警官
けいかん
keikan
= police officer; policeman; cop
警官 is the everyday word for a police officer in Japanese — the one you’d use when pointing someone out on the street, not the formal term you’d find on an official document.
警官 (keikan) is a common informal-to-neutral word for a police officer, used in everyday speech, news reports, and fiction. It is less formal than 警察官 (keisatsukan), which is the official occupational title used on paperwork and in formal contexts, but far more common in actual conversation. The word can refer to both male and female officers. In reported speech and news headlines, 警官 is preferred for brevity. The related word お巡りさん (omawarisan) is friendlier and more approachable — the word you might use when talking to or about a neighborhood beat officer, especially to children.
Learners sometimes confuse 警官 (keikan, police officer) with 警察 (keisatsu, the police as an institution or force). 警察に電話する means “to call the police (the organization)”; 警官が来た means “a police officer came (a person).” Use 警察 when talking about the institution and 警官 when referring to an individual officer. For the most formal or official usage — such as on a résumé or in legal documents — 警察官 (keisatsukan) is preferred.
警 (kei) means “to warn” or “to be on guard” — it combines 言 (speech/words) with 敬 (respect/reverence), suggesting attentive vigilance. 官 (kan) means “official” or “government officer.” Together they form the idea of an official who is vigilant and on guard — the core of what a police officer is.
Everyday use
財布を落としたので、近くにいた警官に声をかけた。
Saifu wo otoshita node, chikaku ni ita keikan ni koe wo kaketa.
I dropped my wallet, so I called out to a nearby police officer.
Formal / Cultural context
現場には複数の警官が駆けつけた。
Genba ni wa fukusuu no keikan ga kaketsuketa.
Multiple police officers rushed to the scene.
Casual / Social Media
その警官、すごく親切に道を教えてくれたよ。
Sono keikan, sugoku shinsetsu ni michi wo oshiete kureta yo.
That officer was really kind and gave me directions.
Japan’s neighborhood police boxes, called 交番 (kouban), are a distinctive feature of the country’s policing model. Officers stationed at kouban are often the face of community policing — helping with directions, returning lost items, and maintaining a local presence. The approachable image of these officers is captured in the term お巡りさん (omawarisan), which carries a warm, community-oriented tone that 警官 on its own does not.
Japan consistently ranks among the countries with the lowest crime rates, and the role of 警官 in popular culture often reflects this — police in Japanese fiction frequently appear as diligent, thorough investigators rather than action-heavy protagonists. The detective genre (刑事ドラマ, keiji dorama) is one of the most popular TV formats in Japan, and 警官 and 刑事 (keiji, detective) are household vocabulary as a result.