In last week’s article Put Your Best Electronic Foot Forward – Email Etiquette, we discussed the importance of making a good first impression using email. We touched on recognizing cultural differences when preparing emails that represented job applications.

This week, we’ll focus more closely on email etiquette when the intended recipient is Japanese. We’ll go beyond the use of email just for job applications and discuss additional aspects of email correspondence.

Japanese businesses were a little slow in getting started using email, chiefly because the (now) older generation Japanese who first came to the US had never used a keyboard. As the use of technology has increased worldwide, younger generations of Japanese have become tech-savvy; however, some language barriers remain. At this point, all Japanese companies use email in a similar manner as US companies.

As a general rule, Japanese companies operating in the US have a policy to use English in all written (and email) communications. This doesn’t always work so well in practice and, because it is easier, email communications may slip into Japanese. If this happens and there are litigation problems involving these communications, the questioned documents will have to be translated into English.

There are no standard rules for emailing between persons who do not or may not speak the same language. It's a case of working to find a common means by which to communicate and going on from there. The following hints can be thought of as general guidelines -- a starting point -- rather than absolute rules. They do represent practices that have been successful for WIN’s Search Consultants.

We’ll address two general categories: (1) Americans with few or no bilingual skills, emailing communications to Japanese; and (2) Japanese or Americans with high-level bilingual skills, emailing to Japanese in US operations.

First and foremost, regardless of which category you fall into, it’s important to keep your intended recipient in mind as you prepare your message. The relative age and time spent in the US are important in this case. If you don’t know and can’t find out this information, it’s probably best to start out with a sort of middle ground approach.

American to Japanese

1. If your email is directed to a Japanese man or woman, adding the title –san to the last name is a nice touch. Equivalent to Mr. or Ms. in English it will catch your reader’s attention. Just Honda-san, e.g., not Mr. Honda-san.



2. Use a larger font size, minimum 12 points, perhaps up to 14. Keep your sentences short. Bullet points are good. Don’t use big words and stay away from slang and idioms. Remember, the person unfamiliar with English has to translate and the longer the sentence, the more difficult it becomes to translate.



3. As your email correspondences go back and forth, do not add on to the old emails to create a long thread. Instead, start a new message referencing the most recent correspondence.

Bilinguals to Japanese

1. If you know your intended recipient is relatively young (40 or younger) start off with English. You might also include in your email a message to the effect that you will continue communicating in English if your recipient agrees to that.



2. If you’re sending an email to an older Japanese person, you might use Japanese to start with and ask the person if they prefer to communicate in English. Or, you could use mostly English and use Japanese for words or concepts that don’t translate easily. Then let them take the lead.



3. If the person in either of the above cases responds in Japanese, it’s probably best to continue the correspondence in Japanese. If you get a response in English, continue in English.



4. If you’re using email as a method to keep a number of people informed about a certain subject, you should use English. Limit the number of names in the cc to those most closely involved. Use the bcc address line for names of those who don't have to take any action as a result of your message, but who should be kept informed.



5. It never hurts to ask first. If you’re in the position of sending an email to a potential client, you could call ahead and ask which language they prefer for emails.



6. If you’re using email for job application purposes and you know the hiring manager is Japanese, you probably want to start the process and Japanese and then follow the hiring manager’s lead in future correspondences.
   

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