{"id":3968,"date":"2019-11-08T10:28:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T10:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=3968"},"modified":"2023-04-08T19:14:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T19:14:19","slug":"what-to-call-your-boss-in-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/what-to-call-your-boss-in-japanese\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Call Your Boss in Japanese? \u2014 All You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><p>What is the proper way to address your boss? Well&hellip;it turns out there are <i>a lot<\/i> of ways to say &ldquo;boss&rdquo; in Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>There are variables to consider, like their position in society, role in the company, relationship to you.<\/p>\n<p>Also, things change considerably if they&rsquo;re yakuza or a fictional boss in a video game.<\/p>\n<p>To top it off, there are a jumble of ways to talk <i>about<\/i> your boss.<\/p>\n<p>Just a warning: it&rsquo;s a long and winding road up and down the proverbial corporate food chain, and as with most things <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/study-japanese\/\" title=\"Japanese\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Japanese<\/a> there is no one clear cut way to say &lsquo;boss&rsquo;. That said&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6792\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg\" alt=\"What To Call Your Boss in Japanese?\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-561x842.jpg 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-364x546.jpg 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-728x1092.jpg 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-608x912.jpg 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-758x1137.jpg 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6792 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201000%201500'%3E%3Crect%20width='1000'%20height='1500'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"What To Call Your Boss in Japanese?\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese.jpg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-561x842.jpg 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-364x546.jpg 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-728x1092.jpg 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-608x912.jpg 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/What-To-Call-Your-Boss-in-Japanese-758x1137.jpg 758w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What to call your boss in Japanese?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Most often you&rsquo;ll refer to your boss by their name + their position title. Which title that is will depend on where in the company you work. It could be shacho, bucho, kaicho, or one of many others. If you&rsquo;re in the Yakuza, &ldquo;oyabun&rdquo; will suffice for the most powerful guy. If you&rsquo;re playing a video game the bosses are, well, <i>bosu<\/i>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Honor 101 &mdash; How to Address Someone in Japan (in Japanese of course&hellip;)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s begin at the basics, because they&rsquo;ll form the foundation for all interactions, with your boss or without.<\/p>\n<p>How do you address someone in Japan?<\/p>\n<p>For newcomers, this can be a bit of an issue. Let&rsquo;s start by going over a few simple rules:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>1<\/strong>. <strong>Don&rsquo;t use their first name unless they give you permission<\/strong>. When someone introduces themselves, they will usually say their family name first and then their given name. Go with the family name. But that&rsquo;s not all&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><strong>2<\/strong>. <strong>You gotta slap a &#12373;&#12435; (san) on that.<\/strong> Family name+<strong>&#12373;&#12435;<\/strong> is okay to use with both men and women. Generally, this is used for and by middle school children all the way up to the elderly.<\/p>\n<p>There are many options, many many more, but they all relate to the following: job title, nicknames, children, and position in society.<\/p>\n<p>Don&rsquo;t worry about calling your boss by his\/her name+<strong>&#12373;&#12435;<\/strong>. While there are more polite honorifics, which I&rsquo;ll get into further on, name+<strong>&#12373;&#12435;<\/strong> is still polite and appropriate in many situations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong> <strong>The use of -&#12373;&#12414;(sama) adds a higher level of respect.<\/strong> You&rsquo;ll hear this most x as a customer since service people must (usually) refer to you with this honorific (usually in the form of &ldquo;o-kyak-sama&rdquo;&mdash;customer-sama).<\/p>\n<p>In the workplace, this usually gets appended to a name in emails. Note that this only ever goes after a name, never after a position or title. Not because it&rsquo;d be rude, just because it&rsquo;d sound funny, like &ldquo;Doctor Mister Smith.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong> Unless you want to sound a little full of yourself, childish, or weird, <strong>don&rsquo;t use an honorific when speaking about yourself<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong> <strong>In general, though, you will use one of the many terms for boss <i>as an honorific<\/i>.