Work Life & Job Hunting · Business Basics Lab
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A document sent outside the company is made of parts with a fixed order and fixed pairings. We cover the skeleton you must not break: the pairing of opening and closing words, where the seasonal greeting goes, and the itemized block that sets out the substance as a list.
An external document runs from the top in this order: date of issue, addressee, sender's name, subject line, main text, itemized block, the word ijo (以上, that is all), and the contact details of the person handling it. Write the date on which the document was sent and put it at the top. It is a record that gives you the clue when you look the matter up later. The usual form is the addressee on the left and the sender's name on the right. Make the subject line a name that shows in one line what the document is about and what kind of document it is, as in "Invitation to the new product briefing." The Agency for Cultural Affairs' Principles for Drafting Official Documents likewise states that a title should show the subject and the character of the document, using words such as report, proposal, reply and holding of an event, and this thinking applies to the subject line of an external document just as it stands.
The main text starts with the opening word, tougo (頭語), continues with the preamble, the substance and the closing passage, and ends with the closing word, ketsugo (結語). The preamble is the seasonal greeting and words asking after the reader's well-being; the substance is the main business, opened with "sate" (now then); the closing passage is the parting greeting. Japan Post's Basic Knowledge of Letters likewise sets out the structure of opening word, preamble, main text, closing passage and the trailing block, and explains that the closing word is made to correspond to the opening word. Place the seasonal greeting at the entrance to the preamble and choose an expression that suits the season. If you use the same expression all year round, it stops being a seasonal greeting.
Opening and closing words are fixed in pairs. Japan Post's list gives, for haikei in an ordinary letter, keigu, keihaku and haigu; for kinkei in a formal letter, kinpaku, kingen and keihaku; for kyukei in an urgent letter, sosou and sousou; for haifuku in a reply, keigu and haito; and for the abbreviated zenryaku, sosou, sousou and fuitsu. Zenryaku is a declaration that "I omit the preamble," so writing zenryaku and then going on with a seasonal greeting contradicts itself. Once you have written an opening word you must close with the corresponding closing word; it cannot be omitted. Zenryaku is an abbreviated style, so it is not used for a formal letter of request to a first-time client or to a senior.
Information the reader will pick out and use, such as date and time, place, amount and number of copies, is not buried in the main text but put into the itemized block. After the closing word, write ki (記, note) in the center, list the items below it as bullet points, and close with ijo (以上) aligned to the right. Opening with ki and closing with ijo is a pair; you never have only one of them. If you are going to carry on in prose, there was no point in making an itemized block in the first place, so once you set one up, always make it a list.
| Situation | Opening word | Main closing words |
|---|---|---|
| An ordinary letter | haikei | keigu, keihaku, haigu |
| A formal letter | kinkei | kinpaku, kingen, keihaku |
| An urgent letter | kyukei | sosou, sousou, keigu |
| A reply | haifuku | keigu, haito |
| Abbreviated, omitting the preamble | zenryaku | sosou, sousou, fuitsu |
社外文書の並び1. 令和○年○月○日（右寄せ・発信日）2. 株式会社○○ 営業部 部長 山田一郎様（左寄せ）3. 株式会社△△ 総務部 田中花子（右寄せ）4. 新製品説明会開催のご案内（中央・件名）5. 拝啓 時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。（頭語と前文）6. さて、このたび弊社では……（主文）7. まずは略儀ながら書中をもってご案内申し上げます。 敬具（末文と結語）8. 記／日時・場所・持ち物を箇条書き／以上（右寄せ）
Sources and basis: Japan Post, Basic Knowledge of Letters: The basic format of a letter (checked August 2026)
For an internal document, the right answer is to cut the greetings and leave only the essentials. The honorific title in an address, on the other hand, cannot be cut. We firm up the use of sama, onchu, kakui and sensei, and the front of an envelope.
Internal documents, that is, notices, reports, ringisho (稟議書, circulated approval drafts), minutes and the like, are practical tools exchanged within the same organization. No seasonal greeting, no opening word, no closing word is needed. Arrange them in the order of subject line, conclusion, reasons and details, and keep the honorific language to about the desu / masu level. The more people read it, the faster and more accurately a short document gets through. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' Principles for Drafting Official Documents likewise lists keeping each sentence short and keeping one point per sentence. Putting the conclusion last piles up reading time in proportion to the number of readers.
