What Does Kanpai Mean?

Kanpai!

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If you visit Japan, you’ll no doubt see a group of people raising their beer or alcoholic beverages and hear them say, “Kanpai!”.   Kanpai is a popular Japanese expression that is equivalent to “Cheers!” and is used before you start drinking.

Please note that kanpai is commonly misspelled as kampai.  You can view my blog post on the Japanese alphabet to learn more about the letter n before a p.