<\/strong> More often than not, you will use their surname + their company title.<\/p>\n<p>It also wouldn&rsquo;t be out of place to just address them by their company title. For example, if your boss&rsquo;s name is Yoshida and he&rsquo;s the company president&mdash;aka the <strong>&#31038;&#38263;<\/strong> (shacho)&mdash;you can call him either Yoshida-Shacho or simply Shacho. Both are respectful.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>The meaning of &ldquo;shachou&rdquo;<\/b> <b>(&#31038;&#38263;)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shachou refers to the highest ranking person in a company. This could be the president, the founder (if they are still in charge), or the CEO.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It varies from company to company, but <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#31038;&#38263; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is often used in place of the boss&rsquo;s name entirely.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When coworkers are referring to the president in conversations amongst themselves, they might say the following.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#20170;&#26085;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#31038;&#38263;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#12395;&#20250;&#12356;&#12414;&#12375;&#12383;&#12363;&#65311;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kyou shachou ni aimashita ka?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you meet with the boss today?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a term that denotes a great deal of respect<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;because the boss must have worked hard to get to that position.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the boss&rsquo;s real name undermines that respect, similar to referring to a doctor as &ldquo;Mr.&rdquo; instead of &ldquo;Dr.&rdquo;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to these formality rules of titles and honorifics within Japan, most company employees will only refer to their boss as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shachou<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&rdquo; (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#31038;&#38263;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) both when speaking about them or to them directly.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Shachou vs sacho &ndash; Which is correct?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be careful not to mis-pronounce an important title within the Japanese workplace! <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#31038;&#38263;(<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#12375;&#12419;&#12385;&#12423;&#12358;)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> should be pronounced &ldquo;sha-chou&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this in mind, there are many dialects and accents within Japan that may sound (to the non-native ear) a bit fast or slurred.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of these dialects can lead to the word sounding a bit like &ldquo;sacho&rdquo;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (&#12373;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#12385;&#12423;)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but this is not a real word in Japanese.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When spoken and written, the word should always &ldquo;shachou&rdquo;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#12375;&#12419;&#12385;&#12423;&#12358;\/<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#31038;&#38263;). <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a word on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) level 4, so remember it well!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Horrific Honorifics<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Now for something you shouldn&rsquo;t call your boss (unless they ask, I guess&hellip;).<\/p>\n<p>No matter what your Japanese media consumption may have led you to believe, it is never appropriate to append &ldquo;dono&rdquo; (&#12393;&#12398;) to your higher-up&rsquo;s name.<\/p>\n<p>This one comes from the ol&rsquo; days when it was used to refer to high ranking government officials.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, it&rsquo;s shifted to the other end of the spectrum, often used in official documents to refer to ordinary or low-ranking people (although even this is moving out of style).<\/p>\n<p>Using &ldquo;dono&rdquo; with your boss could come off as rather sarcastic, implying that they&rsquo;re acting high-and-mighty like an old samurai-era daimyo.<\/p>\n<p>Besides &ldquo;dono,&rdquo; do not call your president &ndash;<strong>&#12385;&#12419;&#12435;<\/strong> (chan) or &ndash;<strong>&#12367;&#12435;<\/strong> (kun) unless you and they are in elementary school.<\/p>\n<p>It is usually reserved for addressing children (or for those much older talking to those much younger).<\/p>\n<p>If your boss <i>is<\/i> in elementary school&hellip; well, then I dunno, sure, go for it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Long may they rule (over the office)&hellip;<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&#38263; is a kanji that is alternatively defined as &ldquo;long&rdquo; and &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>As you might expect, we&rsquo;re going to focus on the latter definition. