Japanese Jokes // 25 to Help Level 🆙 Your Japanese

Japanese Jokes // The Good, the Bad, and the Plain Hilarious!

Are you interested in Japanese jokes?

Maybe you want to make your Japanese friend laugh, or be in on the joke of an anime you watched.

Whatever the reason, LTL has hunted for the best (beginner and intermediate-student friendly) Japanese jokes out there!

Take a look at our list of 25 of the best ones.

Japanese Jokes | 1-5

Japanese Jokes | 6-10

Japanese Jokes | 11-15

Japanese Jokes | 16-20

Japanese Jokes | 21-25

FAQ’s

Japanese Jokes 1 to 5

We’ll break each of our Japanese jokes down into tables to all you to see the Kanji, Hiragana, Romaji and of course the English translation so you can study them as well as laugh along!

We’ll also provide explanations for some of them which might not seem obviously funny.

Of course translating humour from English to Japanese and vice-versa doesn’t always translate smoothly, so some context is needed.

Let’s get going with #1…

Let’s break down this joke!

テディベアはなぜお腹が空かないのですか? seems like it doesn’t make sense at first – at least in the English translation.

However, when you look at the Japanese, you start to laugh!

First, the grammar: テディベア (Teddy Bear) is the sentence subject, marked by the particle は.

なぜ、です、and か are all simple (why, is/to be, and a question marker), but what about の？

The の comes after お腹が空かない and is used to nominalize the action – i.e., make it a noun, so that you can put です after it.

However, the most interesting and funny part of the sentence is the expression お腹が空かない. It’s a phrase that comes from the expression お腹が空かします, meaning “I’m hungry” in Japanese and literally translating to “my stomach is empty.”

However, here it becomes “I’m not hungry,” or “my stomach is not empty” – which is why the response いつもいっぱいです！or “It’s always full!” works so well.

The Teddy Bear’s stomach is literally stuffed with fluff, of course, but the double wordplay of the joke also works because the Teddy Bear’s stomach is always full – meaning it’s never empty OR hungry! What a fun joke, right?

And remember the phrase お腹が空かします, too! It comes in handy.

Japanese Jokes 6-10

Let’s break down the joke!

First, it starts with 屋根 (roof) の (possessive particle) ジョーク (joke, a katakana word) を聞きましたか? (to hear, in the past form, with the particle “ka” marking it as a question).

This part is pretty simple: Did you hear the roof joke?

The reply is rather interesting, though!

It begins: 気にしないでください.

気にする is an expression meaning “to mind” or “to carry about” and carries a negative nuance. It is often used in the negative form, like it is here: 気にしない, meaning “don’t worry about it.” It’s a bit dismissive.

The ないでください form is a polite way of asking someone not to do something, and is used here since the speaker uses the ます-form with 聞きましたか.

This makes the English translation: Please don’t worry about it (but with a bit of a negative nuance to it).

The second part of the response is それはあなたの頭の上にあります。

それは (that, marked with the subject particle は) refers to the joke, あなた is “you,” 頭 is “head” and 上に is a spacial expression meaning “above,” “on top of” or “over”.

It’s followed by the polite form of the verb ある, meaning “to be,” which is used with inanimate objects.

This makes the literal English translation “it’s over your head” – however the better translation would be “it’ll go over your head” as that matches situation and dismissiveness of the speaker, but keeps the literal “the roof is over your head” piece as well.

So in full, the joke is: “Have you heard the roof joke? Don’t worry about it, it’ll go over your head.”

How To Learn Katakana (カタカナ) // Essential Things To Know

How to Learn Katakana? | Katakana is one of Japanese’s three alphabets. Katakana are generally more angular looking than Hiragana and focuses on loanwords.

Japanese Jokes 11-15

Joke Breakdown Time!

Like with many of the other jokes, the question is simple: なぜ (why) クッキー (cookie) は (subject particle) 診療所 (clinic, infirmary) に行った (to go, past tense) の (nominalizes action) ですか (to be + question marker).

Why did the cookie go to the infirmary?

The response is a neat bit of word play though: 彼は気分が悪くなっていた.

In Japanese, the expression 気分が悪い is used to say “I feel ill” or “I’m not feeling well.”

So of course, the cookie went to the infirmary because it wasn’t feeling well.

However, there’s a second meaning here: Since we’re talking about a cookie, saying 気分が悪い implies that it feels like it’s going bad, i.e. starting to get old/mouldy/crumbly etc.

In addition, 悪くなる is “to become bad” and 悪くなっていた means “(it) was becoming bad.”

So, when it says 彼は気分が悪くなっていた, it also means “it felt like it was becoming/going bad,” making the joke from the double wordplay!

Fun, right?

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Japanese Jokes 16-20

Joke Explanation Time!

The Japanese used in this joke can be a bit tricky, so let’s break it down together!

First, it asks: 幽霊ってなんでこんなに嘘つきですか？

While you may have seen って before as a casual quotation, here it’s a piece of N3 grammar that means “as for” – so, as for a ghost.

なんで is “why” and “嘘つき” is liar – but what’s こんなに exactly?

こんなに means “so, like this, in this way” and often has a negative connotation.

Here, it adds to the sentence so that it (very roughly) translates as: “As for ghosts, why are they such bad liars/why are they these kinds of (bad) liars?”

It’s definitely a joke where it’s important to understand the implied meanings of certain words! And what about the answer?

The answer is a bit simpler: あなたはそれらを見通すことができます。

あなた is “you,” それら is “they,” and 見通す is “to see through.” The grammatical piece is ことができる, which is used to say “to be able to do” and here adds the meaning of “to be able to see right through” when attached to 見通す.

So the overall meaning of the sentence is: “Because you can see right through them.”

Interesting joke, right?

Japanese Jokes 21-25

While the question for this joke is pretty simple, the answer has a really useful piece of grammar!

First, the question: 信号機は車に何と言いましたか? しんごうき is “traffic light,” 車 is “car,” and 何と言いましたか is “what was said?”

は marks the traffic light as the speaker and the car as the object, making the English translation: What did the traffic light say to the car?

The answer is 見ないで。私は変わろうとしている。

見ないで is the shortened, casual form of 見ないでください, a grammatical expression (ないでください) that asks someone NOT to do something.

In 私は変わろうとしている, 変わる is used, which means “to change.”

However, it’s made into its volitional form 変わろう and とする is added to it, a grammatical structure which means “to try to” or “to start to” depending on the context.

Here, it means the “to try to” and coupled with the ている form and 私は makes the full English translation: “Don’t look. I’m trying to change.”

So the full joke becomes: “What did the traffic light say to the car? Don’t look! I’m trying to change.”

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Japanese Loanwords are actually a great way to boost language learning motivation because it makes you realise you can still find similarities with English!

There we have it – 25 of our favourite Japanese jokes!

Did you like them? Which was your favourite?

Why not tell us below in the comments. Or do you think you’ve got a better joke? Write it below and we’ll rate it out of ten!

BONUS | Like learning jokes in other languages? Then why not check out our favourite Chinese jokes, Russian jokes, and top Korean jokes also.

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