Confirming
確認させてください。
Kakunin sasete kudasai.
Please let me confirm.
Work Japanese
Japanese for interviews, offices, customers, email, and trust at work.
Work Japanese is different from textbook Japanese. It is careful, polite, clear, and practical. Nihongo.co.jp helps learners prepare the Japanese needed for interviews, job duties, meetings, phone calls, customer-facing work, and professional life in Japan.
This page teaches practical language. It is not employment, labor, or immigration legal advice. Always confirm requirements with your employer, school, immigration professional, or official sources.
Work principle: In Japan, language is not only information. It is respect, timing, responsibility, and trust.
Start here
Work Japanese begins with safe phrases.
The first goal is not sounding clever. The first goal is sounding careful. These phrases are useful because they buy time, show respect, reduce mistakes, and help you function in a Japanese workplace.
Understanding
承知しました。
Shōchi shimashita.
Understood.
Waiting
少々お待ちください。
Shōshō omachi kudasai.
Please wait a moment.
Apology
申し訳ございません。
Mōshiwake gozaimasen.
I sincerely apologize.
Follow-up
確認後、改めてご連絡いたします。
Kakunin-go, aratamete gorenraku itashimasu.
After confirming, I will contact you again.
Request
ご確認をお願いいたします。
Gokakunin o onegai itashimasu.
Please confirm.
Choose your workplace situation
What kind of work Japanese do you need first?
01
Interview Japanese
Self-introduction, work history, strengths, visa-fit explanation, and polite answers.
02
Email Japanese
Subject lines, greetings, requests, apologies, confirmations, attachments, and follow-ups.
03
Meeting Japanese
Opening, reporting, asking questions, agreeing, disagreeing carefully, and summarizing.
04
Customer Japanese
Reception, service, sales, support, complaints, explanations, and polite problem solving.
Interview readiness
Can you explain your work in Japanese?
For work, visa, and employer trust, one of the most important skills is explaining your actual duties. A certificate helps, but the interview asks a more direct question: can you describe what you do in clean Japanese?
主な業務は、顧客対応と資料作成です。
Omo na gyōmu wa, kokyaku taiō to shiryō sakusei desu.
My main duties are customer support and preparing documents.
This sentence is simple, but very powerful. It connects language, job description, interview confidence, and visa/job credibility.
The hidden rule
Work Japanese is not only vocabulary. It is social safety.
A workplace is full of small risks: misunderstanding a deadline, sounding too casual, forgetting to confirm, failing to apologize, speaking too directly, or not reporting a problem early enough. Good work Japanese protects the learner and the company.
That is why Nihongo.co.jp teaches work Japanese as a set of habits: confirm, report, ask, apologize, follow up, and speak with the correct distance. This is how language becomes trust.
Core workplace skills
Every worker needs these six language habits.
Confirm
Confirmation prevents mistakes and shows responsibility. In Japan, careful confirmation is professional, not weak.
- 確認します
- 確認させてください
- 念のため確認します
Report
Reporting early is essential. Silence can make a small issue look like irresponsibility.
- ご報告いたします
- 現在の状況です
- 進捗を共有します
Request
Workplace requests should be polite, specific, and easy for the other person to answer.
- お願いいたします
- ご確認ください
- ご対応いただけますか
Apologize
Apology language is not just guilt. It shows awareness of inconvenience and respect for the other person’s time.
- 申し訳ございません
- 失礼いたしました
- ご迷惑をおかけしました
Workplace phrase bank
Short phrases that make you sound safer at work.
These are not advanced sentences, but they are high-value. Learn them early. They help you sound polite, careful, and ready to work with Japanese colleagues and customers.
Opening an email
お世話になっております。
Osewa ni natte orimasu.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sending information
資料をお送りいたします。
Shiryō o ookuri itashimasu.
I am sending the materials.
Asking for time
少しお時間をいただけますか。
Sukoshi ojikan o itadakemasu ka.
May I have a little time?
Not understanding
もう一度ご説明いただけますか。
Mō ichido gosetsumei itadakemasu ka.
Could you please explain one more time?
Checking schedule
日程を確認いたします。
Nittei o kakunin itashimasu.
I will confirm the schedule.
Closing politely
よろしくお願いいたします。
Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu.
Thank you / I appreciate your support.
Level map
Work Japanese by JLPT level
JLPT is not a speaking test, but each level can still support workplace readiness. The key is connecting test study to real communication.
N5
Work survivalGreetings, names, numbers, times, dates, places, simple verbs, and basic self-introduction.
N4
Daily office basicsSimple instructions, schedules, requests, permissions, apologies, and short workplace exchanges.
N3
Practical bridgeReporting, explaining reasons, giving updates, reading short messages, and following common meetings.
N2
Professional targetInterviews, client conversations, business reading, faster listening, email tone, and serious work credibility.
Training plans
Pick a work-Japanese plan.
14-day interview prep
Best for: a coming interview or recruiter call.
- Daily self-introduction practice
- Work history in Japanese
- Job-duty explanation
- Common interview questions
- Polite closing phrases
- Mock interview aloud
90-day work readiness
Best for: learners preparing to work in Japan.
- Workplace phrase bank
- Email templates
- Meeting language
- Customer-support language
- Keigo foundations
- Weekly speaking practice
180-day N2 + work plan
Best for: N3 learners moving toward professional Japanese.
- N2 reading and grammar
- Business vocabulary
- Listening under pressure
- Email and reporting drills
- Interview answer bank
- Visa Japanese checklist
Keigo
Polite Japanese is not optional at work.
Keigo can feel difficult, but learners do not need to master everything on day one. Start with safe, reusable patterns. These patterns protect you while your Japanese grows.
丁寧語
Polite style: です, ます, しました, できます. This is the first workplace safety layer.
尊敬語
Respectful language used when speaking about customers, bosses, and other people’s actions.
謙譲語
Humble language used when speaking about your own actions in a professional or customer-facing setting.
FAQ
Work Japanese questions
Do I need perfect keigo before working in Japan?
No, but you need safe polite patterns. Start with です／ます, confirmation phrases, apology language, request language, and customer-safe expressions.
Is JLPT N2 enough for work Japanese?
N2 is a strong target, but work also requires speaking, email, phone calls, meetings, customer language, and job-specific vocabulary. JLPT helps, but it does not replace practice.
What should I learn first for interviews?
Learn a polite self-introduction, your work history, your main duties, why you want the job, and how to answer when you do not understand a question.
What is the most useful workplace phrase?
確認させてください — “Please let me confirm.” It is polite, safe, and useful in almost every workplace situation.
How does Work Japanese connect to visas?
If your job requires Japanese communication, your ability to explain duties, understand instructions, and communicate professionally can support the larger story that you are prepared to do the work in Japan.
The Nihongo.co.jp method
At work, Japanese becomes responsibility.
Work Japanese is not about showing off. It is about being trusted with time, tasks, customers, documents, schedules, apologies, and decisions. Learn the phrases. Practice the tone. Build the worker behind the certificate.