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/japanese-alphabets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Japanese language will often combine more than one Kanji to make words.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You will see this kanji thrown on the tail end of <i>several<\/i> words to form variations on &lsquo;boss&rsquo;.<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s go through a few of them.<\/p>\n<p>Most Japanese companies are headed by a board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>The chairperson of the board is called <strong>&#20250;&#38263;<\/strong>, or kaicho.<\/p>\n<p>This should not be confused with the president of the company.<\/p>\n<p>The first <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/how-many-kanji-to-be-fluent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kanji<\/a><\/strong> in this set is used in the verb for &lsquo;to meet&rsquo; and alone can be translated as &ldquo;party leader.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The president of a Japanese corporation is referred to as the &#31038;&#38263;, pronounced shacho. <strong>&#31038;<\/strong> (sha) is the kanji for company or firm.<\/p>\n<p>This should not be confused with &#25152;&#38263;(shocho) which can be used for a general manager, chief or director <i>at any branch of a company<\/i>. Shocho is the highest position at a branch, but there is only one shacho in a company.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Movin&rsquo; on up <\/b><b>&mdash; Addressing the Big Bosses in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Now let&rsquo;s take a look at the real heavy hitters with names like tongue twisters. <strong>&#20195;&#34920;&#21462;&#32224;&#24441;&#31038;&#38263;<\/strong> (daihyou-tori-shimariyaku-shacho) translates directly as &ldquo;president and chief executive officer.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s a heckuva mouthful, so let&rsquo;s break it down a bit.<\/p>\n<p>According to one dictionary, that first part, <strong>&#20195;&#34920;&#21462;&#32224;&#24441;<\/strong> (daihyou-tori-shimariyaku), refers to a person who is chosen by and from the board of directors to represent the company in outside dealings.<\/p>\n<p>That itself breaks down further into two constituent parts. First there&rsquo;s <strong>&#20195;&#34920;<\/strong> (daihyou), meaning &ldquo;representative&rdquo; or &ldquo;delegation.&rdquo; Then <strong>&#21462;&#32224;&#24441;<\/strong> (tori-shimariyaku), meaning &ldquo;company director&rdquo; or &ldquo;board member.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>See how that works out? Representative board member president!<\/p>\n<p>Not <i>quite<\/i> so bad when you break it down like that, eh?<\/p>\n<p>Chief Executive Officers, aka CEOs, have their own term, <strong>&#32076;&#21942;&#26368;&#39640;&#36012;&#20219;&#32773;<\/strong> (keiei-saikou-sekininsha), though this will usually only be found on their business card, and is not usually used as an honorific in practice. Let&rsquo;s break it down anyway.<\/p>\n<p>First there&rsquo;s <strong>&#32076;&#21942;<\/strong> (keiei), meaning &ldquo;management.&rdquo; Then <strong>&#26368;&#39640;<\/strong> (saikou), a common expression just meaning &ldquo;most,&rdquo; &ldquo;highest,&rdquo; &ldquo;maximum,&rdquo; and things like that.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, there&rsquo;s <strong>&#36012;&#20219;&#32773;<\/strong> (sekiinsha), meaning &ldquo;person in charge.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Management&rsquo;s highest person in charge.&rdquo; Not so bad, hunh?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>A Step Down &mdash; How to Call the Vice President in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The executive vice president, <strong>&#21103;&#31038;&#38263;<\/strong> (fuku-shachou), is&mdash;according to Japanese&mdash; a mere copy of the president. <strong>&#21103;<\/strong> (fuku), means copy or duplicate.<\/p>\n<p>That <strong>&#31038;<\/strong> (sha) character appears again in the name of an even lowlier worker, then <strong>&#31038;&#21729;<\/strong> (shain), or &ldquo;company employee.&rdquo;<br>\nYou will normally refer to your department manager as &#37096;&#38263;, or &ldquo;buchou.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The first kanji in this word, &#37096; (bu), means department.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, if you work in the sales division, finance, H&amp;R, operations etc., this is your go to word for the guy or gal who runs the department.<\/p>\n<p>However, this word is not exclusive to the business world. School club captains get the honor of being called &ldquo;buchou&rdquo; as well.<br>\nJust below the buchou is the <strong>&#35506;&#38263;<\/strong> (kachou), or <i>section<\/i> manager.<\/p>\n<p>This is the guy who is boss enough to get promoted after, usually, at least fifteen years of work (no joke).<\/p>\n<p>Just a step lower in the corporate food chain, you simply add <strong>&#20195;&#29702;<\/strong> (dai-ri), or &ldquo;deputy&rdquo; to the word to create the Deputy Manager, or <strong>&#35506;&#38263;&#20195;&#29702;<\/strong> (kachou-dairi).