{"id":3386,"date":"2014-04-04T17:10:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T17:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=3386"},"modified":"2014-06-06T16:20:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T16:20:14","slug":"how-to-write-business-emails-to-your-boss-in-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/how-to-write-business-emails-to-your-boss-in-japanese\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write business emails to your boss in Japanese?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is another version of writing business emails in Japanese. The other day, I talked about writing business emails to more of a partner company. In this article, I will cover a bit more variations, such as business emails to your boss.<\/p>\n

Writing emails to your boss:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The most important thing you have to remember when writing emails or talking to your boss is to use\u00a0honorific wording<\/strong>\u00a0& humble language <\/strong><\/em>to show respect towards him\/her since your boss will be someone who are in the higher position within an organization. Honorific speech or humble language is pretty complex. People in Japan use this everyday to someone who are older, \u00a0who you just met, school teachers, and doctors, etc, depending on their social status.<\/p>\n

Addressing or Referring to someone:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Many of you probably know that “~san(\u3055\u3093)” is often used for addressing or referring to people. For example, Yamada-san (\u5c71\u7530\u3055\u3093\u3001\u3084\u307e\u3060\u3055\u3093). In Japanese, we never call anyone by their first name or last name alone UNLESS you both are good friends. It is very rude to call someone by their first name or last name alone, if you don’t know the person well. \u00a0If you are not sure, always say “~ san(\u3055\u3093)””, then you can’t go wrong. However, in organizational environment, we often refer someone by their job title, for especially someone who are in higher ranking than yourself. For example, someone who is a director or chief in organization, they are often called not by their name+san(\u3055\u3093), but by their title itself.<\/p>\n

Style of writing to use for your boss:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When you are writing emails to your boss, the style of speech to use is “humble language”. In Japanese, it is called “Kenjougo, (\u8b19\u8b72\u8a9e\u3001\u3051\u3093\u3058\u3087\u3046\u3054)”. \u00a0Humble language is often used to talk about oneself or one’s own group (company, family) V.S. honorific language is mostly used when “describing” the interlocutor and their group.<\/p>\n

Examples of humble language:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For example, use the following verbs while talking to your boss:<\/p>\n