あ Learn Japanese Online Hub

Business Japanese · Day 1 of 20

The office day, hour by hour

The greetings that run a Japanese workplace

A Japanese working day is held together by about six fixed phrases. None of them is difficult and none of them translates cleanly, which is why foreign staff often go months saying almost right things. Learn these properly on day one and you will sound like someone who has worked in an office in Japan rather than someone who has studied Japanese.

The six that run the day

In roughly the order you will need them:

ohayō gozaimasu.
Good morning.
The office hello, and in many workplaces it is used all day, whatever the hour. Broadcasting, hospitality and shift work all do this.
otsukaresama desu.
Hello / thanks / well done.
The all purpose in-house greeting. Say it passing someone in a corridor, starting a call to a colleague, or thanking them for anything.
yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Thanks in advance.
Ends almost any request, email or handover. It is not optional politeness, it is the closing of the transaction.
osaki ni shitsurei shimasu.
Excuse me for leaving first.
What you say when you go home while others are still working, which will be most days.
otsukaresama deshita.
Thanks, good work today.
The reply to the above, and the standard sign-off at the end of a shift.
shitsurei shimasu.
Excuse me.
Entering a room, leaving a room, ending a phone call. The workhorse.
Why it works

おつかれさま has no English equivalent because it is not really a greeting: it acknowledges that the other person has been working. That is why it covers hello, thanks, goodbye and well done at once, and why it feels strange to translate. Stop looking for the English and learn the situations instead.

Correct Japanese, wrong office

Three sentences that are textbook perfect and land badly at work:

Greeting a colleague in the corridor at two in the afternoon
Not this
konnichiwa.
This
otsukaresama desu.
こんにちは is for people from outside. Used on a colleague it makes you sound like a visitor to your own office.
Thanking your manager for handling something
Not this
gokurōsama desu.
This
otsukaresama desu.
ごくろうさま travels downwards only, from a superior to a subordinate. Said to your boss it is close to patting them on the head.
Leaving the office at the end of the day
Not this
sayōnara.
This
osaki ni shitsurei shimasu.
さようなら carries a note of finality. To Japanese ears at five in the afternoon it can sound as though you are not coming back.
Why it works

None of these is a grammar mistake, which is exactly the problem: nobody will correct you, because there is nothing to correct. Business Japanese goes wrong at the level of register and situation, not syntax, and that is what most of this course is about.

Arriving, and leaving

Two exchanges you will have every working day:

You
ohayō gozaimasu.
Good morning.
Colleague
ohayō gozaimasu. kyō wa hayai desu ne.
Morning. You're early today.
ね invites agreement, as on day 20 of the daily course.
You
ē, ku-ji kara kaigi ga aru node.
Yes, I've got a meeting from nine.
ので, and then nothing. The reason is the whole answer.
You
osaki ni shitsurei shimasu.
I'm off, excuse me for leaving first.
Said to the room, not to one person.
Colleague
otsukaresama deshita.
Thanks, good work.
The fixed reply. Nobody varies it.
Why it works

Look at how little is actually said. Office Japanese at this level is not composed, it is selected, and the skill is speed rather than range. If these come out without thinking, you will be read as competent long before your grammar deserves it.

Carry over, from earlier days

yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Thanks in advance.
shitsurei shimasu.
Excuse me.
ku-ji kara kaigi ga aru node.
I've got a meeting from nine, so…

Check yourself

8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.