Family is important in Japan, and the Japanese language has its own way of talking about your family and someone’s else’s family. Just like you learned earlier, Japanese has very pronounced layers of respect woven into the language. This also holds when talking about family and it’s important to be mindful of your own position in reference to someone else. For example, you would refer to someone’s father as お父さん (おとうさん) but your own as ちち and also パパ (papa) can be heard. First, a list of how to speak about family in general.

Family in Japanese

  Family 家族 ぞく kazoku
  Parents 両親 りょうしん ryoushin
  Sibling(s) 兄弟 きょうだい kyoudai
  Child 子供 こども kodomo
  Cousin 従妹 いとこ itoko
  Relatives 親戚 しんせき shinseki

Referring to your own family in Japanese to someone else

When referring to your own family to someone else, you want to be humble. So you see that you don’t use any honorifics or something and relatively short words. You use words like “父” (chichi) for father and “母” (haha) for mother. These terms are less formal and are mostly used in casual conversation within the family or when being self-effacing.

  Father ちち chichi
  Mother はは haha
  Older Brother あに ani
  Older Sister あね ane
  Younger Brother おとうと otōto
  Younger Sister いもうと imōto
  Husband おっと otto
  Wife つま tsuma
  Grandfather 祖父 そふ sofu
  Grandmother 祖母 そぼ sobo

Speaking directly to your family members or someone else’s family

Although Japanese families have started to become less formal, there is still a level of formality when speaking within families. Below are the words you use when speaking directly to your family members or when speaking about another person’s family. 

  Father お父さん おとうさん otōsan
  Mother お母さん おかあさん okāsan
  Older Brother お兄さん おにいさん onīsan
  Older Sister お姉さん おねえさん onēsan
  Younger Brother 弟さん おとうとさん otōtosan
  Younger Sister 妹さん いもうとさん imōtosan
  Husband 主人 しゅじん shujin
  Wife 奥さん おくさん okusan