日本語 · 63 phrases · 7 categories

Basic Japanese Phrases for Travelers

Hello in Japanese is こんにちは (Konnichiwa), thank you is ありがとう (Arigatō), and the one to memorise before anything else is 助けて！(Tasukete!) — help. Below: all 63 phrases across 7 travel situations, each one tappable to copy.

Station signage and long-distance transport are bilingual, but conversational English is limited outside international hotels.

Keeping the -masu and desu endings keeps you in the polite register. Sumimasen does triple duty as excuse me, sorry, and getting a server's attention.

The Japanese phrases to learn first

A greeting, a thank-you, an apology, a question, a price and an emergency — enough to get through a first day in 日本語.

Hello

こんにちは (Konnichiwa)

Thank you

ありがとう (Arigatō)

Please

お願いします (Onegaishimasu)

Excuse me / sorry

すみません (Sumimasen)

Do you speak English?

英語が話せますか？

How much is this?

いくらですか？ (Ikura desu ka?)

Where is...?

...はどこですか？

Help!

助けて！(Tasukete!)

How Japanese is written

Three scripts at once — hiragana, katakana and kanji. Katakana spells out foreign loanwords, so a surprising amount of menu and shop signage is readable once you learn just that one set.

Where it gets you further

Japan.

🇯🇵 Japanese — Japan

Saying 日本語 out loud

  • Every syllable gets equal length and equal weight — there is no stressed syllable as in English.
  • A long vowel written ō or ū is held for two beats: Tōkyō is four beats, not two.
  • The Japanese r is a single light tap, somewhere between English r, l and d.
  • The u in desu and masu is often almost silent, so they come out as des and mas.
  • Japanese has pitch accent rather than tones, so getting the pitch wrong rarely stops you being understood.

The mistake travelers make in Japanese: Do not stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice — it mirrors a funeral rite. Lay them on the rest instead.

All 63 Japanese phrases, by situation

Yes

はい (Hai)

No

いいえ (Iie)

Please

お願いします (Onegaishimasu)

Thank you

ありがとう (Arigatō)

You're welcome

どういたしまして

Excuse me / Sorry

すみません (Sumimasen)

I don't understand

わかりません

Do you speak English?

英語が話せますか？

I don't speak [lang]

日本語が話せません

A little

少し (Sukoshi)

Phrase guides in other languages

🇪🇸Spanish🇫🇷French🇩🇪German🇮🇹Italian🇵🇹Portuguese🇨🇳Mandarin🇸🇦Arabic🇹🇭Thai🇮🇩IndonesianAll 10 languages

Ready to Go?

You've got the phrases — now plan your full trip with costs, transport, and a day-by-day itinerary.

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