10 Polite Japanese Phrases for the Office — Master Them in Your First Week

Table of contents

Who this is for

• Expats 0–4 weeks into a Japanese company, who freeze daily on what to say at the door, on a client call, and on the way out.
• JLPT N4–N2 learners who know the textbook greetings but haven’t built muscle memory for how a real office uses them.
• Anyone who’s been told to “say otsukaresama” but isn’t sure whether it’s the desu or deshita form, or whether it works with clients.

This is a reference, not a textbook. The table of contents above lets you jump straight to the part of the day you need.

The 10 polite Japanese phrases to master this week

Here’s the answer first. Memorize this table by Friday and your first week will sound natural.

The A/B/C labels are explained in 30 seconds in the next section.

How to read this article (A/B/C legend in 30 seconds)

At Real-World Japanese, we treat keigo (敬語, “polite Japanese”) as three rephrasings of the same intent: A (casual), B (neutral-polite), and C (formal). Every phrase row in this article is labelled so you can see which level fits without re-reading a 4,000-word grammar guide.

When in doubt, pick B. B is the safe default for ~80% of workplace situations. C with a peer creates strange distance; A with your boss is a non-starter. The full framework breakdown lives in the keigo guide.

A walk through one office day

Replay the day in your head as you read this section: arrive, work, lunch, leave, repair-something-broken. Each phrase is anchored to a moment so you can rehearse the chronology before you live it.

1. Walking in

The first thing out of your mouth when you open the office door is ohayō gozaimasu (おはようございます) — regardless of the time of day. In a Japanese office, your first encounter with someone always opens with ohayō gozaimasu, even if it’s 3pm and you clocked in for a night shift. The textbook lesson on konnichiwa and konbanwa doesn’t apply to office life.

Common mistake: Don’t drop into konnichiwa or konbanwa at the office. Those belong to outside-the-workplace conversation. Inside, the day’s first greeting is always ohayō gozaimasu.

Soon after you settle in, external calls or visitors pull you into a different register. Your opener there is osewa ni natte orimasu (お世話になっております) — literally “we’re indebted to you,” functionally “hello, you and I have a working relationship.”

Common mistake: Osewa ni natte orimasu is external-only. Saying it to a colleague inside your own company reads stiff and odd. For internal contacts, the catch-all is otsukaresama desu.

2. During work

Two phrases carry most of the back-and-forth: say shōchi shimashita (承知しました) when you accept a task, and open requests with osoreirimasu ga… (恐れ入りますが…). Together they handle the bulk of midday interactions.

Common mistake: Ryōkai shimashita (了解しました) reads too flat to anyone external or above you. It’s normal between peers, but with clients and senior colleagues you’ll want shōchi shimashita (or its more formal twin shōchi itashimashita) every time. Full breakdown in the keigo mistakes guide (Mistake 3).

If you didn’t catch a verbal instruction or a name on a call, asking the speaker to repeat is not a sign of weakness. Pretending to follow is the actual hazard.

Common mistake: Mō ichido itte kudasai (“say it once more, please”) sits too close to a command. Phrase the request as a question — onegai dekimasu ka / onegai dekimasu deshōka — and it lands politely with a boss or client.

3. Lunch and short breaks

Before you eat, say itadakimasu (いただきます). After, gochisōsama deshita (ごちそうさまでした). These are less about keigo and more about cultural protocol — eating in silence without either phrase reads as rude.

Common mistake: If a senior colleague picked up the bill, say gochisō ni narimasu mid-meal and follow with gochisōsama deshita. arigatō gozaimashita at the end. Skipping the explicit thank-you here reads as casual ingratitude even if the rest of the meal was polite.

In offices where lunch overlaps with deadlines, you may hear osaki ni modorimasu (“heading back first”) from someone returning to their desk before the group is done. Watch your team’s rhythm — that one varies a lot.

4. Leaving for the day

When you head home before others, you say osaki ni shitsurei shimasu (お先に失礼します). The people still working reply with otsukaresama deshita. This is a fixed pair — the day’s last ritual.

Common mistake: Walking out without saying anything is the actual rude move. In a Japanese office, silent departure reads as cold. The single line osaki ni shitsurei shimasu costs nothing and changes how Monday morning feels.

One note on the otsukaresama family: the desu and deshita forms aren’t interchangeable.

Common mistake: Gokurōsama desu (ご苦労さまです) is inappropriate upward — it’s a phrase a senior says to a junior, not the reverse. For your boss or senpai, otsukaresama desu is the only correct form. See the keigo mistakes guide (Mistake 4) for the full reason.

5. When something goes wrong

You missed a deadline, you broke a process, you sent the wrong file. The fastest fix is to say so immediately, and the phrase matters too.

