Japanese for work
Introductions, meetings and e-mails: the polite set phrases a Japanese workplace runs on.
Why this field
Working with Japanese colleagues, clients or a Japanese company means meeting keigo, the system of honorific and humble language. It is the area learners fear most, and the one where a little goes a long way.
Much of everyday office Japanese is a fixed set of phrases. Learning them as whole units is faster than building them from the rules — and the rules are linked below for later.
Sentences to say aloud
The label says where a sentence belongs. The speaker next to it reads it aloud.
はじめまして、シュミットと申します。How do you do? My name is Schmidt.
よろしくお願いいたします。I look forward to working with you.
お疲れさまです。Hello. (greeting between colleagues)
少々お待ちください。One moment, please.
確認いたします。I will check.
会議は何時からですか。What time does the meeting start?
資料をお送りします。I will send you the documents.
申し訳ございません。I am very sorry.
明日までにやっておきます。I will have it done by tomorrow.
お先に失礼します。I’m off now — see you tomorrow.
What matters here
- Keigo has two directions: raising the other person (honorific, 尊敬語) and lowering yourself (humble, 謙譲語). 申します lowers yourself.
- お疲れさまです is the all-purpose greeting among colleagues, at any time of day.
- In e-mails and on the phone, polite phrases are expected even where English would be brief.
Try it yourself
Read the meaning, say the sentence aloud in Japanese, then open it to compare.
How do you do? My name is Schmidt.
はじめまして、シュミットと申します。
Hello. (greeting between colleagues)
お疲れさまです。
I will check.
確認いたします。
I will send you the documents.
資料をお送りします。
The grammar behind it
Word lists that go with it
More fields
Every sentence on this page was written for EveryLingua. There are no quotations from films, series, books or songs here, and no titles or names of artists — the page shows how people talk in this field, not what somebody once said.