Business Japanese Lessons: What You Learn and How to Choose a Course
Everyday Japanese and business Japanese overlap, but they are not the same skill. You can chat comfortably with friends and still freeze when a client calls, an email needs the right level of politeness, or a meeting moves faster than you can follow. Business Japanese lessons close that gap. Here is what they cover, who they suit, and how to choose a course that fits your job.
What business Japanese actually means
Business Japanese is less about special vocabulary and more about using the right register in the right situation. It includes:
- Keigo: respectful and humble language for clients, senior colleagues and outside companies. See our keigo basics.
- Set phrases: the expressions that open and close emails, calls and meetings, which Japanese colleagues use without thinking.
- Reading the situation: knowing when to be direct, when to soften a request and how to say no without saying no.
- Industry vocabulary: the terms of your own field, from finance to engineering to hospitality.
What a course usually covers
| Skill | What you practise |
|---|---|
| Emails | Structure, greetings and closings, requests, apologies and follow-ups. See business emails in Japanese. |
| Phone calls | Answering, taking messages and handling calls when the person is out. See phone calls at work. |
| Meetings | Giving opinions politely, agreeing and disagreeing, summarising and confirming next steps. |
| Presentations | Structure, signposting and answering questions. See giving a presentation in Japanese. |
| Chat and internal messages | The lighter but still polite tone of Slack and Teams. See chat messages at work. |
| Interviews | Self-introduction, common questions and manners for job interviews in Japanese. |
Who business Japanese lessons are for
- Professionals working in Japan who can get by in daily life but feel unsure at work.
- Job seekers preparing for interviews and their first weeks at a Japanese company.
- People outside Japan who work with Japanese clients, partners or a Japanese head office.
- JLPT N2 or N1 holders who passed the exam but find real workplace Japanese faster and more nuanced.
What level do you need to start?
Most business Japanese courses work best from around JLPT N4 or N3, when you can already make and understand everyday sentences. Below that, it is usually faster to build general Japanese first. That said, you can start learning a handful of essential workplace phrases at any level, such as greetings, お疲れさまです (otsukaresama desu) and よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegai shimasu). A good tutor can mix the two from the start.
Why one-to-one works well for business Japanese
Every job uses Japanese differently. A software engineer, a sales manager and a hotel supervisor need different vocabulary, different situations and different levels of formality. Private lessons let you work on your own material: the email you need to send tomorrow, the presentation next week, the call you found hard yesterday. That makes each lesson immediately useful, which is also what keeps busy professionals coming back.
Group courses can work well for teams, especially for shared basics. See our guide to Japanese training for employees.
How to choose a business Japanese tutor
- Real workplace experience. A tutor who has worked in a Japanese company can explain not just the words, but what is expected.
- Focus on your situations. Ask whether lessons can use your own emails, documents and scenarios (with confidential details removed).
- Role play. The best practice for calls, meetings and interviews is doing them, with feedback.
- Honest correction. Japanese colleagues rarely correct your keigo. A tutor should.
If you are building a career in Japan, see also our guides to Japanese workplace culture and finding a job in Japan.