Nyctereutes procyonoides<\/em>), are tricksters in Japanese stories, and you can tell if one is on the other end of the phone if they don’t say moshi moshi back to you.<\/p>\nAnother explanation is that when the telephone was introduced to Japan in 1890 only rich people could afford it, and they said \u304a\u3044\u304a\u3044 (oi oi) when making calls. This means something like “Hey you!”, and people replied \u306f\u3044\u3001\u826f\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059 (Hai, y\u014d gozaimasu), which means roughly “Yes, I’m ready”. People thought this was too abrupt and started using \u7533\u3057\u4e0a\u3052\u307e\u3059 (m\u014dshiagemasu), which was shortened to \u7533\u3059\u7533\u3059 (m\u014dsu m\u014dsu) for male telephone operators, and \u7533\u3057\u7533\u3057 (m\u014dshi m\u014dshi) for females.<\/p>\n
In 1889 Shigenori Katougi (\u52a0\u85e4\u6728\u91cd\u6559), an electrician for the Ministry of Engineering, went to the USA to study their telephone system. He was asked how people answer the phone in Japan, and wasn’t sure how to explain the complexities involved, so just said that they use moshi moshi, which means hello. He brought the idea back to Japan, and it became the standard way by 1902.<\/p>\n
Moshi moshi is mainly used on the phone, but occasionally in other contexts. For example, if someone is spaced out and you want to get their attention you say moshi moshi.<\/p>\n
Here’s Tofugu’s video about this:<\/p>\n