Japanese for IT Professionals: A Working Engineer's Guide

Table of contents

Who this guide is for

• Software engineers onboarding at a Japanese tech company who can already read katakana like taasuku (タスク) and komitto (コミット) but freeze when a senior asks them to review a PR in Japanese.
• N5–N3 engineers in their first year who survive standups by nodding and want a concrete, paste-ready phrase deck before tomorrow morning.
• N2–N1 engineers who can hold a conversation but want to upgrade their register awareness — when to use shōchi shimashita (承知しました) instead of ryōkai-desu (了解です) in a PR thread.
• Engineering managers and tech leads moving to Japan who need to facilitate retros and join client calls in Japanese, not only read code.

This is a practitioner’s guide. Every phrase comes with a register tier and a ritual context — so you can find the right thing to say in the situation you face.

Why Japanese matters for engineers — the short answer

You can land an engineering job in Japan without Japanese. You can’t grow inside the team without it. Standups, PR threads, sprint planning, post-incident reviews, the 5-minute hallway design discussions — these still happen in Japanese at most Japanese tech companies, even ones with “English-OK” policies. Engineers who hit N3 unlock real participation. Engineers who stay below N3 quietly stay outside the loop.

For the data-heavy career view, Japan Dev’s essential Japanese for engineers and Coto Academy’s 200 engineer vocab list cover the vocabulary side. This guide focuses on the phrases, registers, and rituals they leave out.

The framework: register × ritual × read-vs-write

Tech-Japanese guides usually give you vocabulary in flat lists. That’s the wrong shape. Useful Japanese at work is a three-axis cube:

• Register (politeness): keigo (敬語) / polite / casual — covered in our keigo guide.
• Ritual (engineering ceremony): standup, PR review, sprint planning, demo, retro, client call.
• Read-vs-write: what you consume (Slack threads, Notion docs, Jira tickets) vs. what you produce (PR comments, standup updates).

Pick a cell, look up the phrase. Memorize across one axis and you’ll still get stuck the moment another axis shifts.

A/B/C politeness legend

We use the same three-tier model as every other article on this site, so the framework transfers across the cluster.

For the full sonkeigo / kenjougo split, see the keigo guide’s A/B/C breakdown.

The six engineering rituals

Every team I’ve worked with in Japan runs some version of these six rituals. The register expected in each is not the same, even within the same team on the same day:

Reading Japanese vs. writing Japanese — split your study

Engineers spend most of their Japanese time reading — Slack threads scrolling past, Notion docs, Jira tickets, error messages, post-incident write-ups. Active output is a thin slice: maybe a few PR comments, a 30-second standup update, one Slack DM to a teammate.

This means passive vocab can be 2–3× your active vocab and you’ll still function. Learn to recognize shian (試案, draft proposal), teppai (撤回, retraction), ikkatsu shori (一括処理, batch processing) when you see them, even if you never need to write them. The read-vs-write table below makes the split explicit.

Week-1 survival deck — 20 phrases

If you only learn 20 phrases before your first day, learn these. Each is tagged with its register tier (A/B/C) and the ritual where you’ll use it.

Print this and tape it to your monitor for week one. You’ll recognize half of them by Friday.

Phrases by engineering ritual

The full A/B/C × ritual matrix. Each ritual gets the three register tiers, plus a common-mistake callout. Copy what fits your situation; don’t try to memorize all of them at once.

Daily standup

Most teams run a 5–10 minute standup with three classic questions: yesterday’s progress, today’s plan, blockers. Standup register is B by default, drops to C with close peers, climbs to A if the EM is presenting to a senior stakeholder.

Common mistake: Saying “nothing” or silently nodding when you have a blocker. In Japanese teams, “tokuni nai-desu” (特にないです) without explanation reads as you’ve stopped engaging. If you’re stuck, name it explicitly — X de tsumatte-imasu, ato de sōdan sasete-kudasai (Xで詰まっています、あとで相談させてください). That’s one sentence, and it changes how the team perceives your day.

PR review and code comments

PR threads in Japanese are where most foreign engineers get caught off-guard — written register matters more than spoken because the comment lives forever. Default to B with peers, A toward senior reviewers or anyone outside your team.

