A keigo checklist for Japanese business email

Business email is where most non-native writers of Japanese meet keigo (敬語, honorific language) in earnest, and where most of their mistakes are made. The errors are rarely dramatic. Usually the email is polite enough to do its job, and the reader understands it. But a doubled honorific or a humble verb pointed at the wrong person makes a message read as slightly off, and in a first contact with a client that impression sticks.

This checklist is for checking an email before it goes out, whether you wrote it or someone handed it to you. It works in the order I would read a draft: the address and opening, the verbs, the requests, the closing. Each point is marked as either a rule (a form most guides and careful readers treat as wrong) or a convention (a form some readers object to and others accept). The difference matters: you correct rules, and you choose conventions according to the reader.

A quick map of the forms

The guidance on honorifics published by the Council for Cultural Affairs in 2007 (敬語の指針, available from the Agency for Cultural Affairs) divides keigo into five types. You do not need the terminology to write a good email, but it helps when you explain a correction.

Nearly every keigo error in email comes from one of two things: using a respectful form for your own action (or a humble form for theirs), or stacking two forms of the same kind on one verb.

1. The address line

Rule. Use 御中 (onchū) for an organisation or department, and 様 (sama) for a named person. Do not use both: 株式会社〇〇 御中 〇〇様 is wrong; write 株式会社〇〇 営業部 〇〇様.

Rule. 各位 (kakui, "everyone") already carries respect. 各位様 and お客様各位様 double it. Write 関係者各位 or お客様各位.

Convention. A title plus 様 (部長様) is widely treated as doubled, because a title like 部長 already shows respect. The safe forms are 〇〇部長 or 部長 〇〇様 (title before the name, 様 after). Some companies use 〇〇部長様 in their own correspondence, so if a client writes to you that way, follow their lead in replies.

2. The opening

Convention, but a strong one. External email normally opens with お世話になっております (osewa ni natte orimasu) after the address and before your name: 「いつもお世話になっております。株式会社〇〇の田中です。」 Internal email often uses お疲れ様です instead. Leaving the opening out entirely is not an error, but it reads as abrupt in most offices.

For a first contact, お世話になっております is a little odd, since there has been no previous dealing. Common choices: 突然のご連絡失礼いたします, or 初めてご連絡いたします followed by how you got the address.

Check that your own name comes with your company: 〇〇の田中です or 〇〇の田中と申します. Never put 様 or さん on your own name or your own company.

3. Double keigo (二重敬語)

Rule, with exceptions. Double keigo means applying two respectful (or two humble) operations to the same verb. The classic cases:

The 2007 guidance itself notes that a few double forms have settled through custom and are generally accepted, お召し上がりになる and お見えになる among them. So do not over-correct those two. But the pattern "special respectful verb plus られる" is worth catching every time.

Convention, and disputed. 拝見させていただく combines the humble 拝見 (haiken, "look at") with させていただく, which is itself a humble-and-grateful construction. Many guides list it as double keigo and prefer 拝見しました or 拝見いたしました. Others argue it is not strictly double, because させていただく has its own meaning of acting with the other person's permission. Either way, 拝見しました is shorter, clearly correct, and loses nothing. Suggest it.

The same applies to 伺わせていただきます (伺う is already humble): 伺います is enough.

4. Respectful and humble mix-ups

Rule. The subject of the verb decides the form. Their action takes a respectful form; your action, or your company's, takes a humble one.

Two patterns that look alike cause most of the trouble:

• ご〜になる / お〜になる is respectful. Use it for the other person: ご利用になる, お読みになる.
• ご〜する / お〜する is humble. Use it for yourself: ご案内する, お送りする.

So:

A related point: 参られる (for "you will come") mixes the humble 参る with the respectful られる. Write いらっしゃる or お越しになる.

Commonly flagged. ご〜される (ご確認される, ご利用される) adds the respectful れる to the humble ご〜する. Many readers accept it in speech, but in writing ご確認になる, 確認される, or a request form like ご確認ください is safer.

5. いただく and くださる

Both are correct, and choosing between them is about viewpoint, not politeness.

• 〜ていただく (te itadaku) is humble: you receive the favour. 「資料をお送りいただき、ありがとうございます」
• 〜てくださる (te kudasaru) is respectful: they give it. 「資料をお送りくださり、ありがとうございます」

Both thank the reader for sending the documents. In requests, 〜ていただけますか and 〜てくださいますか are both fine; the いただく version is very common in business email.

