Workplace Japanese: Your First Week at a Japanese Office

Your first week at a Japanese office is not a language test. Nobody expects you to follow a planning meeting at full speed or write flawless keigo emails. What your coworkers will quietly notice, though, is whether you handle the small rituals: the morning greeting, the leaving phrase, the soft apology before a question. These cost you maybe twenty phrases total, and they buy you more goodwill than a year of grammar study.

This guide gives you exactly those phrases, in the order you’ll need them, from the moment you walk in on Monday to the first email you have to decode.

The daily rhythm: three phrases that bookend everything

Japanese office life runs on greetings the way trains run on schedules. There are three you cannot skip.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
おはようございます	ohayō gozaimasu	Arriving in the morning, to everyone
お疲れ様です	otsukaresama desu	Passing coworkers, answering internal calls, almost any time
お先に失礼します	osaki ni shitsurei shimasu	Leaving before others

The morning greeting

おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) is non-negotiable. You say it as you walk in, to the room in general or to whoever you pass first, and people will say it back. In some industries (TV, restaurants, night-shift work) it’s even used in the afternoon as a “start of my workday” greeting. When in doubt in your first week, say it clearly and slightly louder than feels natural. A mumbled greeting reads as cold; an audible one reads as friendly, even with a strong accent.

The many lives of お疲れ様です

お疲れ様です (otsukaresama desu) is the Swiss Army knife of office Japanese. Literally it acknowledges someone’s tiredness from work, but in practice it means:

• “Hi” when you pass a coworker in the hallway after morning
• “Hello, it’s me” when you answer an internal phone call or start a Slack message
• “Good work today” when someone finishes a presentation
• “Bye” in response to someone leaving

You do not need to calculate which meaning applies. If a coworker says it to you, say it back. If you’re unsure what to say in any internal interaction after about 11 a.m., お疲れ様です is almost never wrong. The past-tense version, お疲れ様でした (otsukaresama deshita), is what you say to someone who is leaving for the day or has just finished something.

Announcing your own departure

Here’s the part that surprises most newcomers: in Japan, you announce that you’re leaving. Slipping out silently looks evasive, as if you’re sneaking off. The phrase is お先に失礼します (osaki ni shitsurei shimasu), literally “excuse me for leaving before you.”

It sounds apologetic in English, but it isn’t really an apology. It’s an acknowledgment that others are still working and that you’re stepping out of the shared effort first. Say it toward your team as you pack up, and you’ll hear お疲れ様でした in return. That exchange is the entire ritual. Two phrases, three seconds, done. We walk through the full leaving-the-office exchange with audio in this scenario lesson.

Your first day: the 自己紹介

At some point on day one, someone will gather the team and you’ll be asked to introduce yourself. This is the 自己紹介 (jiko shōkai), and shorter is better. Here is a template that works at any company:

はじめまして。ジョン・スミスと申します。カナダから来ました。今日からお世話になります。日本語はまだ勉強中ですが、頑張りますので、よろしくお願いします。

Hajimemashite. Jon Sumisu to mōshimasu. Kanada kara kimashita. Kyō kara osewa ni narimasu. Nihongo wa mada benkyō-chū desu ga, ganbarimasu node, yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

“Nice to meet you. My name is John Smith. I’m from Canada. Starting today, I’ll be in your care. My Japanese is still a work in progress, but I’ll do my best, so I look forward to working with you.”

Swap in your name and country, and you’re done. Two notes:

• と申します (to mōshimasu) is the humble “my name is.” It instantly signals that you know the register matters, which is most of the battle.
• よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegai shimasu) has no clean English translation. It’s a request for a good working relationship going forward, and it ends nearly every introduction, meeting, and email in Japan. End your 自己紹介 with it, bow slightly, and people will smile.

Practice it out loud a few times the night before. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s getting through it without reading from your phone.

Asking for help without sounding helpless

You will need help constantly in week one, and that’s expected. The trick is the on-ramp. In English you might just ask the question; in Japanese, you open with a small cushion first.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
すみません、ちょっといいですか	sumimasen, chotto ii desu ka	Interrupting someone at their desk
教えていただけますか	oshiete itadakemasu ka	Asking someone to show or teach you something
もう一度お願いします	mō ichido onegai shimasu	You didn’t catch what they said
わかりました	wakarimashita	Confirming you understood (neutral polite)
承知しました	shōchi shimashita	Confirming you understood (formal, to managers or clients)

すみません、ちょっといいですか (sumimasen, chotto ii desu ka), roughly “excuse me, do you have a second?”, is the universal interruption opener. Wait for the nod, then ask. 教えていただけますか (oshiete itadakemasu ka) means “could you teach/show me?” and is the polite way to ask for a walkthrough of anything: the printer, the expense system, where the good vending machine is.

