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Kanji for Friendship
The kanji most commonly used for "Friendship" are 友、朋、誼.
友
Kanji that mean Friendship
友 (tomo / yū) is the friend — and the character is two hands joined, cooperation drawn in four strokes. 友達 (tomodachi) is the everyday word for friend; 友情 (yūjō) is friendship itself, friend plus feeling; 親友 is a close friend, the one you count on a hand.
朋 (hō) is the classical companion — two moons side by side. It survives mostly in 朋友 (comrades, an old and slightly Confucian word for friends) and in given names like Tomomi (朋美). Confucius opens the Analects with it: “Is it not a joy when a 朋 comes from afar?”
誼 (gi / yoshimi) is the bond of friendship as an obligation kept — old ties honoured: 友誼 is amity between friends or nations. And 絆 (kizuna) — originally the tether that holds animals — has become modern Japan’s favourite word for human bonds, the one chosen to name the spirit of recovery after 2011.
Words using Friendship kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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友人
ゆうじん
friend
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友好
ゆうこう
friendship
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友達
ともだち
friend; companion
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友情
ゆうじょう
friendship; fellowship; camaraderie
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友愛
ゆうあい
fraternity; friendship
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血友病
けつゆうびょう
hemophilia; haemophilia
Before you use Friendship kanji
友 is warm, simple and unmistakable — two hands joined. 友情 spells out friendship in full. The deeper cut is 絆 (kizuna), the bond — beloved in Japan and often chosen by friends getting matching tattoos. 朋 reads classical and bookish; 誼 will send most readers to a dictionary.