What's the Japanese Equivalent of 'What's Up'?

“What’s up?” is one of the most common greetings in English-speaking countries. If you translated it literally into Japanese, you’d get something like 「調子はどうよ？」(choushi wa dou yo? — “How’s it going?”).

But here’s the thing — Japanese people don’t really greet each other by asking “How are you doing?” in everyday conversation. And let’s be honest, even in English, “what’s up” is more of a casual greeting than a genuine question about someone’s well-being.

So what do Japanese people actually say? Something more like:

「おっす」 (ossu) — a casual, laid-back “hey” 「こんにちは」 (konnichiwa) — a standard “hello”

These feel much more natural as equivalents.

That said, Japanese does have a way to ask “how’s it going?” — people often say:

「最近どうよ」 (saikin dou yo — “How’ve things been lately?”)

What’s interesting about this phrase is that it’s intentionally vague. It doesn’t specify what it’s asking about — work? love life? health? — and that ambiguity is the whole point. It leaves room for the other person to decide what they want to talk about. Think of it as a gentle nudge to get a conversation started.

It’s also a form of consideration — by not asking about anything specific, you avoid accidentally touching on a topic someone doesn’t want to discuss. It’s a distinctly Japanese way of communicating — fitting for a language where subjects and objects are routinely dropped.

Of course, depending on the situation, people do ask about specific things too — like 「仕事の調子はどう？」(shigoto no choushi wa dou? — “How’s work going?”).

In short: If “what’s up” is just a greeting, the closest Japanese equivalents are 「おっす」or 「こんにちは」. If you’re genuinely asking how someone’s been, the casual go-to is 「最近どうよ」.