律儀な
richigi-na adj

律儀
richigi n

A friend of mine once asked ”What is Richigi in Ehglish?”.My answer was”nice”,which gave me a feeling that there had to be a better one.This was not wrong,but did not hit the mark either.

So I looked it up,and the answer is…

conscientious

According to some dictionaries and explanations on the net,I think this is the best one.

Words below are alternatives:

trustworthy
dutiful
honest
proper

Japanese richigi contains many meanings,for me,it seems to have all meanings above.

In Japanese,律儀な人 or a conscientious person,is almost 100% compliment.It has more positive connotaion than “good” or “nice”.

The reason why I put “almost” is that 律儀な rarely has implications like these:

gullible
foolishly honest
honest to a fault

But still, these words do not describe one’s character as evil.