The honorific title is decided by the kind of addressee. For an individual, sama (様); for an organization or department, onchu (御中); when sending the same document to several people, kakui (各位). The commonest error here is piling honorific titles on top of each other. Kakui is itself an honorific title equivalent to "everyone," so you do not write kakui-sama or kakui-dono. For people addressed as sensei (先生), such as doctors, teachers and lawyers, sensei works as the honorific title, so you do not write sensei-sama either. Japan Post likewise states that piling titles up when addressing a body or department, as in "Marumaru-ka onchu Yubin Taro-sama," is an error.
The case that is especially easy to get wrong is writing an organization name and a personal name side by side. Onchu is a side-notation meaning that the letter is addressed not to a specific person but to the people concerned inside that organization or institution, so if the personal name is known, it contradicts that. The Guidelines for Honorific Language also treat the form "Marumaru Chugakko Yamada Ichiro-sensei onchu" as inappropriate and state that "Marumaru Chugakko Yamada Ichiro-sensei" will do. One honorific title per addressee. Settle it as onchu when addressing an organization and sama when addressing an individual.
On the front of an envelope, do not abbreviate the company name to (kabu) but write the full formal name, Kabushiki-gaisha Marumaru. Whether kabushiki-gaisha comes before or after the name is part of the company's formal name itself, and not something the writer may swap round for readability. Writing the personal name in the center and slightly larger makes it easier to balance. Stick the stamp in the position that is the top left when the envelope is held portrait. Words showing the contents or how it should be handled are generally added at the bottom left of the front: shinten (親展) when you want the addressee to open it personally, or something like seikyusho zaichu (請求書在中, invoice enclosed) to show the kind of document. On the back, write the sender's address and name in slightly smaller characters than on the front.
| Addressee | Honorific title to attach | Form easily got wrong |
|---|---|---|
| An individual | sama | Piling titles up as "Marumaru-sama-dono" |
| An organization or department | onchu | Piling them up as "Marumaru-ka Onchu Yamada-sama" |
| Several recipients | kakui | Writing "kakui-sama" or "kakui-dono" |
| Doctors, teachers and the like | sensei | Writing "Yamada-sensei-sama" |
| A specific individual within an organization | The personal name and sama after the company and department name | Mixing them as "company name onchu, personal name sensei" |
封筒の表書きの手順1. 郵便番号は枠内に書く2. 会社名は「株式会社」と略さず正式名称で書く3. 部署名・役職名を書き、氏名は中央に大きめに書く4. 敬称は宛先ごとに一つだけ。個人なら様、組織なら御中5. 中身や扱いを示す語は表面の左下に書き添える6. 切手は、縦長にしたときの左上に貼る7. 裏面に差出人の住所と氏名を、表より小さめの字で書く
Sources and basis: Japan Post, Letter Tips: How to write the front and back of an envelope (checked August 2026)
Subject line, address fields, the shape of the body, replies, attachments. Almost every email accident happens at these five places, and every one of them can be prevented in the minute before you send.
The subject line is the name that gets your message chosen as "the one to open first" in a list of arriving mail. "Thank you for your continued business" or "A message" alone tells the reader nothing until they open it. When it lines up what the business is, what you want done and by when, as in "[Request] Reissue of the September invoice (by September 5)," the reader can decide priorities before opening. Piling on exclamation marks to hurry people adds nothing they can use to judge urgency. It is the same idea as the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Principles for Drafting Official Documents saying that a title should show the subject and the character of the document.
There are three address fields. TO is for the person you want to act or reply, CC for the person you want to be aware of the content, and BCC for when you do not want the recipients to see each other's addresses. Addresses put in TO and CC are visible to every recipient. This is where accidents happen: if you line up several other companies who do not know one another in TO or CC, you have handed clients' contact details to third parties. For a mass mailing, put them in BCC or send one at a time. Leaving TO empty does not solve it, since CC is just as visible.