Common mistake: Writing ryōkai-desu (了解です) on a PR comment when the reviewer is your tech lead or external. Ryōkai reads as casual-upward. With anyone above you or outside your team, swap it for shōchi shimashita — same length, much safer landing. See the keigo mistakes guide for the full breakdown.

Sprint planning and refinement

Planning is where you negotiate scope and estimates. Register stays at B, but the rhetorical patterns matter more than vocab — pushing back politely is a learned skill in Japanese.

Common mistake: Saying daijōbu desu (大丈夫です) when you mean “I’m not sure but I’ll figure it out.” Native teammates take daijōbu literally. If you have doubts, say them: daijōbu da-to omoimasu ga, kakunin shitara mata renraku-shimasu (大丈夫だと思いますが、確認したらまた連絡します).

Demo / sprint review

Demos are a mixed-audience ritual — engineers, PM, sometimes stakeholders. Default to B, climb to A when speaking to the stakeholder, drop to B–C for engineer-to-engineer asides.

Common mistake: Using baito keigo (バイト敬語) like X ni narimasu (Xになります) for “this is X” — common in service-industry training but flagged as amateur in tech meetings. Say X desu or X de gozaimasu instead. See keigo mistakes for the full Mistake 5 breakdown.

Retrospective

Retros are where teams talk about what went well, what didn’t, and what to change. Register drops to B–C because the room is psychologically safer. But if the EM or a manager from another team is observing, climb back to B.

Common mistake: Skipping the “what went well” half because it feels performative. In Japanese team culture, naming positives is part of psychological safety scaffolding — skipping it makes the negatives land harder than intended.

Client / stakeholder meetings

Default register is A. There is no C in this room. Even the small-talk warm-up uses desu / masu at minimum.

Common mistake: Translating “Looking forward to working with you” too literally as issho-ni hatarakeru-no o tanoshimi-ni shite-imasu, which sounds breezy in Japanese. The standard close is hikitsudzuki yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu — keep it formal. See japanese-self-introduction-business for first-meeting register depth.

Slack / async chat (bonus)

Slack feels casual — and is, with peers. But the recipient determines register, not the channel. Same Slack channel, different DM, different register.

Common mistake: Heavy emoji use upward. Engineers default to peer-comfortable Slack norms and emoji-flood a DM to the EM. Half of them is fine; ten is not. Match what the recipient sends you, not the channel norm.

Read-vs-write vocabulary — the 100-word split

The biggest unfair advantage you can give yourself is deciding which 60 % of vocabulary is for reading only. You see it in Slack, Notion, Jira, error logs — you don’t need to write it back. The active 40 % is what you need to produce.

Receive-only (~60 terms you’ll see, not say)

Recognize these. Don’t sweat being able to write them.

Produce (~40 terms you’ll need to write or say)

These you should be able to type without thinking.

Study principle: Move new vocab from “receive” to “produce” only when you’ve used it three times in writing. Otherwise it’ll sit dead in flashcards.

JLPT level → which engineering tasks you can take on

Vocab guides usually tell you which JLPT level is “needed.” More useful: what unlocks at each level.

Reality check: Most engineers plateau at N3 because N3 → N2 is the largest jump in study hours per outcome. You can ship at N3 forever. To facilitate retros and confidently join client calls, you need to push into N2 — and most people who do, do it because they decided to, not because the team forced it. For a realistic learning roadmap, see the best way to learn keigo guide.

Top 5 engineer-specific keigo mistakes

These are the keigo errors that hit specifically in engineering rituals. For the general keigo mistake catalog, see keigo mistakes.

1. PR-comment ryōkai-desu to senior reviewer. Ryōkai (了解) is casual-upward. To a tech lead or external reviewer, swap for shōchi shimashita (承知しました). Highest-ROI fix in your first month.
2. Over-literal “blocked by” → X ni burokku sarete-imasu. Native phrasing: X de tsumatte-imasu (Xで詰まっています) or X machi desu (X待ちです). Engineering-translated English calques are flagged as awkward.
3. Slack-paste sasete-itadakimasu overuse. Sending a doc doesn’t require permission. O-okuri shimasu (お送りします) is enough. O-okuri sasete-itadakimasu in chat reads as anxious. See keigo mistakes mistake 6.
4. Ambiguous kakunin onegai-shimasu without context. “Please check” with no link, no specifics, no priority. Native engineering chat is more specific: X no koko, kyō-jū ni kakunin o-negai-dekimasu ka (Xのここ、今日中に確認お願いできますか) — pointer + deadline + ask.
5. Skipping otsukare-sama desu on EOD. Logging off without a sign-off reads as ghosting. O-saki-ni shitsurei-shimasu (お先に失礼します) or otsukare-sama desu, agarimasu (お疲れさまです、上がります) is the standard close. Costs three seconds. Worth it.