<\/p>\n<p>Below even that we add <strong>&#35036;&#20304;<\/strong> (hosa), or &ldquo;assistant,&rdquo; to create the Assistant Manager as <strong>&#35506;&#38263;&#35036;&#20304;<\/strong> (kachouhosa).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Behind Boss&rsquo;s Back<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Now let&rsquo;s say your boss is super strict and you just need to tell someone (not in your company) about what a horrible day you had at work.<\/p>\n<p>When you describe your boss to your friend, you won&rsquo;t actually use any of the words previously mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>A good word in this situation would be &#19978;&#21496; (joushi) which just mean&rsquo;s &ldquo;one&rsquo;s superior&rdquo; in general.<\/p>\n<p>This word is made up of the kanji for &ldquo;above&rdquo; and &ldquo;official,&rdquo; and is great for talking about your boss to people outside the company.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>A family affair<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>You can think of the Japanese mafia, or Yakuza, as a scattering of tight-knit families&mdash;albeit ones that occasionally chop off fingers and have a penchant for gambling.<\/p>\n<p>The Yakuza are structured within the hierarchy of <i>oyabun-kobun<\/i> (<strong>&#35242;&#20998;&#23376;&#20998;<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>Through the ceremony of sharing a single cup of sake, the kobun (<strong>&#23376;&#20998;<\/strong>) is &lsquo;adopted&rsquo; by the oyabun (<strong>&#35242;&#20998;<\/strong>) and becomes a part of the organization.<\/p>\n<p>The kanji <strong>&#35242;<\/strong> and <strong>&#23376;<\/strong> mean parent and child respectively. <strong>&#20998;<\/strong> means part, or, in this case, one&rsquo;s duty.<\/p>\n<p>At the other end of the heirarchy, the lowest henchmen (&#23556;&#31243; <i>shatei<\/i>) will refer to those slightly above them as &ldquo;kyoudai&rdquo; (<strong>&#20804;&#24351;<\/strong>), or &ldquo;big brother.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Beyond this there are many different bosses in the yakuza, covering different duties.<\/p>\n<p>The tippy-top of the pyramid is the <i>oyabun<\/i> who is also referred to as <strong>&#12362;&#12420;&#12387;&#12373;&#12435;<\/strong> (oyassan), aka &ldquo;father,&rdquo; or <strong>&#32068;&#38263;<\/strong> (kumicho), a combination of &ldquo;association&rdquo; and &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Below that are a few different duties. There&rsquo;s the <strong>&#26368;&#39640;&#39015;&#21839;<\/strong> (saikou-komon), or &ldquo;highest advisor.&rdquo; This guy tends to oversee most of the &ldquo;legitimate businesses,&rdquo; such as hotels, restaurants, law firms, etc.<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s also the <strong>&#33294;&#24351;&#38957;<\/strong> (shatei-gashira), aka Second Lieutenant, whose name means &ldquo;head of the underlings.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He&rsquo;s typically responsible for collecting dues from the <i>shatei<\/i> and managing the &ldquo;street level&rdquo; criminal activity, such as drug dealing, assault, car theft, etc.<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s even more layers to it, but this should get you by should you ever be unfortunate enough to need to know what to call the guy who tied you to a chair.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and it so happens that Oyabun is not used exclusively for the yakuza.<\/p>\n<p>Office workers will sometimes refer to their boss using this term as a joke. Y&rsquo;know, the boss who&rsquo;s so bossy he&rsquo;s like a gangster.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>This might sound familiar &mdash; A More Informal Way to Address Your Boss in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>If you are looking for something really easy to pronounce without having to go to the trouble of memorizing actual Japanese, you can always resort to what the Japanese call &ldquo;katakana-eigo,&rdquo; aka Katakana English.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong>, or &ldquo;bos&rdquo; (in practice pronounced almost the same as &ldquo;boss&rdquo;), is not as formal sounding as other words might be, but you will get your point across.<\/p>\n<p>If you&rsquo;re a gamer, you&rsquo;ll instantly recognize this one if you decide to try playing games in Japanese. <strong>&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> is just what you call the &ldquo;boss&rdquo; at the end of the level. &#22823;&#12508;&#12473; (dai-bosu, or &ldquo;big boss&rdquo;) and <strong>&#26368;&#32066;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (saishuu-bosu, or &ldquo;last boss&rdquo;) both just mean &ldquo;Final Boss.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>A mid-level boss would be called a <strong>&#20013;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (chuu-bosu, &ldquo;middle boss&rdquo;), <strong>&#23569;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (shou-bosu, &ldquo;small boss&rdquo;), or <strong>&#12469;&#12502;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (sabu-bosu, &ldquo;sub-boss&rdquo;).