The body runs in the order of address line, greeting and self-identification, the business, closing, and signature. For an external message, give the company name, department and personal name in full, as in "Kabushiki-gaisha Marumaru Somubu Yamada-sama." Without an address line, a forwarded message leaves no clue whom it was for; without self-identification, the reader has to guess the sender from the address. "Otsukaresama desu" is an internal greeting and is not used outside the company. The rule is one message, one piece of business. If you write several together, the latter half is skimmed over and the reply tends to cover only one of them. When they cannot be separated, mark them off with headings. In a reply, leave the quoted text so it is clear what you are answering, and as a rule leave the "Re:" in the subject line as it is. When the topic changes, sending it afresh with a new subject line makes it easier to find later.
Attachments and misdirected mail are prevented by procedure, not by attentiveness. Once you have written that a file is attached, look with your eyes before sending to see that it really is. A large file that exceeds the recipient's limit never arrives and nobody notices, so check in advance or discuss another way of handing it over. Splitting it into several messages pushes the work of reassembly onto the other person, and compressing it is no guarantee of getting under the limit. Against misdirected mail, tricks of ordering work: write the body first and enter the address last, and set a grace period for cancelling a send. The habit of taking the first suggestion that appears in the address field is a classic cause of sending to a different person with the same surname. For a request, add a cushioning phrase and write concretely what you want done and by when. For a chaser, do not assume the other side has slipped up; give them a way out with "apologies if our messages have crossed" and then ask them to confirm the situation.
| Field | Who goes in it | Visibility and replies |
|---|---|---|
| TO | The person you want to act or reply | Visible to all. The person who should reply |
| CC | The person you want to be aware of the content | Visible to all. As a rule no reply needed |
| BCC | People whose addresses you do not want other recipients to see | Invisible to the other recipients |
| Mass mailing | Several recipients who do not know one another | Lining them up in TO or CC leaks the addresses |
送信ボタンを押す前の点検1. 宛先は正しいか。同姓や似た表示名の別人を選んでいないか2. CCに入れるべき上司や関係者が抜けていないか3. 件名だけで用件と期限が分かるか4. 宛名の会社名・部署名・氏名の漢字は合っているか5. 添付すると書いたファイルが実際に付いているか6. 相手にしてほしいことと期限が本文に書いてあるか7. 署名に会社名・氏名・連絡先が入っているか
Sources and basis: ※ There is no public regulation on this. It is an organized summary of widely accepted business practice
Which is the appropriate closing word (ketsugo) for a letter opened with the salutation 「拝啓」 (haikei)?
In Japan Post's table of salutations and closings, the closings paired with 「拝啓」, the salutation for an ordinary letter, are 敬具, 敬白 and 拝具. 草々 pairs with abbreviated openings such as 前略, かしこ is likewise an abbreviated closing, and 以上 closes an itemised list, not a letter.
Which word is appropriate to close a formal letter begun with 「謹啓」 (kinkei)?
謹啓, the salutation for a formal letter, pairs with closings such as 謹白, 謹言 and 敬白. 草々 and 不一 are both abbreviated closings and do not match the formal tone of 謹啓. 前略 is a salutation, not a closing, so it cannot go at the end.
Which is the appropriate closing for a letter begun with 「前略」 (zenryaku)?
前略, an abbreviated salutation, pairs with 草々, 早々 and 不一. 敬具 pairs with ordinary salutations such as 拝啓, and 謹言 with formal ones such as 謹啓 — neither matches in register. 拝復 is the salutation used for a reply, not a closing.
Which is appropriate about writing a letter that opens with 「前略」?
前略 is a note saying "I omit the preliminaries", so following it with a seasonal greeting contradicts itself. Once you have used a salutation you must close with the matching closing (草々 and the like); it cannot be omitted. 前略 is an abbreviated form and so does not suit a formal request to someone you are writing to for the first time.
Which is the correct order for the body of a letter to an outside party?
Japan Post's basic letter format runs salutation, then the preliminary passage, the main text and the closing passage, ending with the closing word. Putting the main text before the preliminary passage tacks the greeting on afterwards. Putting the preliminary passage before the salutation buries the opening word in the text, and the closing passage is a parting greeting, so it does not come before the main text.
