Common titles

• -san = Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss : The "-san" suffix serves as a mark of respect. A person may be addressed with the "-san" suffix if the speaker does not know the subject well, but the speaker does not wish to be rude to the subject, or when the subject has a higher social rank than the speaker. Nobody can reasonably take offense at -san. (Well, some people can be offended by anything, but that is a different issue.) -san is used for both males and females. Girls become -san when entering high school, boys become -san when leaving high school. Obviously, individuals may have different experiences, but we're talking about a rule of thumb.

• -sama Sama is used as a polite term of address to someone noticeably older or of higher status than yourself. Thus clerks and waiters and other service sectors employees will call just about everybody -sama, probably as 'o-kyaku-sama' (Ms Guest, or Mr Guest). O-sama is also used as a standalone title. It's very polite and shows either that the person you are addressing outranks you by a large margin, is much older than you, or you are in a very formal situation -- or maybe you don't know their name and need a polite address. It is sometimes translated into English as 'Lord' or 'Lady', but it is more like 'sir' or 'ma'am'. I can't explain in which cases you call someone "-sama" other than the obvious cases ("oto-sama" (otō-sama) - instead of "oto-san" (otō-san) - to call your father if you have a rich family and have to show very very big big big respect to him ; or when talking to a "Lord") so if you have more info about it, feel free to provide details. It is also used when referring to "kami-sama" (kami = god/paper/hair ; choose the one that fits ;) ). A good example is a maid calling her master "Taro-sama" (Taro is used as a Japanese generic name. I think this is rarely used nowadays. It can also be sarcastic. The title "shi" may be preferred.

• -kun: Generally for male children. Also could be used when addressing a male of lesser status. High school boys are "kun", but -kun can also be used a term of address by an older man to a younger man, or among friends and equals. Thus a boss can address a junior male employee as -kun, but the employee will address the boss as Kacho, or maybe -san or -sama, depending on the situation.

• -chan : An informal version of "san" used to address children and female family members. Children under about 10 years of age are "-chan", -chan continues to be used as a term of endearment, especially for girls, into adulthood. Parents will probably always call their daughters -chan and their sons -kun. Adults will use -chan as a term of endearment to women with whom they are on close terms. Sexist Japanese men will also use it to address waitresses and other junior women. This is still quite common in Japan and is usually considered acceptable; feminism is lagging behind the West. "-chan" is also used with pets and animals.

• -senpai : Used to address senior members in an academic environment or in sports clubs. It is sometimes seen in business environments. mean 'elder male student'. Note that the kanji for 'sen' is the same kanji in both sensei and senpai -- it originally means something like 'wizard.' A senpai is specifically a male student more senior than the speaker. Elder students have a leadership role with junior students and 'senpai' recognizes that. However, not all young men show the maturity and knowlege that results in them being called 'senpai'. Senpai can be addressed as either -kun or -san depending upon their age and their relationship with the one addressing them. An older man would never call a younger man senpai, it is always from a junior student to a more senior male student. Recently senior female students have started to be addressed as senpai, but this is not yet widespread. The word is frequently spelled sempai according to the original version of Hepburn.

• -kohai (kōhai): The reverse of senpai. Kohai is used to address juniors.

• -sensei means teacher. It can be used as a title "-sensei", or as a standalone title, Sensei. You call someone that teaches you a particular subject "-sensei". It is also used for an M.D. A sensei is therefore a subcategory of -sama. That is to say, not all -sama are sensei, but all sensei are -sama. Either sensei or -sama is correct for a teacher, but sensei is probably preferred, especially if the speaker has benefited from or hopes to benefit from the sensei's knowledge.

• -shi: Shi is used in formal writing to refer to a person unfamiliar to the speaker. Shi is often used in newsreaders, legal documents, and academic journals.

Uncommon titles

• -dono or -tono (both written 殿) is the title that literally means 'Lord' or 'Lady,' and also 'milord' and 'milady'. It is obsolete, if you try to use it with modern Japanese they will think your brain has been addled by watching too many samurai movies. Some people, wanting a term of intermediate politeness between -san and -sama have adopted -dono, but this is not correct. -dono, as well as the standalone titles Dono and O-dono (お殿) are much higher status than -sama. (-san is a contraction of -sama, by the way, both are relatively modern words).

• -ue (上) literally means "above". Like -san, it is used to denote respect for someone. It is no longer very common. Sometimes it is used to refer to one's own or another person's mother (母上 (haha-ue)) or father (父上 (chichi-ue)).

• -iemoto (家元) is a more formal version of "sensei" used to refer to important persons at events related to traditional Japanese art forms such as calligraphy or a tea ceremony.