Japanese business writing looks, at first, like a wall of impenetrable formality — and then you notice it repeats. The same openings, the same closings, the same humble verbs appear in letter after letter, because written keigo (ビジネスメール・手紙) is built on a fixed skeleton with labeled slots. Once you can see the skeleton, an intimidating letter becomes a fill-in-the-blanks task: choose the right opener, drop in a seasonal greeting, state your business, choose the matching closer. This page teaches the skeleton and its slot-fillers. The register is genuinely higher than speech — it preserves 謙譲語 (賜る, 申し上げる, 存じます) and honorific nouns (貴社, ご高配) that everyday conversation retired — so treat it almost as a separate, more archaic dialect of keigo.
The letter skeleton
A formal letter (手紙) runs through six parts in fixed order. The opener and closer are a matched pair — pick one and the other is determined.
| Part | Name | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 頭語（とうご) | opening word: 拝啓, 謹啓, 前略 |
| 2 | 時候（じこう)の挨拶 | seasonal greeting + wishes for the reader's prosperity |
| 3 | 主文（しゅぶん) | the body, opened by さて… |
| 4 | 末文（まつぶん) | closing courtesy: まずは…申し上げます |
| 5 | 結語（けつご) | closing word, matched to the 頭語 |
| 6 | 後付（あとづ)け | date, sender, addressee |
The matched pairs are the first thing to memorize, because mismatching them is a classic error:
| 頭語 (opener) | 結語 (closer) | register |
|---|---|---|
| 拝啓（はいけい) | 敬具（けいぐ) | standard business |
| 謹啓（きんけい) | 謹言（きんげん)／敬白（けいはく) | most formal |
| 前略（ぜんりゃく) | 草々（そうそう) | skips the pleasantries (brief/urgent) |
拝啓 時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。
haikei, jika masumasu go-seiei no koto to o-yorokobi mōshiagemasu
Dear Sir/Madam — I trust your enterprise is flourishing ever more with each passing day.
平素は格別のご高配を賜り、厚く御礼申し上げます。
heiso wa kakubetsu no go-kōhai o tamawari, atsuku o-rei mōshiagemasu
Thank you most sincerely for your exceptional and continued patronage.
Take that second line apart and you see the archaic register at work: 賜る（たまわる) is the loftiest humble word for "receive," ご高配 is "your kind consideration," and 御礼申し上げます humbly "offers thanks." None of these three is common in speech; all three are standard on the page.
The email skeleton is looser — and skips 拝啓
Everyday business email (メール) does not use 拝啓／敬具 or the seasonal greeting. Reaching for 拝啓 in a routine email reads as over-formal, even odd. Email has its own lighter skeleton, and its universal opener is お世話になっております — the written twin of the phrase you say on the phone.
| Slot | Filler |
|---|---|
| address line (宛名) | 株式会社〇〇 営業部 田中様 |
| greeting | いつもお世話になっております。 |
| self-naming (名乗り) | 〇〇社の佐藤でございます／と申します |
| body | さて、〜の件でご連絡いたしました。 |
| closing | よろしくお願いいたします／申し上げます |
| signature (署名) | company, name, contact block |
いつもお世話になっております。株式会社みどりの佐藤でございます。
itsumo o-sewa ni natte orimasu. kabushikigaisha Midori no Satō de gozaimasu
Thank you as always for your support. This is Satō from Midori Inc.
The address line has its own rules: 様（さま) for a named individual, 御中（おんちゅう) for an organization or department with no named person, 各位（かくい) for a group of recipients ("all concerned"). These do not stack — 御中 and 様 never appear together.
Slot-fillers for requests and attachments
The body of a business message is mostly requests, and each has a fixed, softened formula. These are the phrases you will reuse most.
ご確認のほど、よろしくお願い申し上げます。
go-kakunin no hodo, yoroshiku o-negai mōshiagemasu
I would be grateful if you would kindly confirm this.
ご返信いただけますと幸いです。
go-henshin itadakemasu to saiwai desu
I would appreciate a reply.
ご不明な点がございましたら、ご連絡いただければ幸いです。
go-fumei na ten ga gozaimashitara, go-renraku itadakereba saiwai desu
If anything is unclear, I'd be grateful if you'd let me know.
The pattern 〜いただけますと幸いです／〜ていただければ幸いです ("I would be glad if you would…") is the softest way to make a request — it frames the action as a favor you would be fortunate to receive, and it is the workhorse of polite email. When you send materials for the reader to check and keep, the verb is 査収（さしゅう):
資料を添付いたしましたので、ご査収のほどよろしくお願いいたします。
shiryō o tenpu itashimashita node, go-sashū no hodo yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu
I've attached the materials; please review and file them at your convenience.
