The telephone is the hardest room in the keigo house. Face to face you can bow, gesture, and let a smile carry half the politeness; on the phone none of that survives, so the whole burden falls on the words. Business telephone keigo (電話応対, でんわおうたい) solves this in two ways that a learner has to make conscious: you narrate aloud the actions a visible setting would show ("I'll transfer you," "I'll put you on hold"), and you rigorously lower your own side to the caller — because on a call the うち／そと boundary is at its most visible and least forgiving.
もしもし is casual — a business call opens differently
もしもし is the everyday "hello?" of a private call between friends or family. In business it is too casual to answer with, and saying it to a client can read as slightly childish or careless. A company phone is answered with thanks and an identification instead.
お電話ありがとうございます。株式会社みどり、営業部の佐藤でございます。
o-denwa arigatō gozaimasu. kabushikigaisha Midori, eigyōbu no Satō de gozaimasu
Thank you for calling. This is Satō, sales department, Midori Inc.
はい、株式会社みどりでございます。
hai, kabushikigaisha Midori de gozaimasu
Hello, this is Midori Inc.
Note でございます identifying the company: it is teineigo polishing the delivery, not elevating anyone. And if you cannot hear the caller, you still do not fall back on もしもし — you say so politely instead.
恐れ入りますが、お電話が少々遠いようでございます。
osoreirimasu ga, o-denwa ga shōshō tōi yō de gozaimasu
I'm sorry, but the line seems a little faint.
The うち／そと flip, at maximum sharpness
Here is the drill that makes telephone practice so valuable: the same coworker you elevate in the hallway is stripped of every honorific the instant an outside caller is on the line. Your colleagues are うち — your in-group — so to a caller they get bare surnames and humble verbs. Your coworker "is not here" as おりません, never いらっしゃいません; "is out" as 外出しております, never 外出していらっしゃいます.
申し訳ございません。田中はただいま席を外しております。
mōshiwake gozaimasen. Tanaka wa tadaima seki o hazushite orimasu
I'm sorry. Tanaka has stepped away from his desk at the moment.
あいにく田中は本日、休みを取っております。
ainiku Tanaka wa honjitsu, yasumi o totte orimasu
Unfortunately Tanaka is off today.
山田はただいま外出しておりまして、三時頃戻る予定でございます。
Yamada wa tadaima gaishutsu shite orimashite, sanji-goro modoru yotei de gozaimasu
Yamada is out at the moment and is expected back around three.
Every one of these strips the honorific title and drops the verb to humble おる. The instinct to protect your colleague with an honorific is exactly the instinct you must override. This is the sharpest possible exercise in relative honorification — the full principle is on うち／そと and the organizational drill on humbling your own company.
Narrate what a face-to-face setting would show
Because the caller cannot see you, you announce each action as you take it. Holding, transferring, taking over a transferred call, calling back — each has its own formula.
| Action | What you say |
|---|---|
| Put on hold | 少々お待ちください／少々お待ちくださいませ |
| Transfer | 担当の者に代わります／ただいまお繋ぎいたします |
| Take over the call | お電話代わりました。〜でございます |
| Call back | 折り返しお電話いたします |
| Ask who is calling | 恐れ入りますが、どちら様でしょうか |
恐れ入りますが、どちら様でしょうか。
osoreirimasu ga, dochirasama deshō ka
May I ask who's calling, please?
ただいま担当の者に代わりますので、少々お待ちください。
tadaima tantō no mono ni kawarimasu node, shōshō o-machi kudasai
I'll put you through to the person in charge now, so one moment please.
Notice 担当の者 — "the person in charge," where 者（もの) is the humble word for a person on your own side (never お客様). When you pick up a call someone has passed to you, you announce the handover:
お電話代わりました。佐藤でございます。
o-denwa kawarimashita. Satō de gozaimasu
Thank you for holding — this is Satō speaking now.
And when the person the caller wants is unavailable, the standard offer is a callback, narrated in advance:
戻り次第、こちらから折り返しお電話いたします。
modori-shidai, kochira kara orikaeshi o-denwa itashimasu
As soon as he's back, we'll call you back from our end.
