How do people address “the elderly” in modern Japanese?

5 comments

1. 老人 means old people. The terms 老害 (problems caused by old people in senior positions) and 老人性 (senile) are related.

   古い when used for people means outdated rather than just old.

   年寄り is a more polite expression, especially with the honorific before it.

   There is also 年配 which is even more polite. It can also be honorific 御年配.

2. I highly recommend using お年寄り (please be careful not to drop お) in everyday conversation. If you need a more formal expression, I suggest ご高齢の方.

3. お年寄りseems to be a good choice, I learned this from N4 textbook. But it cannot be used to address the elderly directly when talking face to face (おばあさん　おじいさん in such case). Please correct me if I’m wrong.

4. This is a tough one because the topic of age is sensitive in Japan as in many other cultures.

   老人 is technically a neutral word for ‘old people,’ it would be used to describe an ‘old person’ in a book or literary work and would not have any inherent negative connotations, however neutral words in Japanese are often impolite when used in conversation, particularly if you are referring to a specific person. A common usage of this word that is not impolite would be 老人夫婦 elderly couple 公園で見かけた老人夫婦が仲良く手を繋いでいて素敵だった The elderly couple I saw in the park were holding hands and it was so sweet. In most instances, exercise caution when using this word as it is the most direct way to refer to old people and is often used by young people to speak rudely about older people, kind of like how in English they say ‘boomer.’ Not a bad/rude word technically, but is used in a rude way commonly.

   お年寄り is a more positive way to refer to elderly people, but make sure you keep an お in front as calling someone 年寄り is basically just as rude as calling them 老人. You may hear elderly people refer to themselves such as 年寄りだから朝早く起きてしまうのよ I’m old so I can’t help but wake up early. As the example you provided 子供からお年寄りまで this would be an example of referring to elderly people as a category of person which is not rude- a way to call elderly people or more specifically people who identify with the common issues related to old age such as difficulty getting around and being low energy.

   高齢者 is basically a word we use to call elderly people as a concept 高齢者による事故は年々増加しています The number of accidents caused by the elderly increases every year. This word will appear in the news and articles, etc. and is meant to be a technical term removed from the emotions surrounding aging- however in order to keep it separate it is only used in ‘scientific’ situations.

   The most respectful way to refer to old people is ご年配 or ご年配の方. This also means the elderly in English but it is an honorific and to be blunt we more or less use it when we want to talk about old people but are worried that someone listening may themselves be old or even just take offense to the generalization of old people. You will hear it often on TV (not the news, variety shows or in interviews) because people do not want to offend elderly people who may be watching.

5. My wife always calls them 老害 (normally when she’s having an angry rant).