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自撮り jidori
A selfie, taken by you.
What does jidori mean?
Literally "self-shooting". The everyday word for a selfie, covering everything from a phone at arm's length to a full tripod-and-timer production.
Example
旅行先で自撮りばっかり撮ってた。
I was taking selfies the whole trip.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
The story behind jidori
自撮り is simply self-shooting, and Japan was rehearsing it long before front-facing cameras. The print club booths that appeared in the mid-1990s taught a whole generation how to pose in a small square with friends, choose a frame, and treat a photograph of yourself as something to be produced rather than merely taken.
When phones caught up, the native word won. Japanese speakers largely say 自撮り rather than the imported selfie, and it stretched to cover everything from an arm at full extension to a tripod, a remote shutter and a carefully chosen wall. The 自撮り棒, the selfie stick, arrived with the tourist boom and now lives in the pocket of anyone serious about it.
Get jidori in your pocket
自撮り is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
