watashi

Watashi is a Japanese pronoun used to refer to the speaker in the first person. It is written with the kanji 私 and is considered a polite, gender-neutral form of “I.” In modern Japanese, watashi is commonly used in formal situations, introductions, business contexts, and written language, as well as in everyday polite conversation.

Watashi is not the only first-person pronoun in Japanese. A more formal and humble variant is watakushi (also written with the same kanji, but read differently), used in speeches or highly formal writing. The plural form watashi-tachi means “we.” The phrase Watashi wa introduces the topic in a sentence, meaning “As for me …,” and is typically followed by a predicate such as desu or desu ka in polite speech.

Pronoun choice in Japanese varies with gender, formality, and context. Men commonly use boku or ore in casual settings, with watashi appearing in more formal or mixed contexts. Women may use atashi in casual speech, while watashi remains common in formal situations. In informal conversation or certain dialects, speakers may omit pronouns altogether, relying on context to identify the speaker.

In cultural contexts, watashi is widely taught as the standard polite first-person pronoun and appears in education, media, and public discourse. It is also encountered in literature and film as a neutral or formal self-reference, reflecting its role as a versatile and widely understood element of modern Japanese.