I’ve been asked by a lot of my friends on when to use "san", "chan", "kun" and a lot more. There are 6 honorifics that I know but I have searched more about it. Here are the Japanese honorifics:
San is mostly the one being used more often. San can be used in both male and female names. It’s not only used to respectfully addressing someone but it can also be used in nouns that are describing the addresses other than the person’s name such as a bookseller that might actually become “honya-san” (Honya for book).
Kun is commonly used for males. As far as I have observed, Kun is used when the person is younger than the one who’s calling him. So a senior addressing a junior uses Kun for that.
If Kun is used for male names then there’s also for females esp. children, it is called Chan. Sometimes Chan can be used as a term of sweet nothing to women whom they are close with.
Senpai, on the other hand, is used for seniors or people who are much older than you.
Sensei is of course, commonly used to refer teachers but can also be used in other professions such as doctors and lawyers. They say, it is used to show some respect to those who have achieved something in certain mastery.
Sama is the formal term of san. It is mostly used in referring persons with much higher rank than oneself. Also, Sama is used for referring God; Kami-sama.
There are more Japanese honorifics but I’ll just share this 6 honorifics. I hope everyone just learned something new today.
Ja matta ashita~