Sensei

Sensei is a generic term for "master", "teacher" or "doctor". It can be used to refer to any authority figure, such as schoolteacher, professor, priest, lawyer, or politician. It can be used on both genders.

Sensei is most commonly used in a school for a teacher, by both students and teachers, and is considered a more friendly term than calling him or her by the family name plus sensei (as an honorific). A male teacher Isawa Tanaka would initially be called "Tanaka-sensei" by his students and after a while, students switch to simply "Sensei" if that is what Tanaka-sensei would like to be called. Fellow teachers may call each other sensei after becoming familiar, but when they consider each other friends, they usually start calling each other by the family name alone, the first name, or by a nickname.

Sensei of martial arts usually live and/or work at a dojo, where they teach their skills to their apprentices.