会社
Meaning in Englishcompany
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
What does 会社 mean? 会社 (kaisha) refers to a business organization or corporate entity where people work together to produce goods or provide services; in everyday English it corresponds to 'company', 'corporation', or 'firm' and is used to refer both to the legal entity and to the employer as a social/institutional unit.
Main meanings
- Refers to the employer as a social institution distinct from individual workers or managers.
- Used metonymically for a company's headquarters or office building.
- In bureaucratic contexts, denotes a corporate legal person with rights and obligations under commercial law.
- Informally, can mean 'one's workplace' or the particular business someone works for.
How to use it
Used across formal, legal, and casual speech: in company names, legal documents, news, and everyday talk when referring to an employer or business; commonly appears in compound words describing employment actions and roles (e.g., 会社員 (kaishain), someone employed by a company; 入社 (nyūsha), joining a company), and in business contexts as a neutral, standard term.
Variants and close terms
- 企業 (kigyō) — enterprise, often used for larger or more formal businesses.
- 事務所 (jimusho) — office, emphasizes the workplace location rather than the legal entity.
- 商社 (shōsha) — trading company, a specific business type.
- 個人事業主 (kojin jigyōnushi) — sole proprietor, often an antonym in legal/business structure.
Composition
- 会 (kai): to meet, gather; conveys the idea of people coming together.
- 社 (sha): originally 'shrine' and later 'company/firm' or corporate body; here it denotes an organized institution.
- Together, the characters imply an organized place where people assemble for collective enterprise, which became the term for a company.
Origin
The modern concept of 会社 (kaisha) solidified during Japan's rapid industrialization in the Meiji era (late 19th century) as Western-style corporate forms and commercial law were introduced; legal frameworks and corporate practices evolved through Meiji codification and later reforms, with major changes again after World War II during occupation-era economic restructuring.
Word class
noun (名詞)