Common mistake: Leaning on sumimasen for both thanks and apology is the classic non-native tell. Split the use — arigatō gozaimasu for thanks, mōshiwake gozaimasen for apology — and the apologies will start landing with the weight you intended.

And keep arigatō gozaimasu (ありがとうございます) ready all day. You can’t say it too much.

Who you can say each phrase to

Same 10 phrases, mapped to relationships. ◯ = safe, △ = depends (read the notes), ✕ = avoid.

How to read this table

• Osewa ni natte orimasu is external-only. For an internal colleague, use otsukaresama desu.
• Otsukaresama doesn’t travel externally. For a client, itsumo arigatō gozaimasu and itsumo osewa ni natte orimasu are the natural replacements.
• Osoreirimasu ga… to a junior sounds overdone. With juniors, chotto onegai or warui kedo reads more natural.
• Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu rarely fits a client situation. For excusing yourself from a meeting mid-discussion, use shitsurei itashimasu.
• Eating phrases at a client lunch are natural when you’re being hosted; pushing them on a guest you’re hosting reads as overdoing it. Follow the senior person’s lead.

This matrix reflects our editorial call. There’s no single right answer — companies, industries, and individual relationships shift the cells. Use it as a starting position and watch how the natives in your own team use these phrases.

The 3 mistakes to avoid (the short version)

The mistakes directly tied to the 10 phrases above:

1. Using gokurōsama desu with a boss — it’s a senior-to-junior phrase, never upward. With a boss or senpai, the only correct form is otsukaresama desu.
2. Using ryōkai shimashita with a client or senior — it sounds too flat. Default to shōchi shimashita / shōchi itashimashita externally and upward.
3. Using sumimasen for both thanks and apology — split it. Arigatō gozaimasu for thanks, mōshiwake gozaimasen for apology.

We diagnose 8 common keigo mistakes (with severity tiers and a 30-second self-test) in the keigo mistakes guide. Once you’ve survived your first week with this article, read that next to fix the deeper habits.

Go deeper, go wider

This article is the spoken / first-week / chronological lane of our keigo cluster. For other angles:

• Want a verb lookup table? The keigo cheat sheet has 30 verbs across A/B/C, scenario-indexed.
• Want fully worked dialogues? The keigo examples article walks through interview, phone, email, and Slack scripts end-to-end.
• Want a saveable phrase reference? The Japanese business phrases PDF page ships 30 scenarios as copy-paste rows, with a Cmd+P-friendly layout.
• Want to understand the why behind A/B/C? The pillar keigo guide explains the framework and the uchi-soto axis.
• Need to introduce yourself? The Japanese self-introduction template covers the first-day intro line.
• Need email phrasing too? The Japanese business email template covers the written equivalents.
• Want a study plan to lock these in? Best way to learn keigo — a 90-day roadmap for taking phrases like these from “I read about it” to “I say it automatically.”

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between otsukaresama desu and otsukaresama deshita?

Desu is for ongoing or in-the-moment situations — passing a colleague in the hallway during the day. Deshita marks a completed situation — end of a meeting, end of the workday, end of a shift. Outside your company, neither form applies; default to arigatō gozaimasu with clients.

Is gokurōsama desu a polite way to greet my boss?

No. Gokurōsama is a phrase a senior says downward to a junior. To your boss or senpai, the correct phrase is otsukaresama desu. Saying gokurōsama upward is the most common workplace misstep non-natives make.

What do Japanese workers say when they walk into the office?

Ohayō gozaimasu — regardless of the time of day. Even if you arrive at 4pm, your first encounter with a coworker opens with ohayō gozaimasu. Konnichiwa and konbanwa don’t appear in office life.

Why is ryōkai shimashita wrong with external partners?

Ryōkai historically belongs to peer-or-junior contexts (military and radio operations). It carries a flat, equal-or-downward register that doesn’t match the deference you owe a client or executive. Shōchi shimashita (or kashikomarimashita in maximum-formal settings) is the safe substitute.

Is it OK to leave the office without saying anything?

Avoid it. In a Japanese office, silent departure reads as cold even if you nod at someone on the way out. Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu takes one second and changes how the next morning feels.

Can I say otsukaresama desu to a client?

Better not to. Otsukaresama is internal — for colleagues and team members. With a client, itsumo osewa ni natte orimasu (to open a call or email) and itsumo arigatō gozaimasu (to acknowledge their work) are the natural replacements.

Next step: 30 phrases by the end of your first month

You’ve got the 10 spoken phrases for your first week. The natural next jump is 30 phrases for the rest of your first month. We’ve packaged the 30 most useful workplace scenarios — across A/B/C politeness levels — into a single printable PDF called Essential 30. The 10 in this article are part of it. Keep it next to your monitor for the first 90 days.

→ Get Essential 30 on Gumroad