There are myriad ways to say mother in Japanese, depending on context. These include:
- HAHA – 母
- Hahaoya – 母親
- Okaasan – お母さん お義母さん
- Okaasama – お母様 お義母様
- Ofukuro – お袋
- Okaachan or Kaachan – かぁちゃん
- MAMA – ママ
How to say mom in Japanese depends on context, situation, formality, and relationship between the speakers.
Let’s take a closer look at all the different ways to say mother in Japanese, how to write mother in Japanese kanji, and how these expressions are used differently based on context, formality, and relationship.
Haha 母
Though this looks just like the the word we use in English to express the sound of laughter, in Japanese. haha means mother.
How to write haha in Japanese kanji and hiragana
母 (はは)
How to pronounce “haha” in Japanese
In the Japanese language, words and expressions change based on context, formality, and relationship. Here, haha in Japanese has the nuance of meaning “my mother” or “our mother” when referring to one’s mother to people who are outside the family.
For example, Miki is talking to her friend Keiko. She mentions of her own mother. Typically, she would use the word “haha” to refer to her own mother, as follows:
母は先週京都へ行った。(Haha ha senshuu, Kyoto he itta.) “Last week my mom went to Kyoto.”
Haha can also simply mean “mother” when there is no other situational context.
母の日 Haha no hi
Mother’s Day
How to say “my mother” in Japanese
Sometimes, to further specify that the mother being talked about is mine or ours, we attach the phrase uchi no ( うちの) to convey the meaning of “our home/ours/inside.”
Example:
うちの母は映画が好きです。Uchi no haha ha eiga ga suki desu. My/our mother likes movies.
Using this uchi no add-on when referring to your own mother or other family member instead of just the word itself will make your Japanese more natural-sounding.
Hahaoya 母親
Another similar expression to haha is Hahaoya. Here, the main difference between haha and hahaoya is the nuance of the latter being one’s parent.
How to write hahaoya in Japanese
母親
The word hahaoya is written using the following two characters:
母 (はは – HAHA) – Mother
親 (おや – OYA) – Parent
We already know that HAHA means mother. The character OYA means parent. So the literal meaning of the kanji combination 母親 is “mother parent.”
How to pronounce hahaoya in Japanese
Hahaoya is used when referring to one’s own parent, but when referring to someone else’s parent, we would instead use the following expression.
Okaasan お母さん お義母さん
How to write Okaasan in Japanese kanji and hiragana
お母さん・お義母さん (おかあさん)
Notice there are two different ways to write Okaasan in kanji. The first, お母さん, is the conventional way, when referring to one’s own or someone else’s blood-related mother.
However, when writing to refer to one’s own or another’s mother-in-law, we write Okaasan as お義母さん.
How to pronounce Okaasan in Japanese
Okaasan is perhaps the most well-known way to say mother in Japanese. You may already know that in Japanese it is common to add the honorific -san after a name to express proper respect for the person to or about whom you are speaking.
Likewise, Okaa-san is a more respectful way to say the word mother. Thus, when talking to or about someone else’s mother other than your own, it is proper to use Okaasan instead of Haha or Hahaoya.
For example, Miki is again talking to her friend Keiko. This time, she wants to know how Keiko’s mother is doing, so she asks:
お母さんはお元気ですか。“Okaasan ha ogenki desuka.“ “Is your mother well?”
Also, depending on the level of closeness and formality within a family, a child might call his or her own mother Okaasan, like this example:
お母さん、ちょっと出かけてくるね。“Okaasan, tyotto dekakete kuru ne.” ”Mother, I’m going to go out for a little while.”
Okaasama お母様 お義母様
An even more respectful way to say mother is Okaasama.
Where as –san is attached to names in Japanese to indicate a basic level of respect, –sama is likewise attached to names to indicate an even higher level of respect.
Therefore, Okaasama is used to indicate a high level of deference toward the mother in question. In a household that adheres to rigid rules of formality, a son or daughter may address their mother as Okaasama instead of Okaasan.
Another example is a familial relationship where a daughter is addressing the mother of her husband: often (though not always) in such a case, the daughter might call her mother-in-law Okaasama.
And of course, a person who is not a member of the family but who wants to show proper deferential respect to another household’s matriarch will often use Okaasama, whereas Okaasan might be considered too casual.
How to write Okaasama
Just as with the way of writing Okaasan depending upon whether it’s the blood-related mother or mother-in-law, the same difference apply when writing Okaasama. The only difference is we use the kanji for –sama (様), though it’s also okay to write -sama in hiragana (さま)
お母様 お母さま
The second writing is used when referring to one’s own or someone else’s mother-in-law, and is written like this:
お義母様 お義母さま
How to say Okaasama in Japanese
Kaachan/Okaachan かあちゃん・おかあちゃん
We’ve looked at a couple more formal ways to say mother in Japanese. Now let’s look at some less-formal ways to say mom when speaking Japanese.
Whereas the honorifics –san or –sama are attached to names to indicate increasing levels of deference or respect, we can conversely attach the diminutive -chan to names to indicate more affection or familiarity.
Okaachan
Kaachan
These -chan forms for mother are used to indicate a closer, more affectionate relationship between mother and child. Both are used, but Kaachan is more colloquial. These words are typically written using hiragana,, like this:
おかあちゃん かあちゃん
Note that the “a” in Kaachan is elongated, and sounds like this:
Ofukuro お袋
Ofukuro is used almost exclusively by sons referring affectionately to their mother, and is written as follows:
お袋 (おふくろ)
Oddly, the kanji used here is the same kanji that means “bag”! How and why did the word “bag” come to be used as a common way to say mother in Japanese?
In olden times, the mother would keep the family money and valuables in a bag and would control the family finances. The honorific was was added to give deference to the family fortune bag holder and thus, Ofukuro.
Be careful to include the honorific “O” when using this expression or you might end up calling or referring to your own mother as a “bag,” which is not the original nuance of this expression!
How to pronounce Ofukuro
Mama ママ
This word for mother in Japanese will sound familiar to English speakers: Mama
Mama is a common way a small child addresses his or her mother, and likewise, how a mother refers to herself when talking to a small child.
Mama in Japanese is normally written in katanana:
ママ
How to pronounce MAMA in Japanese
Usually, as children in Japan grow older, they grow out of addressing their mothers as Mama and opt for something more conventional like Okaasan or Kaachan instead.
Mama is also commonly used outside the family context as a form of address to the female owner of a small bar or café by customers.
Hopefully, this exhaustive look at how to say mother in Japanese has given you an understanding of how and when to use each expression properly in any situation.
Shane Jones is a Japanese teacher, translator, and linguist with over two decades’ experience learning and teaching the Japanese language. He is also the author of How to Master Japanese: Confessions of a Japanese Linguist.
