About Real-World Japanese

Real-World Japanese is a resource for engineers, designers, and business professionals who work with Japanese colleagues and want to stop sounding rude at work.

Japanese textbooks teach you grammar. They don’t teach you what to say when your manager pings you at 8pm, or how to decline a meeting politely, or which level of politeness is right for which situation.

We fix that with the A/B/C politeness framework — three versions of every phrase (casual, neutral-polite, formal) with clear signals about when to use each.

What you’ll find here

• Business email templates — openers, closers, replies you can copy-paste
• Keigo (敬語) guides — the polite Japanese your job actually needs
• Meeting & phone phrases — from 会議 to 電話対応
• Workplace culture — the unwritten rules behind the words

Who this is for

• Non-native speakers working in Japan
• Remote team members collaborating with Japanese companies
• Anyone preparing for a role that requires business-level Japanese

Contact

Questions, feedback, corrections? Email us at [email protected].