よろしければ、ご伝言を承りますが。
yoroshikereba, go-dengon o uketamawarimasu ga
If you'd like, I can take a message.
承る（うけたまわる) is the humble verb for "receive / hear (a message, an order)" — it lowers your own act of taking the message, exactly as the register demands.
Making a call is different from receiving one
Answering and calling out follow mirror-image openings. When you place the call, you identify yourself first (名乗り), acknowledge that you are interrupting, and only then ask for the person you want — and that person, being on the そと side, is elevated with いらっしゃる.
お忙しいところ恐れ入ります。株式会社みどりの佐藤と申します。
o-isogashii tokoro osoreirimasu. kabushikigaisha Midori no Satō to mōshimasu
Sorry to bother you at a busy time. This is Satō from Midori Inc.
営業部の山田様はいらっしゃいますでしょうか。
eigyōbu no Yamada-sama wa irasshaimasu deshō ka
Would Mr. Yamada from the sales department be available?
The asymmetry is total: the person you ask for is 山田様 …いらっしゃいますか (elevated, because they are そと), while the same rank of person on your own side, reported back to a caller, is bare 山田 …おります (humbled, because they are うち). Two identical job titles, opposite honorification, decided purely by which side of the call they sit on. When you reach the person you want, you re-identify and confirm it is a good time to talk:
今、お電話よろしいでしょうか。
ima, o-denwa yoroshii deshō ka
Is now a good time to talk?
Common mistakes
Mistake 1 — Elevating your own coworker to an outside caller. The single most recognizable telephone error: protecting your colleague with an honorific the caller must not hear.
❌ 田中さんは、ただいま席にいらっしゃいません。
Wrong to a caller — さん + いらっしゃる elevate your own in-group. Strip both.
✅ 田中はただいま席を外しております。
Tanaka wa tadaima seki o hazushite orimasu
Tanaka has stepped away from his desk at the moment.
Mistake 2 — Answering with もしもし. Fine between friends; too casual for a company line.
❌ もしもし、みどりですけど。
Casual — this is how you answer a friend's call, not a business line.
✅ お電話ありがとうございます。株式会社みどりでございます。
o-denwa arigatō gozaimasu. kabushikigaisha Midori de gozaimasu
Thank you for calling. This is Midori Inc.
Mistake 3 — Humbling the caller instead of yourself. Pointing a humble verb at the outside party inverts the system.
❌ どちら様が参りますか。
Wrong — 参る lowers; you can't humble the caller. Their coming is elevated: いらっしゃる.
✅ どちら様がいらっしゃいますか。
dochirasama ga irasshaimasu ka
Who will be coming, please?
Mistake 4 — Transferring silently, with no narration. Going quiet mid-call reads as a dropped line; announce every move.
❌ （無言で保留にする）
Silence on a call feels like a disconnection — you must announce the hold.
✅ 担当におつなぎいたしますので、少々お待ちください。
tantō ni o-tsunagi itashimasu node, shōshō o-machi kudasai
I'll connect you to the person in charge, so please hold a moment.
Key takeaways
- On a business call, もしもし is too casual — answer with お電話ありがとうございます／〜でございます, and never もしもし a client.
- The うち／そと flip is at its sharpest: your colleagues are bare-surname うち to a caller (田中はおりません / 席を外しております), never いらっしゃいません.
- Narrate every action the caller can't see — お待ちください, お繋ぎいたします, 代わります, お電話代わりました, 折り返しお電話いたします.
- 者（もの), 承る, おる, いたす are the humble verbs that carry the register; 恐れ入りますが cushions any request.
- Telephone practice is the best drill for relative honorification because the boundary is redrawn, out loud, on every call.
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- 接客: Customer-Service LanguageN2 — 接客 keigo is a scripted register — the customer is maximally elevated, staff maximally humbled — delivered through a compact set of memorized formulas, which is also why over-applying its patterns breeds バイト敬語.
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- 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.