Rule. Watch the noun forms. ご来場していただき mixes the humble ご〜する into いただく. Write ご来場いただき. The same goes for ご参加していただく → ご参加いただく and ご理解してください → ご理解ください.

6. させていただく overuse

Convention, but widely discussed. The 2007 guidance explains させていただく as fitting when you act with the other person's permission and receive a benefit from it, for example 「本日休業させていただきます」 from a shop that asks its customers' understanding. Outside that, it tends to pile up:

本日の会議の資料を送付させていただきます。ご確認させていただいた上で、修正させていただきます。

Three in two sentences reads as nervous rather than polite. A cleaner version:

本日の会議の資料をお送りいたします。内容を確認のうえ、修正いたします。

いたします is the plain humble form of します and does most of the work without the permission nuance. Keep one させていただく where the permission idea is real (ご連絡させていただきました after the client asked you to get in touch is reasonable).

Also check godan verbs for the sa-ire form, an extra さ before せていただく: 送らさせていただく should be 送らせていただく. Our piece on ra-nuki kotoba and other usage shifts explains where the extra さ comes from.

7. Words that some readers dislike

These are not grammar errors. They are words that a noticeable number of readers object to in business email, and that you can usually avoid at no cost.

Convention, disputed. 了解しました (ryōkai shimashita, "understood"). Business manners books often say it is too casual or even rude toward a superior or client, and recommend 承知しました (shōchi shimashita) or かしこまりました. Dictionaries do not mark 了解 as impolite, and many people use 了解しました with colleagues without a problem. The "rule" is mostly a manners convention. But since some recipients believe it, 承知しました is the safer choice for anyone outside your team.

Convention. ご苦労様です to someone above you. Many guides treat ご苦労様 as something a superior says to a junior, and recommend お疲れ様です upward. This too is contested, and お疲れ様 has its own critics in external mail. In external email you rarely need either.

Convention. 御社 and 貴社 both mean "your company". 御社 is the spoken form and 貴社 the traditional written one. Many guides say to use 貴社 in email; in practice 御社 is very common in email too. Pick one and use it consistently. Your own company is 弊社 or 当社.

Convention. 参考になりました ("that was useful as a reference") can sound as if you are grading the other person's input. 勉強になりました or 大変ありがたく存じます are safer toward seniors.

Commonly flagged. よろしかったでしょうか (past tense where present is meant) and 〜のほう as a filler (資料のほうをお送りします) are typical of spoken service language. In email, write よろしいでしょうか and 資料をお送りします.

8. The closing

Convention. The standard closing is よろしくお願いいたします, or the more formal 何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます. Something in this position is expected; an email that just stops reads as cut off.

Convention. 取り急ぎご連絡まで ("just a quick note") is common, but some readers find it curt toward clients and seniors. 取り急ぎご連絡申し上げます is softer.

Check the signature: company name, department, your name, and the contact details your company normally gives. Your own name never takes 様.

Running the check

A practical order for a draft, which takes a few minutes once it is a habit:

1. Read the address line and the first two lines only. Fix 御中/様, titles and the opening.
2. Find every verb that refers to the reader or their company. Each should be respectful, not humble.
3. Find every verb that refers to you or your company. Each should be humble or plainly polite, never respectful.
4. Search for られ, させていただ, ご〜して and される. These strings catch most double keigo and mix-ups.
5. Read the closing and signature.
6. Run the text through the checker on the front page for the mechanical issues: doubled particles, mixed desu/masu and da/de aru endings, half-width katakana. The legend of issue types explains each flag. The checker does not judge honorific level, so steps 2 and 3 are still yours.

Questions readers ask

Is more keigo always safer?

No. Stacked honorifics read as unnatural and sometimes as sarcastic. A clear email at the right level, with one correct respectful or humble form per verb, is better than one where every verb carries two.

Do Japanese native speakers make these mistakes too?

Yes, regularly. That is part of why so many business manners books cover keigo, and why some of the conventions above are disputed. Do not assume a form is correct because you have seen it in a Japanese colleague's email.

Should I correct a client's keigo in their own email if I am asked to proofread it?

Correct the clear rule breaks (御中 with 様, humble verbs for the reader's actions). For conventions like 了解しました or 御社 in writing, add a short query and let the writer decide. They know their reader better than you do.

Is です/ます enough for an internal email?

Often, yes, for colleagues at the same level. Add humble forms for your own actions and respectful forms for a manager's, and keep the opening and closing. Internal tone varies a lot between companies, so match what you see around you.