Katakana tech-word pitch-accent watchlist

Every vocab guide tells you “katakana = easy.” What they don’t tell you is that katakana tech words have specific Japanese pitch-accent patterns, and getting them wrong is one of the most-corrected things about foreign engineers’ Japanese.

Pitch-accent notation here: ⌐ at the start = atamadaka (head-high, drops after first mora). ⌐ in the middle = nakadaka (peaks then drops). Flat = heiban (no drop within word).

How to practice: When a colleague says one of these words in standup, repeat it back in your head matching their tone exactly. Two weeks of mirror-listening will outperform six months of flashcards on pitch.

How to keep learning — the engineer’s habit stack

You don’t need a tutor. You need a habit.

• Weekly: read one Qiita or Zenn article in your stack (qiita.com / zenn.dev). Pick something close to your daily work. The vocabulary is auto-prioritized by relevance.
• Daily: 5-minute Slack observation log. Each day, copy one phrase your team used that you wouldn’t have produced. Tag with register and ritual. After 90 days you’ll have ~80 phrases that match your specific team’s voice — better than any generic vocab list.
• Monthly: write one PR description in Japanese. One per month. Even if you delete the section before merge. Forces you to produce, not only consume.
• Quarterly: practice retro facilitation. Even with your dog. Out-loud Japanese is the rarest practice mode for engineers.

For a structured month-by-month learning plan, see best way to learn keigo.

FAQ

Do I need Japanese to work as a software engineer in Japan?

No, but you’ll plateau quickly without it. Code review, standups, sprint planning, and informal hallway design discussions happen in Japanese at most Japanese tech companies, even ones with English-OK policies. N3 unlocks active participation. Below N3 you’re outside the loop on context that doesn’t make it into written specs.

What JLPT level is needed for IT jobs in Japan?

The market splits at N3. Below N3, you’re applying to a narrower pool of international-friendly roles (Mercari, PayPay, Rakuten English-track, many startups). N3 doubles your options. N2 opens almost everything except client-facing consulting work. N1 is rarely required even for senior IC engineers.

Is katakana enough for tech work?

For token vocabulary, mostly yes. For the sentence around the noun — how to ask, suggest, push back, escalate, defer — no. Katakana tech words live inside Japanese grammar, and the grammar is where register, politeness, and team-culture nuance happens. That’s why this guide focuses on phrases, not tokens.

How do you say “deploy” or “merge” in Japanese?

Deplyo (デプロイ) and ma-ji (マージ). The tokens are easy. The interesting choices are around them: deplyo shimasu (polite default), deplyo shitokimasu (casual same-side), deplyo sasete-itadakimasu (over-polite to client). Picking the right register is the actual skill.

What’s the most common Japanese mistake foreign engineers make?

Using ryōkai-desu (了解です) upward in PR comments and Slack DMs. Ryōkai carries a faint top-down tone. Safe peer-to-peer; reads as casual when sent to a tech lead or external reviewer. Swap for shōchi shimashita / shōchi itashimashita and you’ve made the single highest-ROI keigo fix available to a foreign engineer.

Related articles

• Keigo guide — the full A/B/C politeness framework this article reuses.
• Keigo mistakes — the 8-mistake severity-tier catalog. Engineer pitfalls in this article are a subset.
• Keigo cheat sheet — printable verb-pair lookup tables for sonkeigo / kenjougo.
• Japanese business phrases PDF — 30 scenario phrases × 3 registers, broader than tech.
• Japanese self-introduction for business — first-meeting register, useful for client calls.
• Best way to learn keigo — 90-day structured learning plan.

Get the Essential 30 phrase deck

Want the 30 most-used office Japanese phrases organized by register and scenario in printable PDF form? Grab the Essential 30 PDF — pasted-into-Slack ready, organized by uchi-soto axis, free.

Built for the same engineer who can read this guide and still wants a sheet next to their monitor on day one.