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According to
[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics#Sensei_and_hakase),
博士 (hakase) is used as honorific when addressing some academics:

> Sensei (先生、せんせい) [...] is used to refer to or address teachers, doctors,
> politicians, lawyers. [...] The term is not generally used when addressing a
> person with very high academic expertise the one used instead is hakase (博士,
> lit. "Doctor" or "PhD").

However, this really does not match my experience from when I was in Japan. I
never heard anybody refer to a person holding a PhD as 博士, especially not for
professors where 先生 was always used. That said, maybe this was owing to the
more international setting I was in.

I'm wondering in which settings 博士 is actually used as a honorific, if at all,
or if the information on Wikipedia is simply outdated or incorrect.
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2020-10-26T12:31:40.527
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2020-10-26T13:55:00.690
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question
politeness honorifics
When is 博士 (hakase) used as honorific?
Your observation is correct. In real life, people almost always use ○○先生 or
○○さん rather than ○○博士. Calling someone ○○博士 or 博士 is something we see in
fiction (e.g.,
[オーキド博士](https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Professor_Oak_\(anime\)) in Pokémon)
and educational TV programs. ○○教授 is sometimes used in real academic fields.

  * [博士号を持つ人を、本当に「博士」と呼びますか？](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14121108639)
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