How To Say "I Love You" in Japanese

The first thing many people want to know when they start learning a new language is how to say those three little words "I love you." I'm sure it's no different for all of you with Japanese! Japanese is a beautiful language, and the expressions they use for this are very beautiful as well. However, the culture in Japan is much different than the western culture you may be used to; while the expression exists, it is very rarely used (contrary to English speaking countries), and is often omitted for an expression closer to "I like you." Therefore I will be teaching you both phrases - and the cultural background of how we arrive at saying one of these phrases!

The Japanese Character for Love: 愛 (あい)

The kanji for love is pronounced "ai" as  shown through the hiragana kanas above. When you combine the word love with "してる" or in romaji "shi-te-ru" (meaning the act of doing something) you get the phrase "愛してる" or "ai shi te ru." This means, in Japanese culture, a little bit more than just love. It means something more like "I am so passionately in love with you and I couldn't breathe without you by my side" so definitely not something you would toss out at a friend when they do something kinda nice for you. In fact, some married couples don't even exchange these words..

Culturally, in Japan people generally feel that saying I love you isn't as important as doing things to show their appreciation and love for their significant other. Rather than kissing goodbye and saying "I love you so much" three hundred times, a Japanese husband might clean the floors while his wife was out running an errand to show he loves her. He might buy a dress she has been wanting or bake her a cake. He will more than likely not ramble on about his affections though. So when do the Japanese say 'I love you'? 

こくはく (kokuhaku). Confession. In Japanese culture, there must be a confession of love for dating to start. This is that scene that we have all seen hundreds of times in different animes where someone leaves a note in the others locker to meet outside and exclaim "I love you!" Surprisingly, this really does happen in Japanese school life and even after that. How you would say I love you in this situation is "すき" or "suki." The 'u' is almost silent here so it's like the English word "Ski" pronunciation wise. This word means to favor/ like, so I am sure you can see where this is going.. To confess to a person you would say: けいら の こと が すき! - "Kayla no koto ga suki!" I used my name for example's sake, but replace it with whomever you fancy. ;) 

There you have it. Now that you know how to express yourself when the time comes, you can have one less worry about what to do when you meet the love of your life in Japan.

-愛してる-