親戚
しんせき
shinseki
= relative(s); extended family outside one’s own household
Shinseki is the word for the relatives you are related to but do not live with — the aunts, uncles and cousins who appear at gatherings.
Shinseki covers extended relatives beyond the immediate household: the people you are related to by blood or marriage but do not share a roof with. Learners often mix it up with two nearby words. Kazoku (家族) is one’s immediate family — the people in the same household. Shinseki is the wider circle beyond that. Shinrui (親類) is a near-synonym that is interchangeable with shinseki in most everyday contexts, though it sounds slightly more casual and old-fashioned. The genuinely formal word for relatives taken as a group is shinzoku (親族), which is also the legal term. Common collocations include shinseki ga atsumaru (親戚が集まる, relatives gather), shinseki ni au (親戚に会う, to see relatives), and tooi shinseki (遠い親戚, a distant relative).
Shinseki is a noun that usually refers to relatives collectively or to an unspecified individual relative, and Japanese often leaves the exact relationship unstated unless it actually matters. Where English says “my cousin” or “my uncle,” Japanese speakers frequently just say shinseki and let context fill in the rest. When the specific relationship does matter, Japanese uses separate words built independently of shinseki, such as oji (uncle), oba (aunt), and itoko (cousin).
Everyday use
今週末、親戚が家に遊びに来ます。
Konshuumatsu, shinseki ga ie ni asobi ni kimasu.
This weekend, relatives are coming to visit our house.
Casual / Social Media
お盆で親戚に会うたびに、仕事のことばっかり聞かれる…笑
Obon de shinseki ni au tabi ni, shigoto no koto bakkari kikareru… warai
Every time I see relatives at Obon, all they ask about is work… lol
Formal / Cultural context
親戚の法事がございますので、来週の会議は欠席させていただきます。
Shinseki no houji ga gozaimasu node, raishuu no kaigi wa kesseki sasete itadakimasu.
I will be absent from next week’s meeting due to a memorial service for a relative.
The two moments when shinseki comes up most in everyday life are New Year and Obon. New Year brings relatives together for the first visit of the year, and Obon in summer is the time families travel back to see relatives and visit ancestral graves together. Outside of these two seasons, many people go months without seeing their wider circle of shinseki at all.
Keeping up with relatives is treated as an active social duty, known as 親戚づきあい (shinseki zukiai). It covers things like sending New Year’s greeting cards, attending weddings and funerals, and showing up to family gatherings even when it takes effort — the kind of relationship that has to be maintained rather than one that simply exists on its own.
Relatives at these gatherings have a reputation for asking the same handful of questions — how work is going, whether marriage plans are in the works, what comes next — often to people who would rather not discuss it. That reputation is exactly why shinseki can carry a faintly weary tone in casual speech, even though the word itself is entirely neutral.