Can you use the word “bijin” for men and women or is it exclusively meant for women?

3 comments

1. It is used for women, men would be ikemen.

2. Bijin is for women. Most common for men is ikemen (イケメン), as mentioned already, but if you’re talking using the same 美 (bijin is 美人), then you can use bishōnen (美少年).

   Bishōnen is, as the kanji infers, only used for boys however; anyone out of their teens is no longer a 少年, and even the upper teens are a bit shady. A baby faced 17-year-old would probably classify as bishōnen, but his classmate who could easily pass for 22 would be an ikemen.

   Another option is bidanshi (美男子), which you don’t hear said to people so much as about people. When thinking bidanshi, think idols and prince types; men who are beautiful or pretty rather than cool.

   I wrote a [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/75xaej/how_do_you_express_attractiveness_concerning/dobnyf8/) in response to a post about words used to express attractiveness about a month ago if you’re interested. Noticing now that I forgot to add bishōnen to the list, but there’s plenty more options listed there.

3. Well my name is literally bijin in Japanese and im a man 😂