Why Japanese people say moshimoshi on the phone

Moshimoshi (もしもし) is what Japanese people say when they pick up the phone, like “hello?”. It comes from 申す (mousu), a humble way to say “to speak”: もうしもうし (moushi moushi), “I’m speaking, I’m speaking”, worn down over time to もしもし. The kanji behind it is 申, though the word itself is almost always written in hiragana.

The kanji: 申

申 (shin, or mousu) began as a picture of a bolt of lightning. It’s the original form of 電, lightning, which puts 雨, rain, on top of it and now gives us 電気 (denki), electricity, and 電話 (denwa), telephone. It’s also the original form of 神 (kami), god. Over time 申 came to mean to state or to report, and in Japanese it became 申す, the humble verb for saying something yourself.

You’ll meet it in polite introductions, such as 田中と申します (Tanaka to moushimasu), “my name is Tanaka”, and in 申し込む (moushikomu), to apply, and 申し訳ない (moushiwake nai), I’m sorry.

From “I say” to “hello”

Long before telephones, もうし (moushi), “I say”, was a polite way to call out to someone, like “excuse me”. Doubled, it became もうしもうし and then もしもし, and Japanese dictionaries still give that first meaning: calling out to someone.

Japan’s first telephone service opened in 1890, between Tokyo and Yokohama. Accounts of those early years say callers often began with おいおい (oi oi), “hey, hey”, that politer forms built on 申す took over, and that by the early 1900s もしもし was the standard way to start a call.

The fox story

A well-known story says that a fox spirit can only say “moshi” once, so saying it twice proves you’re human. Foxes really are tricksters and shape-shifters in Japanese folklore, and the story turns up in many articles about the word. But there’s no evidence that it shaped the telephone greeting, which grew out of ordinary polite speech. Enjoy it as a story about the word, not as its origin.

How to use it

• もしもし、田中です。

  Moshimoshi, Tanaka desu.

  Hello, it's Tanaka.

• もしもし、聞こえますか。

  Moshimoshi, kikoemasu ka.

  Hello? Can you hear me?

• はい、さくら商事でございます。

  Hai, Sakura Shouji de gozaimasu.

  Hello, Sakura Trading. (answering a work phone)

• もしもし、ちょっと伺いますが。

  Moshimoshi, chotto ukagaimasu ga.

  Excuse me, may I ask you something? (old-fashioned)

• 田中と申します。

  Tanaka to moushimasu.

  My name is Tanaka. (polite)

• Not for answering work calls. At work, people answer with the company name instead, as in はい、〇〇でございます. もしもし can sound too casual there, though anyone may use it when the line breaks up.
• On the phone, not face to face. In person, say こんにちは (konnichiwa) or すみません (sumimasen). もしもし to a stranger in the street sounds old-fashioned now, though friends use it as a joke on someone who isn’t listening: “hello? anyone home?”
• Write it in hiragana. 申し申し is a rare, old-looking spelling.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Picture a bolt of lightning (申) crackling down a telephone line, and a polite voice at the other end: “I’m speaking, I’m speaking.” もしもし.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Sources

• Weblio (Daijisen): もしもし
• Wiktionary via Kaikki: 申 (glyph origin)
• Tofugu: Moshi moshi

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.