When they finish explaining, confirm with わかりました (wakarimashita), “understood.” With your manager or in writing, 承知しました (shōchi shimashita) is the more formal equivalent; you’ll see it constantly in work chat. One thing to avoid: 了解 (ryōkai) on its own is casual, fine with peers, but a bit blunt upward. When in doubt, 承知しました is the safe choice. We drill the whole asking-for-help flow in this lesson.

Apologizing and softening: the art of the cushion

Japanese offices run on small, low-stakes apologies that don’t mean anyone did anything wrong. The key distinction:

• すみません (sumimasen) is the everyday “sorry / excuse me / thanks for the trouble.” Use it freely.
• 申し訳ありません (mōshiwake arimasen) is the serious one: a real mistake, a missed deadline, a client problem. It literally means “I have no excuse.”

If you use 申し訳ありません for bumping into someone at the copier, it sounds theatrical. If you use すみません for sending the wrong file to a client, it sounds flippant. Match the weight.

Then there are クッション言葉 (kusshon kotoba), “cushion words,” the little softeners that go before a request or bad news:

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
恐れ入りますが	osore irimasu ga	Very polite “sorry to trouble you, but…”
お忙しいところすみませんが	o-isogashii tokoro sumimasen ga	”Sorry to bother you when you’re busy, but…”
申し訳ないのですが	mōshiwake nai no desu ga	Softening a refusal or bad news

You don’t need to produce all of these in week one. Recognizing them matters more: when someone opens with 恐れ入りますが, they’re about to ask you for something, politely. This lesson on softening requests covers how these cushions change the feel of a sentence.

Meeting survival kit

In your first meetings, you mostly need to respond, not present. Three phrases carry you a long way:

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
大丈夫です	daijōbu desu	”That’s fine / no problem / I’m okay”
確認します	kakunin shimasu	”I’ll check and get back to you”
検討します	kentō shimasu	”We’ll consider it” (often a soft no)

確認します (kakunin shimasu) is your best friend. Asked something you don’t know? “I’ll confirm and follow up” is a fully professional answer, far better than guessing.

検討します (kentō shimasu) deserves a cultural footnote: it literally means “we’ll consider it,” and sometimes that’s true. But it’s also the standard polite way to decline without saying no. If a vendor hears 検討します and never gets a follow-up, that was the answer. Knowing this saves you from waiting on decisions that were already made. This meeting-survival lesson walks through a full meeting exchange, including how to read these soft signals.

And if all else fails in a meeting: nod, take notes, and confirm afterward with すみません、もう一度教えていただけますか. Asking twice beats pretending once.

The email words that keep appearing

Written Japanese at work is formulaic, which is good news: the same words appear again and again. Learn these and your inbox becomes much less mysterious.

Japanese	Romaji	Use when
お世話になっております	osewa ni natte orimasu	Standard opener in emails to other companies
添付	tenpu	”Attachment” (添付ファイル = attached file)
締め切り	shimekiri	”Deadline”
会議	kaigi	”Meeting”
お願いいたします	onegai itashimasu	Closing a request, extra formal

お世話になっております (osewa ni natte orimasu) opens nearly every external business email. It’s the written cousin of お疲れ様です; nobody translates it literally, everyone uses it. If 添付 (tenpu) appears, look for an attachment. If 締め切り (shimekiri) appears near a date, that date matters. And 会議 (kaigi) plus a time means a meeting invite is coming.

You don’t have to write these yet. Recognizing them on sight is the week-one win.

What to actually do this week

Pick five: おはようございます, お疲れ様です, お先に失礼します, すみません、ちょっといいですか, and よろしくお願いします. Say them every day, out loud, even imperfectly. They’re the handshake of Japanese office life, and using them tells your coworkers something no resume can: that you showed up ready to meet them halfway.

When you’re ready to make them automatic, run them through the phrase quiz a few times before Monday.