It's customary for Japanese women to profess their love through honmei choco, ornate handmade chocolates or expensive boxes of sweets. Women will also, sometimes begrudgingly, gift male coworkers with mini boxes of giri choco, or obligatory chocolates.
Nevertheless, for a confession, the most basic and widespread phrase is “suki desu” (好きです, I like you), often followed up by “tsukiatte kudasai” (付き合ってください, please go out with me).
Public Displays of Affection Aren't a Thing
You often see couples in the west showing their affection in public with a hug or a kiss. Generally speaking, Japanese couples may hold hands, but typically don't kiss in public. From this writer's perspective, there seem to be two reasons why.
“Daisuki desu” means to really like or love something, so this has a similar effect as “suki desu”. For example, if you are confessing your feelings for someone, you might say: Suki desu! Tsukiatte kudasai.
Japanese people tend to shy away from overt displays of emotion, and rarely smile or frown with their mouths, Yuki explained, because the Japanese culture tends to emphasize conformity, humbleness and emotional suppression, traits that are thought to promote better relationships.
Linguistic differences aside, there is a larger cultural difference that causes a mistranslation to occur. Japanese people simply do not regularly say “I love you.” Someone might say “Aishiteru” in a sappy romantic movie, but overall the lingering impression after one professes their love in Japanese is a profound ...
In fact, in Japanese culture, people are taught not to maintain eye contact with others because too much eye contact is often considered disrespectful. For example, Japanese children are taught to look at others' necks because this way, the others' eyes still fall into their peripheral vision [28].
Koibito (恋人 / こいびと) is the Japanese word for 'sweetheart' or 'lover'. It consists of the characters for love (恋) and person (人). It can be used for a girlfriend or boyfriend, or even husband or wife. This term can be used regardless of your significant other's gender.
Kareshi (彼氏 / かれし) is the most commonly used word for 'boyfriend' in Japanese.
Never hugging or kissing
In Japan, touching another person's body is considered rude, even with friends or family. Hugging and kissing are mostly for couples.
Japan is often accused of having an extremely low tolerance for social touching. But in fact, they are not completely alone in this; many of their neighboring Asian countries have similar approaches.
Displays of Affection in Japan
Public displays of affection between members of the opposite sex'such as kissing, hugging and holding hands — are considered rude. Even families rarely touch, hug or display physical affection in public. Most school children have said they have never seen their parents kiss.
When Japanese couples start going out, in a lot of cases, the relationship is preceded by what's called a “confession” or “告白” (kokuhaku) in Japanese. This is where one partner tells the other their feelings and asks to date them. This is the point that the relationship officially begins.
Hookups and Casual Dating are Taboo
While hookups in other countries are not especially celebrated, they are accepted as part of society. However in Japan hookups are seen as “filthy”, this is mostly the opinion of those that practice a religion.
Using the Kanji Character Ai
Writing love in Japanese is represented as the kanji symbol 愛 which means love and affection.
Ara ara (あら あら) is a Japanese expression that is mainly used by older females and means “My my”, “Oh dear”, or “Oh me, oh my”.
Daarin (ダーリン)
Daarin is the best way to say 'my darling' in Japanese. Since the Japanese language doesn't really have any native terms of endearment, they have borrowed this from English! Daarin is a gender-neutral term of endearment, so both boyfriends and girlfriends can call each other this way.
The most common Japanese word for 'wife' is okusan (奥さん / おくさん). But hang on, there's also tsuma (妻 / つま), kamisan (上さん / かみさん), and many more! Saying 'wife' in Japanese may not be as easy as 123. Husbands typically address their wives by their given name when talking to each other.
1. “Hara ga tatsu.”= I'm irritated. / I'm angry. This is one of the most common phrases that is used to describe general anger.
Covering your mouth while laughing means not showing your obvious reactions, and keeping your emotions subtle and shy. This is considered graceful for ladies in Japan. Many Japanese women aim toward this ideal image and follow it as a social norm subconsciously without recognizing they've actually started this gesture.
Nodding: It is common for people to nod during conversation to indicate they are listening or as a sign of acknowledgement. Nodding is a gesture of politeness , and does not necessarily imply agreement. Expressing Emotions: Displaying intense emotion is usually avoided in Japanese communication.