How to Write a Letter in Japanese: Structure, Openings and Politeness

A formal Japanese letter has four parts: an opening (a set opening word, a line about the season and a wish for the reader’s health), the main message, a closing (good wishes and a set closing word), and the date, your name and the recipient’s name at the end. The opening and closing words come in pairs, such as 拝啓 (haikei) and 敬具 (keigu). How formal each part should be depends on who you are writing to, which is why a letter to a host, a teacher and a professor will read quite differently even when all three say thank you.

The four parts of a Japanese letter

Opening (前文, zenbun). An opening word, a seasonal greeting, a line hoping the reader is well, and often thanks for past kindness.
Main text (主文, shubun). Usually introduced with さて、 (“now”), then what you want to say.
Closing (末文, matsubun). A wish for the reader’s health or future, then the closing word that pairs with your opening word.
Sign-off (後付け, atozuke). The date, your name, and the recipient’s name with 様 (sama) or 先生 (sensei).

Opening and closing words

The opening word and the closing word have to match:

拝啓 … 敬具 (haikei … keigu): the standard pair for most polite letters.
謹啓 … 謹白 (kinkei … kinpaku): more formal, for someone you deeply respect or a very formal occasion.
前略 … 草々 (zenryaku … sōsō): “skipping the preliminaries”, for quick notes to people close to you. Not for a teacher or someone senior.

Letters between family and close friends often drop these words altogether and begin with something warmer. Condolence and get-well letters follow different rules again: see writing a Japanese condolence letter and get-well letters in Japanese.

The seasonal greeting

Most polite letters open with a line about the season, such as “The cherry blossoms have started to fall” in April or “The summer heat continues” in August. It shows the writer took time over the letter. Formal letters use set phrases; warmer letters describe the season in the writer’s own words. Our guide to seasonal greetings for letters lists them month by month.

Politeness depends on the reader

The same thank-you changes with the reader’s age, status and relationship to you:

A host or a friend’s family: polite です・ます Japanese, warm and personal, sometimes without 拝啓.
A teacher or an elderly master of a craft: respectful language (keigo), with care not to sound stiff or cold.
A professor or someone you met only briefly: formal, short and precise, with humble language about yourself.

Getting this balance right is the hardest part, and it is where machine translation and AI tools most often go wrong. They tend to pick one level of politeness and apply it everywhere, mix levels within a letter, or produce stock phrases that read like a template. A native Japanese writer can tell when a sentence is too formal for a host family or too casual for a professor.

Vertical or horizontal?

Formal and traditional letters are usually written vertically (縦書き), from top to bottom and right to left. Horizontal writing is fine for friends, younger readers and Western-style stationery. If you’re writing to an older person or a teacher, vertical writing is the safer choice. See handwriting a Japanese letter for practical tips.

Small things that matter

Use the recipient’s full name with 様, or 先生 for a teacher, doctor or professor. Never both together.
Keep it to what you can say sincerely. A short, specific letter is better than a long, generic one.
Mention concrete things: a meal, a lesson, a place you visited together.
Address the envelope correctly. See how to address an envelope to Japan.

How Hanabuddies can help

Our native Japanese team writes and translates personal and formal letters, with the right tone for the person reading them. Tell us who the letter is for, how you know them and what you want to say, and we’ll write it in natural Japanese with an English version so you know exactly what it says. If you’d like to learn to write letters yourself, our tutors can teach you in one-to-one lessons. See also translating letters to and from Japanese.