Which is appropriate about the use of 「記」 (ki) in a document?
The ki-gaki (記書き) device separates out from the body the information a reader picks out — date and time, place, amount — and gathers it in one place; opening with 記 and closing with 以上 is a pair. Continuing in prose defeats the purpose of using it at all. 記 goes after the closing word, so 敬具 never follows it.
Which is the most appropriate subject line for a document sent to an outside party?
The Agency for Cultural Affairs' guidance on drafting official documents says a title should show the subject and the character of the document, using words such as report, proposal, reply or event. Here "new product briefing" is the subject and "notice" the character. 「お知らせ」 gives the character with no subject, 「先日の件」 leaves the subject vague, and a greeting is not a subject line at all.
Which is a correct account of how seasonal greetings are used?
The seasonal greeting is the doorway to the preliminary passage, and the wording is chosen by season. Using one expression all year makes it no longer a seasonal greeting. After the closing word comes the itemised list and the like, not a greeting. Internal documents as a rule omit greetings and state only the essentials.
You are replying to an enquiry received from a client. Which salutation is most appropriate?
拝復 is the salutation used for a reply and shows at a glance that this answers a letter received. 再啓 is for writing again to someone you have already written to, and 急啓 for an urgent matter; neither signals a reply. 前略 omits the preliminaries and so does not match the register of a formal answer to an enquiry.
Which is appropriate about the date on a document sent to an outside party?
The date records the day the document was issued and is the reference point if it has to be looked up later, so use the date of dispatch and put it at the top. The day you began drafting diverges from the actual dispatch date, and the expected arrival date is only a guess. A postmark goes on the envelope and leaves nothing on the document itself.
You are sending a document to the General Affairs Department of XX Co., Ltd. Which form of address is appropriate?
御中 (on-chū) is the courtesy suffix meaning the letter is for those within an organisation or body rather than a named individual, and it is what you use when addressing a department. 様 is an honorific for an individual, and 各位 addresses each of several individuals, so neither fits a department as a unit. 殿 is also for individuals and is not used for an organisation.
You are sending a document to Mr Ichirō Yamada in the General Affairs Department of XX Co., Ltd. Which address is appropriate?
御中 addresses an organisation when no individual can be identified, so naming the person contradicts it. The Keigo Guidelines likewise treat 「○○中学校 山田一郎先生御中」 as inappropriate and say dropping 御中 is enough. Japan Post also states that stacking honorifics is an error. One honorific per addressee.
You are distributing the same document to everyone in a department. Which form of address is appropriate?
各位 (kakui) corresponds to "everyone" and functions as an honorific in itself. Adding 様 or 殿 after it therefore stacks a second honorific on top. 御中 is the suffix for addressing an organisation and cannot be lined up with 各位, which addresses multiple individuals.
Which address is appropriate for a letter to a university teacher?
The Keigo Guidelines treat 「○○中学校 山田一郎先生御中」 as inappropriate on a letter to a teacher and say 「○○中学校 山田一郎先生」 is enough. 御中 addresses an organisation, so putting it beside a personal name is contradictory, and since 先生 is itself an honorific there is no need to add 様 as well.
Which is appropriate for writing an internal notice?
An internal document is a working tool exchanged within one organisation, so greetings and salutations are dropped and the essentials come first. Keigo stays at about the desu/masu level. Leaving the conclusion until the end multiplies the reading time by the number of readers.
Which does the guidance on drafting official documents give as a way of writing that reaches the reader?
The Council for Cultural Affairs' recommendation "Approach to Drafting Official Documents" (公用文作成の考え方) lists keeping sentences short and confining each sentence to one point. Pack points in and the sentence grows long and its dependencies tangled. Dropped subjects and unglossed technical terms narrow the readership, which runs against being understood.
Which is appropriate for writing a company name on the face of an envelope?
Japan Post states that in a courteous letter you do not use abbreviations such as 「（株）」 but write 「株式会社○○」 in full. The company name identifies the addressee and does not belong on the back. Whether 株式会社 precedes or follows the name is part of the company's registered name and not for the writer to swap around.
