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おかえり okaeri
Welcome back.
What does okaeri mean?
The answer to tadaima, and one of the warmest two seconds in the language. Say it to family, flatmates, and colleagues back from a trip.
Example
おかえり、ごはんできてるよ。
Welcome back — dinner's ready.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
The story behind okaeri
The full form is okaeri nasai, built from the honorific verb for returning plus a soft command ending, so the literal sense is closer to please do come home. Families sand it down to okaeri, and the polite tail only survives when a neighbour or a landlady says it.
Its real trick is that it cannot be said alone. Tadaima needs an answer, and okaeri is the answer, which makes the pair one of the few conversations in the language that exists purely to confirm somebody arrived. That is why cafes and inns borrow it to make guests feel adopted, and why hearing it after a long trip can land harder than a hug.
Get okaeri in your pocket
おかえり 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.
