あけおめ (Akeome): Casual Japanese New Year’s Greeting

Pronunciation

Definition

あけおめ (akeome) is a casual Japanese New Year’s greeting. It is casually used by young people when they meet their friends in early January. When your friends say this greeting to you, simply repeat the same phrase to reply to them.

Word Structure

あけおめ is an abbreviation of “明あけましておめでとうございます”, which consists of the two parts “明あけまして” and “おめでとうございます“. The former is a polite te-form of the verb “明あける” meaning “be over”(*), and the latter means “congratulations”. Therefore, the phrase literally means “(The last year) is over, congratulations!”, although people recognize it’s meaning as “Happy New Year”. Since あけおめ is a casual way of saying あけましておめでとうございます, you should use the unabbreviated expression in a formal context.

(*) 明ける is used only in a few phrases, including “夜よるが明ける” meaning “night is over” and ”梅雨つゆが明ける” meaning “rainy season is over”.

Example Sentences

Ex1
あけましておめでとうございます。今年ことしもよろしくお願ねがいします
Happy New Year! Let’s keep a good relationship as ever.

Ex2 (A casual version of Ex1)
あけおめ！今年もよろしく！

Ex2 (A more casual version of Ex1)
あけおめ！ことよろ！

(Note)
ことよろ stands for “今年もよろしく”, meaning “This year, let’s keep a good relationship as ever”. The word “よろしく”, or more politely “よろしくお願いします” are very common greetings in Japanese, which are used when one asks or requests someone to do something. In the example sentences above, the speaker asks the listener to keep a good relationship with him/her as ever.

Synonyms: 明あけましておめでとうございます
Synonyms in English: Happy New Year
Related words and phrases: 明あける (be over) おめでとう (congratulations), よろしく