Keigo

What is keigo?

Keigo (敬語) is the broad category of honorific Japanese speech used to signal social relationships, context formality, and respect. Native Japanese speakers shift register multiple times in a day depending on who they're talking to. For consumer-facing app marketing, the keigo register chosen for caption copy signals the brand's social positioning.

The three main sub-registers: sonkeigo (highly respectful, used when speaking about someone of higher status), kenjogo (humble, used when speaking about yourself in a deferential way), and teineigo (polite-friendly, the most common consumer-facing register in modern Japanese apps).

A fourth informal register, futsutai (also called tameguchi), drops the polite endings entirely. It's used between close friends and in casual contexts.

What keigo register does an App Store screenshot use?

The safe default for most app categories is teineigo (polite-friendly). Captions end in desu (for nouns/adjectives) and masu (for verbs). This signals professional but approachable, which fits productivity, fintech, health, travel, education, and most lifestyle apps.

Casual gaming and youth-oriented social apps can use futsutai (casual). Matching app-character tone to category convention matters more than absolute formality level.

What's the keigo failure mode?

The most common mistake by non-native localization teams: using sonkeigo (highly respectful) for consumer marketing copy. Sonkeigo is appropriate for a customer-service apology or a formal business letter, but reads as cold and over-formal on a casual product page. The opposite mistake (futsutai for a serious app like fintech) reads as sloppy and untrustworthy.

Translators paid per word default to teineigo, which is usually correct. The signal: have a native Japanese reviewer check final caption copy for register fit before shipping.