---
name: japanese-business-writing
description: "Draft, rewrite, translate, and review Japanese corporate and international business communication: client and internal emails, chat, proposals, reports, LinkedIn posts, press releases, and B2B/B2C content. Use for ビジネス日本語, ビジネスメール, 敬語, 尊敬語, 謙譲語, 丁寧語, formality calibration, business structure, and cross-border clarity while preserving facts and commitments."
---

# Japanese Business Writing

## Set the context before writing

Identify the relationship (inside/outside; senior/peer/customer), purpose (request, report, apology, negotiation, announcement, sale), medium (email, chat, proposal, public post, formal release), stakes, reader, and action wanted. Ask only when a missing answer changes risk or formality materially.

Use this default selector:

| Level | Use | Starting register |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A | Familiar internal peers and low-stakes chat | Direct, considerate, lightly polite Japanese. |
| B | Most work: managers, other teams, first internal contact, routine external communication, and ordinary business messages | Natural 丁寧語 with targeted keigo. **迷ったらB.** |
| C | High-stakes or formally consequential external communication, first contact where warranted, serious apologies, negotiations, executives, and formal records | More formal, but concise; concentrate respect at consequential points. |

Raise or lower the level when the user asks. Do not treat C as the default for every business sentence.

## Apply keigo by relationship and direction

Before changing a verb, identify the actor, the person toward whom the action is directed or whom it affects, the addressee, and the current 内/外 relationship.

- Use 尊敬語 to describe the action or state of a person being treated with respect.
- Use 謙譲語Ⅰ when the writer or the writer's side performs an action directed toward a person being treated with respect. This can apply inside or outside an organization.
- Use 謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）to present the writer's or the writer's side's action courteously to the addressee. Unlike 謙譲語Ⅰ, the form does not itself elevate the action's destination, whether or not one exists. Do not humble an action merely because its actor is the writer.
- Use 丁寧語 when sentence-level courtesy is enough.
- Recalculate 内/外 for the audience and setting. When speaking to an outsider about an internal colleague or executive, do not add `様` or 尊敬語 merely because of internal rank; retain a neutral role label when identification requires it.

Avoid automatic politeness stacking. Check for double keigo, blanket お/ご prefixes, and `させていただく` used without a real permission-and-benefit relationship. Prefer the simpler supported form, often `します`. Read [politeness and keigo](references/politeness-and-keigo.md) for examples.

## Preserve business truth

Make a truth ledger before drafting or rewriting: approved facts, dates, metrics, names, scope, conditions, commitments, permissions, quotations, and apology grounds. Never fabricate facts, metrics, testimonials, commitments, permissions, apologies, customer results, or authority to make a claim. Keep provisional language provisional.

For a non-Japanese source, create the polished Japanese deliverable first without losing qualifications; do not substitute a culturally smoother claim for the source. Use [international communication](references/international-communication.md) for cross-border choices.

## Choose the right format

- Use [email and chat](references/email-and-chat.md) for subject lines, message order, requests, internal communication, and concise work chat.
- Use the proposal and report guidance in [email and chat](references/email-and-chat.md) to present a decision, supported basis, risks, owner, and next action.
- Use [public business content](references/public-business-content.md) for LinkedIn, B2B/B2C public copy, releases, and conditional SEO/content guidance.
- Do not turn a customer email into promotional copy or a chat message into a ceremonial letter unless the context calls for it.

## Deliver

- Return the polished Japanese deliverable first. Use the source language only to decide whether translation is needed.
- Let the language of the user's request govern notes and explanation: use Japanese for a Japanese request and concise English for an English or other-language request.
- Return the requested document first. Explain choices only when helpful or requested, and flag material missing approvals or evidence.

Use the [review checklist](references/review-checklist.md) before sending.