Japanese honorifics
In my stories I have tried hard to keep to accurate honorifics, but also picked ones that my Western audience might know or have heard of before.
Writing about a different culture can come with a lot of issues when trying to convey everything, especially when the other culture doesn’t speak the same language. There have been plenty of times I have struggled with both speech and using terms that my Western audience may not have heard of.
One of these things is honorifics. To English speakers, our honorifics are only at the start, such as Mister/Mr and Miss, however Japanese puts theirs mainly at the end, such as Hotaka-san. And unlike English, Japanese has different honorifics for different people.
In my stories I have tried hard to keep to accurate honorifics, but also picked ones that my Western audience might know or have heard of before. Only a few times do unusual ones appear.
-san (さん)
San is used for all adults of equal status, and whether you know them or not.
-sama (さま)
Those who are called sama are people with a higher status, and sometimes this can be personally imposed. For example, you might call someone who is of equal status sama if you think they have done something to elevate their status. Sama is given to customers, guests, and deities.
-kun (くん)
Kun is a male title mostly used for younger men or roughly the same age.
These are 90% of the honorifics you’ll find in my stories. I’ve tried to keep them simple and easy to follow for readers. The other honorific I have used so far, is for a kannushi (Shinto Priest). I tried hard to find the right honorific as he would have a special one, and found;
-shinpu (しんぷ)
This is an honorific for a priest, although I need to do further research to make sure it includes Shinto priests and not priests of other religions. However the information isn’t the easiest to find!
Other professions also have special honorifics, although there is one like -san which is good for many professions.
-sensei (せんせい)
Sensei is often seen with teachers, however this honorific also is used for people who are experts in their field.
I haven’t had the chance to use sensei as an honorific yet, however it is also one I would consider using, as it’s a word people might be familiar with.
Here are two other honorifics that may have been heard of, which I currently don’t intend to use, but are useful.
-chan (ちゃん)
Chan is used for small children, girls, between close friends, or even partners. Sometimes it can be used for a boy, but this isn’t usually the case and can even be inappropriate.
-dono (どの)
Dono means lord or master however, it’s more akin to milord. It’s not used in speech very often and is below sama in respect.
O-
This is a prefix honorific seen for nouns to raise them in status.
When it comes to family, I had a hard time picking what terms to use. Traditionally the rule is that younger family members address older ones with an honorific, while older ones only use name. Mother would be okaasan (お-母さん), a big brother would be oniisan (お-兄さん) —although in a more casual setting, the o- honorific can be dropped.
I had to pick between using Mother or picking one of the terms for mother in Japanese. It was a tough choice as I felt the nuances of Japanese would fit nicely, however could alienate readers, so ultimately I went with Mother. Of course there are other more casual terms in English too, such as Mum or Mummy but I felt them in a Japanese setting felt out of place. Mother keeps a sense of title like honorifics would give, without them being there, and a happy medium. There have been many cases of this during every story and I approach each one case by case to try and convey what I was as best as a I can. Sometimes it means I have to leave some nuances behind, but unfortunately, it’s inevitable.