Humble self, elevated address — the written vocabulary
Writing preserves a humble/honorific noun pair for nearly everything, and the written members differ from the spoken ones. Your side is lowered; the reader's side is raised.
| Concept | Your side (humble) | Their side (elevated) |
|---|---|---|
| company | 弊社（へいしゃ)／当社（とうしゃ) | 貴社（きしゃ, written)／御社（おんしゃ, spoken) |
| the writer | 私（わたくし)／小職（しょうしょく) | — |
| consideration | — | ご高配・ご厚情（こうじょう) |
| a bank / a shop | 当行・当店 | 貴行・貴店 |
Note 貴社 vs 御社: in writing you use 貴社, but read aloud it collides with 汽車 (train) and 記者 (reporter), so speech switches to 御社. The written verbs are equally elevated — 存じます（ぞんじます) for "think/know," 申し上げます for "say," both humble. 申し上げる is the written-register humble "say" detailed on 申す／申し上げる.
貴社ますますご発展のこととお慶び申し上げます。
kisha masumasu go-hatten no koto to o-yorokobi mōshiagemasu
I trust your company continues to prosper and grow.
今後とも変わらぬお引き立てのほど、よろしくお願い申し上げます。
kongo-tomo kawaranu o-hikitate no hodo, yoroshiku o-negai mōshiagemasu
I ask for your continued patronage going forward.
The set-phrase inventory that fills these slots is collected on fixed business set phrases, and the surrounding spoken register on business keigo foundations.
Common mistakes
Mistake 1 — Writing email as transcribed speech. Plain だ・である or even bare です where the register wants elevated formulas reads as under-dressed.
❌ 資料送ったので見てください。よろしく。
Spoken-casual — this is a text to a friend, not a business email. Elevate every slot.
✅ 資料をお送りいたしましたので、ご確認のほどよろしくお願い申し上げます。
shiryō o o-okuri itashimashita node, go-kakunin no hodo yoroshiku o-negai mōshiagemasu
I have sent the materials; I'd be grateful if you would review them.
Mistake 2 — Mismatching 頭語 and 結語. 拝啓 must close with 敬具; pairing it with 草々 is a recognizable slip.
❌ 拝啓 … 草々
Mismatched pair — 拝啓 opens, so 敬具 must close. 草々 belongs only with 前略.
✅ 拝啓 … 敬具
haikei … keigu
Dear Sir/Madam … Respectfully yours. (matched pair)
Mistake 3 — Stacking 御中 and 様. Each addresses a different kind of recipient; together they are redundant.
❌ 株式会社みどり御中 田中様
Double-addressed — 御中 is for the organization when no person is named; with a name, use 様 alone.
✅ 株式会社みどり 営業部 田中様
kabushikigaisha Midori, eigyōbu, Tanaka-sama
Midori Inc., Sales Department, Mr./Ms. Tanaka
Mistake 4 — Opening a routine email with 拝啓. The letter opener is over-formal for day-to-day email.
❌ 拝啓 いつもお世話になっております。（社内メールで)
Over-formal — 拝啓 is for letters; email opens straight into お世話になっております.
✅ いつもお世話になっております。
itsumo o-sewa ni natte orimasu
Thank you as always for your support.
Key takeaways
- Business writing is a fixed skeleton — 頭語・時候・本文・結語 for letters, 宛名・挨拶・本文・結び for email — so composing is mostly choosing slot-fillers.
- 頭語 and 結語 are matched pairs: 拝啓…敬具, 謹啓…敬白, 前略…草々 — and 前略 skips the seasonal greeting.
- Email skips 拝啓 and 時候, opening instead with お世話になっております.
- Requests soften with 〜いただけますと幸いです / のほどよろしくお願い申し上げます; sending materials uses ご査収ください.
- Writing preserves an archaic keigo layer — 賜る, 申し上げる, 存じます, 貴社, ご高配 — largely retired from speech; recognizing it turns the register from intimidating into formulaic.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- Fixed Business Set PhrasesN2 — The closed inventory of business keigo formulae — お世話になっております, よろしくお願いいたします, お疲れ様です, 恐れ入りますが — deployed by situation-slot, not by literal meaning.
- Business Keigo FoundationsN2 — Business Japanese is a sustained register: you pick one stance — humble self and company, elevated client — and hold it across the whole exchange, redrawing the うち／そと line every time the audience changes.
- 申す／申し上げる: Humble SayN3 — 言う has one honorific but two humbles — 申す lowers your own speech toward the listener, while 申し上げる aims it at a specific honored addressee — the same 丁重語／謙譲語I split as 参る／伺う.