Japanese pronouns

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Japanese pronouns are words in the Japanese language used to address or refer to present people or things, where present means people or things that can be pointed at. The position of things (far away, nearby) and their role in the current interaction (goods, addresser, addressee, bystander) are features of the meaning of those words. The use of pronouns, especially when referring to oneself and speaking in the first person, vary between gender, formality, dialect and region where Japanese is spoken.

In modern Japanese grammar, pronouns are not a distinct part of speech, but a subclass of nouns, and they behave grammatically just like nouns. Certain faux-archaic pronouns may still retain their grammaticality (distinct from nouns) from Old Japanese, such as 我 (ware), with the genitive form 我が (wa-ga).