Japanese idioms

Kan'yōku (慣用句) are Japan's idioms — fixed expressions whose meaning you can't guess from the words alone. Body parts and animals do most of the heavy lifting: a wide face (顔が広い) means you're well-connected, breaking bones (骨が折れる) means hard work, and someone so busy they'd "borrow a cat's paws" (猫の手も借りたい) needs any help at all.

Unlike proverbs, which stand alone as complete advice, idioms are building blocks: they conjugate and slot into ordinary sentences (今日は骨が折れた — today was back-breaking). Learning the common ones is one of the fastest ways to make your Japanese sound natural rather than translated.

The list below is every expression tagged as idiomatic in the dictionary. Standalone sayings live in the proverbs collection; four-character compounds have their own yojijukugo page.