Where is it appropriate to affix the stamp on a tall (portrait) envelope?
Japan Post's guidance is to affix the stamp where it falls at the top left when the envelope is held portrait. On a vertically written Japanese envelope the postcode boxes are at the top right, so a stamp at the top right or top centre easily overlaps the boxes or the address. The bottom right is not a place for it either, given the sender's details and the postmark.
When sending documents you want only the named person to open, which word is appropriate to add on the envelope?
親展 means you wish the addressee themselves to open it, and it is written on the face of the envelope. 至急 only signals urgency and does not limit who opens it. 御中 means the letter is for those within the organisation, which pushes in the opposite direction — anyone may open it. 拝啓 is a salutation used inside a document, not on an envelope.
Which is an appropriate way to mark what kind of documents are inside an envelope so it can be seen from outside?
Wording that shows the contents usually goes at the bottom left of the front, where it does not interfere with the address, so the recipient can sort it before opening. The back is where the sender's details go and is no help for sorting from outside. Written after the name it reads as part of the address, and written over the stamp it obscures the denomination.
Which is the most appropriate subject line for a work email?
A subject line is the information that decides the order in which things get opened in an inbox, so the more it lines up the matter, the object and the deadline, the more use it is. A greeting, or 「ご連絡」 alone, says nothing about the content, and piling on words that press for haste adds nothing to help judge urgency.
Which is an appropriate use of the CC field in an email?
CC is the field for sharing; as a rule you do not ask those in it to act. Use BCC when an address should be hidden, and TO for the person you want to act. If you want your own copy, the sent folder is enough, and CCing yourself does nothing to prevent misdelivery in the first place.
You are sending the same announcement at once to contacts at 20 companies who do not know one another. Which addressing is appropriate?
Addresses in TO and CC are visible to every recipient, so lining up companies unknown to one another means handing your clients' contact details to third parties. In BCC they are invisible to the other recipients. Leaving TO empty does not help, because the addresses in CC are still visible.
Which is an appropriate opening for the body of an email to a client?
An external email sets out the addressee's company, department and name, a greeting, and your own name, and then goes into the business. Omit the addressee and a forwarded copy leaves nobody sure who it was for; without your name the recipient has to infer the sender from the address. 「お疲れ様です」 is an internal greeting and does not suit an outside party.
Which is appropriate when one email has several matters to cover?
1 matter per email means replies and searches can follow each matter separately. Bundled together, the later part gets skimmed past and the reply covers only one half. A recipient never notices a matter you did not write. Listing matters in the subject line does not solve the problem of replies coming back as one.
Which is appropriate when replying to an email you have received?
The quotation and the subject line are the handholds by which the other person follows the thread. Delete them and they have to go looking for what they wrote. When the topic changes, starting again with a new subject makes it easier to find later. Strip the subject matter out and all that remains is a chain of Re:s.
You need to send a large file to a client. Which response is appropriate?
The receiving side also has a size limit, and over it the message may never arrive and never be noticed. Sending and waiting leaves it to chance and to them to tell you. Splitting pushes the work of reassembly onto them, and compression is no guarantee of coming in under the limit.
Which is the surest way to prevent sending an email to the wrong person?
Misdelivery is prevented by procedure, not attention. Entering the address last means a half-written message cannot be sent at all, and an undo window lets you stop it the moment you notice. Fixing the address first means one slip sends it as it is. The habit of taking the first suggestion is the classic cause of sending to a different person with the same surname.
Which is appropriate for an email asking a client to do a piece of work?
A request only lets the other side plan once it has both "what" and "by when". "As soon as possible" means different things to different people and doubles as an excuse for not setting a deadline. Describing the situation and hoping they infer the request leaves it unrecognised and unattended. Without background they cannot judge priority.
Which is appropriate for an email chasing someone who has missed a deadline without replying?
The point of a chaser is to get a reply, not to blame. Raising the possibility that messages crossed lets them answer with their dignity intact. Opening with a list of facts puts them on the defensive, and waiting pushes the deadline further out. Addressing their manager from the outset damages the relationship more than it moves things along.
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