Question
You’re staying with a host family in Osaka and the landline rings while everyone else is out. You pick up, a little nervous, and the voice on the other end says one quick word you weren’t expecting: moshi moshi. What does it mean, and when are you supposed to use it yourself?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
もしもし。
Moshi moshi.
Hello (on the phone).
If you’ve ever picked up a Japanese phone and heard a cheerful moshi moshi on the other end, that’s the first word almost every casual phone call in Japan begins with. You use it only on the phone — never face-to-face, never as a greeting when you walk into a room. It’s strictly a “hello, are you there?” signal across a line. The word comes from the old verb 申（もう）す (mousu, to say), doubled up long ago into a polite attention-getter. One thing worth knowing — in business calls today, moshi moshi sounds a little too casual, and most offices answer with “Hai, [company name] desu” instead. But ring a friend or your host family and moshi moshi is exactly what you’ll hear, and what you should say back.