<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s also:<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#12500;&#12483;&#12488;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (pitto-bosu, &ldquo;pit boss&rdquo;)<br>\n<strong>&#38560;&#12375;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (kakushi-bosu, &ldquo;hidden boss&rdquo;)<br>\n<strong>&#20498;&#12379;&#12394;&#12356;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (taosenai-bosu, &ldquo;unbeatable boss&rdquo;)<br>\n<strong>&#20498;&#12377;&#24517;&#35201;&#12398;&#12394;&#12356;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (taosu-hitsuyou-no-nai-bosu, &ldquo;defeat-unnecessary boss&rdquo;)<br>\n<strong>&#28436;&#20986;&#19978;&#24369;&#12367;&#35373;&#23450;&#12373;&#12428;&#12383;&#12508;&#12473;<\/strong> (enshutsujou-yowaku-setteisareta-bosu, &ldquo;made-to-be-weak boss&rdquo;)<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Back to work!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Alright, that&rsquo;s a wrap! Now, if you ever find yourself with a Japanese boss, you have some idea how to refer to them without getting fired. Good luck out there in the wild world of the Japanese workplace!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Frequently Related Questions on &ldquo;How to call your boss in Japanese&rdquo;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>What does <\/b>taichou<b> mean?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Taichou is written &#38538;&#38263; and means &ldquo;commanding officer.&rdquo; The first kanji means, roughly, &ldquo;regiment, company, squad.&rdquo; The second kanji means &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What does danchou mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Danchou is written as &#22243;&#38263; and means &ldquo;leader of a delegation.&rdquo; The first kanji means &ldquo;group, association.&rdquo; The second, as you&rsquo;d expect, means &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>What is the Japanese word for chief?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>This is an easy one! It&rsquo;s <strong>&#12481;&#12540;&#12501;<\/strong>, pronounced &ldquo;chiif.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s one of many words borrowed directly from English into Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>How to say Sir in Japanese?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>The closest equivalent for this is &ldquo;san&rdquo; or &ldquo;sama,&rdquo; depending on the circumstance. When dealing with customers in a customer service environment, &ldquo;sama&rdquo; is likely going to be your go-to. For most other situation, add &ldquo;san&rdquo; to the end of the surname to get a rough equivalent to the English &ldquo;sir.&rdquo;<br>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"FAQPage\",\n  \"mainEntity\": [\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"Question\",\n      \"name\": \"What does taichou mean?\",\n      \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n        \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n        \"text\": \"Taichou is written &#38538;&#38263; and means &ldquo;commanding officer.&rdquo; The first kanji means, roughly, &ldquo;regiment, company, squad.&rdquo; The second kanji means &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;\"\n      }\n    },\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"Question\",\n      \"name\": \"What does danchou mean?\",\n      \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n        \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n        \"text\": \"Danchou is written as &#22243;&#38263; and means &ldquo;leader of a delegation.&rdquo; The first kanji means &ldquo;group, association.&rdquo; The second, as you&rsquo;d expect, means &ldquo;leader.&rdquo;\"\n      }\n    },\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"Question\",\n      \"name\": \"What is the Japanese word for chief?\",\n      \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n        \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n        \"text\": \"This is an easy one! It&rsquo;s &#12481;&#12540;&#12501;, pronounced &ldquo;chiif.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s one of many words borrowed directly from English into Japanese.\"\n      }\n    },\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"Question\",\n      \"name\": \"How to say Sir in Japanese?\",\n      \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n        \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n        \"text\": \"The closest equivalent for this is &ldquo;san&rdquo; or &ldquo;sama,&rdquo; depending on the circumstance. When dealing with customers in a customer service environment, &ldquo;sama&rdquo; is likely going to be your go-to. For most other situation, add &ldquo;san&rdquo; to the end of the surname to get a rough equivalent to the English &ldquo;sir.&rdquo;\"\n      }\n    }\n  ]\n}\n<\/script><br>\n<!--FAQPage Code Generated by https:\/\/saijogeorge.com\/json-ld-schema-generator\/faq\/--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call your Japanese boss like a boss!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"Article","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,1155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japanese","category-japanese-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3968"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24265,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions\/24265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}