Your Japanese Business Email Is Probably Offending Someone. Here's How to Fix It.
Share
Business Japan · Language Guide
6 Japanese Business Email Templates You Can Use Right Now
Copy-and-paste templates in Japanese — with English fill-in placeholders so you always know exactly what to change.
Business keigo
Want to master Business Japanese? ➞ Professional Training
Breaking into the Japanese market — or working with Japanese colleagues — means navigating a business culture where the right email can open doors, and the wrong one can quietly close them.
Japanese business emails follow very specific conventions: formal opening phrases, a clear structure, and a humble, respectful tone throughout. Getting these right signals professionalism and cultural awareness. Getting them wrong can come across as rude, even when the intention is perfectly polite.
The good news? You don't need to be fluent. These six templates give you the exact Japanese text for the most common business email situations, with [English placeholders in brackets] wherever you need to fill in your own details. Just swap in your information and send.
📋 Templates in This Post
💡 A Quick Note on Keigo These templates are written in keigo (敬語) — the formal register of Japanese used in business contexts. It's more than just "polite Japanese"; it's an entirely different set of vocabulary and grammar patterns that Japanese professionals expect in written communication. Using it correctly immediately signals that you take the relationship seriously.
How to Use These Templates
Every [bracket like this] is something you need to fill in before sending. Simply replace the bracketed text with your real information. Everything else in the email is ready to go.
- The email body stays in Japanese — don't translate it
- Replace all placeholders before sending
- Keep your subject line in Japanese too — it sets the right tone from the start
- The signature block (━━━ lines) is standard in Japanese business emails
01
Business Introduction / First Contact
初めてのご連絡 — Hajimete no go-renraku
件名：はじめてのご挨拶（[Your Company Name] [Your Name]） [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 突然のご連絡、誠に失礼いたします。 私、[Your Company Name]の[Your Name]と申します。 このたびは、弊社のご紹介と今後のお取引についてご相談できればと思い、 ご連絡差し上げました。 弊社は[Brief description of your company / service / product (1–2 sentences)]を行っております。 もしよろしければ、一度お時間をいただき、 詳しくご説明させていただければ幸いです。 ご多忙のところ恐縮ですが、何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- Always open with 突然のご連絡失礼いたします — it literally means "I apologize for this sudden contact," which is the expected opener for cold outreach.
- State your company name before your own name — this is the standard Japanese convention.
- Keep this email short. Long first-contact emails are considered inconsiderate of the recipient's time.
Click to copy plain text version
02
Meeting Request
打ち合わせのお願い — Uchi-awase no onegai
件名：打ち合わせのお願い（[Topic / Project Name]） [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 いつもお世話になっております。 [Your Company Name]の[Your Name]です。 [Topic / Discussion Item]について一度お打ち合わせをお願いできればと思い、 ご連絡いたしました。 つきましては、下記の日程でご都合はいかがでしょうか。 ・第一候補：[Date Option 1] [Time]〜 ・第二候補：[Date Option 2] [Time]〜 ・第三候補：[Date Option 3] [Time]〜 お打ち合わせは[Location / Zoom / Teams / Phone]を予定しており、 所要時間は約[Duration, e.g. 30 minutes]を予定しております。 上記以外でも、ご都合のよい日時がございましたら、 お気軽にお知らせください。 ご多忙のところ恐れ入りますが、 どうぞよろしくお願い申し上げます。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- Use いつもお世話になっております ("thank you for your continued support") when emailing someone you've worked with before. Use the first-contact opener for new recipients.
- Offering three date options is standard practice — it shows flexibility and puts the choice in their hands, which is considered respectful.
- Always state the expected duration. It signals that you value their time.
Click to copy plain text version
03
Apology / Delay Notification
お詫びのご連絡 — O-wabi no go-renraku
件名：[Subject of Issue]に関するお詫び [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 いつもお世話になっております。 [Your Company Name]の[Your Name]です。 このたびは、[Description of the problem / delay]につきまして、 多大なるご迷惑をおかけしてしまい、誠に申し訳ございません。 原因といたしましては、[Explanation of the cause]によるものでした。 弊社の管理が不行き届きであったと深く反省しております。 現在、[Corrective action being taken]を進めており、 [Expected resolution / delivery date]までに対応を完了する予定でございます。 また、再発防止策として、[Preventive measure going forward]を徹底してまいります。 重ね重ねお詫び申し上げますとともに、 何卒ご理解・ご容赦賜りますようお願い申し上げます。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- In Japanese business culture, a sincere and prompt apology is essential. Delaying it makes things significantly worse.
- Always give a specific resolution date — vague timelines ("as soon as possible") are considered disrespectful.
- For serious issues, call before sending this email. The email then serves as a written follow-up record.
- Including a 再発防止策 (prevention measure) shows accountability and genuine commitment to improvement.
