konbanwa can be broken down into “now,” “evening,” and the subject indicator wa. This greeting is appropriate when visiting someone's home, talking on the phone, attending a night class or meeting, and any other activity that takes place in the evening.

At what time of day does it become appropriate to use the phrase kon-banwa? Some identify the start of evening with the five-o-clock whistle. Others identify the onset of evening with the sunset: yuuhi or hinoiri. As the seasons change, however, many will start using “good evening” as soon as it starts getting dark: kuraku natte kara.

Following a greeting with a comment about weather or nature is very Japanese. Here are two common ways to reference the onset of evening:

Notice that the adjective hayai (“fast,” “early”) in the first example is changed to its past-tense form by first dropping the i and then adding the suffix -katta, similar to the way a verb is conjugated. The following verb desu, therefore, is not changed into its past-tense form. This pattern can be found in many adjectives that end in i including oishikatta (“it was delicious”), omoshirokatta (“it was interesting”), and kawaikatta (“it was cute”).

The adjectival phrase in the second example, kuraku natte kita contains the verbs naru and kuru. Kurai (“dark”) is modified first by dropping the i and then adding ku. Naru is changed to its participial form (-te ending) and kuru is put in the past-tense form. If you practice it a few times, the whole thing will roll off your tongue like one big word.