おはようございます (ohayou gozaimasu) is the polite good morning in Japanese, and おはよう (ohayou) alone is the casual version for friends, family and close coworkers. Gozaimasu is the part that turns a quick word for a friend into something safe to say to your boss. Here's when to use each, the slang version younger speakers use, and how to answer when someone greets you first.
Ohayou or ohayou gozaimasu
| Japanese | Reading | Use it with |
|---|---|---|
| おはよう | ohayou | Friends, family, close coworkers |
| おはようございます | ohayou gozaimasu | Anyone senior, staff, strangers |
| おはっす | ohassu | Very casual, mostly young men |
Drop gozaimasu and you sound like you're talking to a friend. Keep it and you're safe with almost anyone, a shop clerk, a new coworker, your manager's manager. Ohassu is a slangy contraction some younger men use with close friends, and it lands oddly from anyone else.
Why the polite version matters so much here
Japanese workplaces treat the morning greeting as a small ritual, not small talk. Walk into an office and you'll hear ohayou gozaimasu passed around the room even between people who already said good morning to each other on the train. Skipping it, or using the casual ohayou with someone above you, reads as careless rather than friendly. So.
The rule of thumb: default to gozaimasu until someone clearly signals you can drop it, usually by dropping it themselves first.
What time counts as morning
Ohayou gozaimasu covers roughly sunrise to late morning, sometimes stretched to early afternoon in casual speech. Past that, you switch to こんにちは (konnichiwa) for the daytime greeting. There's one exception worth knowing: in entertainment and night shift jobs, ohayou gozaimasu is used at the start of a shift no matter the actual hour, since it marks the beginning of someone's day rather than the sun's position. A stagehand starting at 9pm still gets an ohayou gozaimasu from the crew.
Casual and texting versions
Everyday speech and texts shrink the greeting further:
- おは (oha): a clipped, very casual version friends text each other.
- おっはー (ohhaa): playful, drawn out, mostly among younger speakers.
- おはようさん (ohayou san): a warmer, slightly old fashioned casual form heard more in the Kansai region.
None of these belong in a work chat or a message to someone you don't know well. Save them for group chats with people who already use casual speech with you.
Don't confuse it with leaving the house
Ohayou gozaimasu greets someone you're arriving to see or starting your day with. It's not what you say when you're the one heading out the door. For that, Japanese has a separate pair: いってきます (ittekimasu), said by the person leaving, and いってらっしゃい (itterasshai), said by whoever stays behind. Mix these up with ohayou gozaimasu and you'll be understood, but it sounds like a beginner's slip, the kind a host family or a coworker will gently correct once.
How to answer good morning
There's no separate reply. Japanese greetings mirror back: someone says ohayou gozaimasu, you say ohayou gozaimasu (or the casual ohayou if that's the register you're both using). Matching their level of politeness is the whole trick, not choosing a different phrase. If a stranger or staff member greets you first, answer with the polite form even if you'd use casual speech with a friend in the same spot.
A quick contrast with hello
Ohayou gozaimasu is a greeting locked to a time of day. こんにちは (konnichiwa), the general hello, works any time from midday and doesn't carry the same "start of the day" feeling. If mornings are new territory for you, how to say hello in Japanese covers the full set by time of day, and how to say thank you in Japanese is the natural next phrase, since a morning greeting and a quick arigatou gozaimasu tend to arrive back to back at a hotel front desk or a konbini counter.
Learn it where you'll actually hear it
You'll hear ohayou gozaimasu constantly in Japan: at a ryokan breakfast, from hotel staff, from coworkers if you're there for work. Reading it on a sign or a subtitle is where it sticks. A camera translator that shows the Japanese script next to the reading and the English meaning turns every one of those moments into a small lesson instead of a guess. Yomi's Text mode does exactly that, point it at a sign, a menu board, a note, and get the reading alongside the translation. For the rest of the phrases that carry a trip to Japan, see Japanese for travelers.