Click to copy plain text version
04
Thank You / Follow-Up After Meeting
打ち合わせのお礼 — Uchi-awase no orei
件名：本日の打ち合わせのお礼 [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 本日はお忙しい中、お時間をいただきありがとうございました。 [Your Company Name]の[Your Name]です。 [Meeting Topic / Project Name]についてご意見をいただき、大変参考になりました。 本日確認いたしました内容を下記にまとめましたので、 ご確認のほどよろしくお願いいたします。 [Meeting Summary / Minutes] ・[Action Item 1] 担当：[Person Responsible] 期限：[Due Date] ・[Action Item 2] 担当：[Person Responsible] 期限：[Due Date] ・[Action Item 3] 担当：[Person Responsible] 期限：[Due Date] 内容に誤りがございましたら、お気軽にお知らせください。 引き続き、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- Send this within 24 hours of the meeting. In Japan, timing signals how seriously you take the relationship.
- The action item summary creates a written record of what was agreed — very important for accountability.
- Saying "please let me know if I've missed anything" signals humility and invites open correction.
Click to copy plain text version
05
Request for Documents / Information
資料・情報のご依頼 — Shiryō / jōhō no go-irai
件名：[Document Name / Information]のご送付のお願い [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 いつもお世話になっております。 [Your Company Name]の[Your Name]です。 突然のお願いで恐縮ですが、 [Document name / description of information needed]をご送付いただけますでしょうか。 [Reason: e.g. We plan to use this for a client proposal scheduled for next week.] お手数ですが、[Requested deadline]までにご対応いただけますと幸いです。 ご都合が難しい場合は、対応可能なお日にちをお知らせいただければ幸いです。 ご不明な点がございましたら、お気軽にご連絡ください。 お忙しいところ恐れ入りますが、 どうぞよろしくお願い申し上げます。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- Always provide a reason for your request — in Japanese business culture, context makes a request feel respectful rather than demanding.
- Phrasing the deadline as "if possible" (いただけますと幸いです) softens the request considerably.
- Offering to discuss an alternative timeline shows that you respect their workload.
Click to copy plain text version
06
End-of-Year / Seasonal Greeting
年末のご挨拶 — Nenmatsu no go-aisatsu
件名：年末のご挨拶（[Your Company Name] [Your Name]） [Recipient's Company Name] [Recipient's Department] [Recipient's Name]様 平素より格別のご高配を賜り、厚く御礼申し上げます。 [Your Company Name]の[Your Name]でございます。 早いもので今年も残りわずかとなりました。 本年も多大なるご支援とご協力をいただき、誠にありがとうございました。 [Brief reflection or highlight from this year, e.g.: おかげさまで[Project Name]を無事に完了することができました。] なお、弊社の年末年始の休業期間は下記のとおりでございます。 休業期間：[Start Date] ([Day])〜[End Date] ([Day]) 業務開始：[Reopening Date] ([Day])より通常営業 休業中にいただいたご連絡には、 [Reopening Date]以降に順次ご対応させていただきます。 来年も変わらぬご愛顧のほど、よろしくお願い申し上げます。 どうかよいお年をお迎えください。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Your Name] [Your Company Name] [Your Department] TEL：[Phone Number] Email：[Email Address] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Usage Notes
- The 年末挨拶 (year-end greeting) is a deeply ingrained Japanese business tradition — sending one to your key contacts is expected and greatly appreciated.
- Always specify your holiday closure dates. Partners and clients need to plan around them, and leaving this out is considered inconsiderate.
- The formal opening 平素より格別のご高配を賜り is a traditional expression of gratitude — leave it exactly as written.
- This template can also be adapted for the summer 暑中見舞い greeting sent in July or August.
Click to copy plain text version
Want to master Business Japanese? ➞ Professional Training
A Few Final Tips
Japanese business communication is built on a foundation of mutual respect and careful attention to the other person's experience. A few habits that will serve you well:
- Reply quickly. Response time is seen as a measure of respect. Even if you need more time, acknowledge receipt promptly.
- Don't skip the opener. Every template above starts with a standard greeting phrase. Jumping straight into the request without it feels abrupt in Japanese business culture.
- The signature block matters. The ━━━ separator and multi-line contact block is the standard format. Keeping it consistent across emails reinforces your professionalism.
- When in doubt, be more formal. In Japanese business, it's always safer to err on the side of more polite than less. You can loosen up once a relationship is established.
🛍️ Selling to Japanese Customers? If you're using these templates to reach Japanese buyers or retailers, make sure your store is set up to support JPY pricing, Japanese-language product pages, and local payment methods like Konbini and Pay-easy. First impressions in the inbox matter — but so does what they see when they click through.
Bookmark this page and come back whenever you need a reliable, keigo-correct email in a hurry. Good luck building your relationships in Japan — ご武運を！
Want to master Business Japanese? ➞ Professional Training
Japanese Business Email Templates · Copy & Paste Ready
All templates written in formal keigo (敬語) suitable for standard Japanese business correspondence.