how to write a report in japanese

Writing reports the Japanese want to read

Businesspeople working for or with Japanese firms often complain that Japanese take too long to make decisions.   The various organizational and cultural reasons behind this phenomena are extremely complicated, but there is one key factor that is often overlooked:   The way that non-Japanese present written information can contribute to the holdup in the decision-making process.   According to one Japanese manager who is a key decision-maker in his company’s operations in Japan, “The information we get from our American colleagues isn’t enough to make us comfortable going forward.   Even though they send us reports, the information isn’t convincing enough for us.   This causes us to delay further.”

What is it that Japanese are looking for in written communications, and how is it different from how non-Japanese are used to communicating?   Some of Japanese’ written communication preferences are due to their challenges in using English as a second language, and some of them are due to cultural differences in how information is analyzed and presented.

Use more structure, fewer words

Many Japanese feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of words in the written communication they receive from non-Japanese colleagues. “The Americans I work with tend to put together big thick reports.   It takes them a lot of time and effort, but it’s really hard for me to wade through something like that.   What I really need is a two-page overview.” laments one Japanese businessman.

It’s not that Japanese are unwilling or unable to read English, it’s that it just takes so darn long!   No matter how proficient one becomes in a second language, it will always take longer and require more concentration to read in one’s second language.

The following tips can help make it easier for Japanese to sort through your writing for the key information they are looking for.

·          “Less is more” When it comes to writing style, most Japanese would agree with this famous quote by architect Mies van der Rohe.   Make sure to boil down what you want to say to the essentials.   Be your own editor: read over what you have written to be sure that you are as succinct as possible.

·          Simple and clear.   Don’t forget the essentials of communicating with non-native speakers of English:   Keep your sentence structure simple, avoiding complicated grammar.   Avoid slang and idioms.   Include a definition for technical terms, jargon, or other words that may not be familiar to your readers.   Try to be consistent in the words you use to describe things (e.g. don’t use ‘speech” and “presentation” interchangeably in your document, pick one and stick with it throughout).

·          Headings and bullet points.   Use of section headings, bullet points, numbered lists, and even outline form to organize your writing.   This will make it easier for Japanese to visually see the structure of what you are trying to convey.

·          Underlining.   Underlining key points or facts is another way to help a non-native speaker pick out the key ideas in your communication.  

·          Executive summary.   In a longer report, create a short (two pages at most) executive summary which presents your key points and conclusions.   (For a shorter report, a one-paragraph summary is good.)  

Describe the environment and trends

Japanese want to have a holistic understanding of the entire environmental context before deciding on a direction to move forward.    Thus, a key to effectively persuading Japanese is to give them a lot of background information so that they can understand the overall context.   This includes describing trends and history.   For example, as one Japanese puts it, “When American colleagues describe to us something that is happening, and how they want us to respond to it, we want to know if it is a long term trend, or just a temporary anomaly or fad.   We want to see it put in a historical perspective.”

In describing the environment to Japanese colleagues, you may need to include things that would seem to be common knowledge among people in your industry.   Don’t worry that this may seem insulting to Japanese – it’s a common practice for Japanese to start a communication by summarizing information that everyone agrees upon.   Also, what may seem obvious to you may not be so to your Japanese colleagues.   Don’t forget that your Japanese colleagues generally aren’t reading the same newspapers, magazines, and trade journals as you are – again, due to the reading time issue mentioned above.

In helping Japanese understand the environment in your location, one helpful technique is to include as attachments to your report key articles that have appeared in newspapers, magazines, or trade journals.   Such articles are extremely helpful, because they are authoritative and there is no need to reinvent the wheel when a journalist has already summed up the situation well. may feel grade-schoolish to be cutting out clippings from newspapers and magazines, but it doesn’t seem that way to Japanese, who are habitual article clippers.  

Provide authoritative backup

When writing persuasive communications to Japanese, think of yourself as a journalist.   Rather than saying “sales of widgets are going up,” quote a specific statistic.   Rather than saying “customers have been asking for more colors of widgets,” give specific quotes from customers or copies of letters or call reports.   Such concrete backup will go a long way toward convincing Japanese.

Anticipate questions

People working with Japanese often complain about endless rounds of questions.   One way to avoid this is to anticipate what questions might be asked.   Try to think of what the person you are dealing with might want to know, or what they are likely to be asked by their superiors (a frequent reason for Japanese asking questions is to prepare themselves for being grilled by the boss).   Include as much of this information as possible in the form of attachments to your communication.  

Stress consistent themes

Anyone who reads a lot of documents produced in Japan (newspaper articles, annual reports, company documents) will notice that key themes and catchphrases seem to crop up again and again.   For example, a few years ago “internationalization” and “borderless” were popular; then “global standard” was used a lot, and now the current favorite is “globalization.”

This constant reference to the same touchstones can seem unoriginal and repetitive.   However, what Japanese are trying to accomplish by doing this is to achieve a sense of consensus about what is happening in the environment.   By using a catchphrase which sums up a generally-agreed upon view, the person writing is using a kind of shorthand.

I recommend that people dealing with Japanese create their own touchstones that can be used in communications.   For example, you might decide that “variety,” “customer responsiveness,” and “connectivity” are the key themes that you want to emphasize about trends in the market.   You could write a report for your Japanese colleagues that describes in detail these trends and how you define them.   Then, in future communications you could refer to these themes as a kind of shorthand.   You could also use these themes as a way to organize future communications (e.g. as topic headings).  

While you can do this on your own, it also could be extremely effective to reach a consensus among your colleagues about a set of themes and encourage everyone to use those themes in their communications with Japanese colleagues.   This can help impart a sense of consistency to your firm’s communications, which will help to more effectively convince Japanese.

In any business setting, reports are a crucial tool.   This is even more so in international business, where the time difference can make phone conversation difficult, and where non-native speakers of English have special challenges.   Adopting the above strategies when writing reports for your Japanese colleagues can decrease frustrations and help you meet your objectives.

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How to Write Reports and Papers

We introduce library services useful for learning and research at university, such as how to find books effectively, tools useful for document management.

1. Learn how to write reports and papers

Kyoto University libraries have a lot of books for writing reports and papers. As a first step, learn how to write and structure academic reports and papers from these books.

Kyoto University libraries hold regular workshops on writing reports and papers. Please join us!

Search for books

To search for books, use Kyoto University library online catalogue KULINE . Following tags are attached to books and e-books that are recommended to read before writing reports and papers. Find books you need by searching these tags.

• Guide to Paper and Report
• Paper and Report (Writing)
• Paper and Report (Reading)
• Paper and Report (Searching)

Also, you can find books about academic writing by using subject search. Select advanced search on KULINE and enter "academic writing" in subject field.

• academic writing

Refining by holding library, you can easily find the books which are at your frequently-used library or meet your needs.

For more information on how to use KULINE, please click here .

Join workshops

Kyoto University libraries have a variety of workshops and events through the year. Check Workshops for the latest information and past materials.

Lectures about academic writing and information retrieval

• An Introduction to Academic Information Literacy - Library & Web Usage [Japanese] (-2021)
• University Students and the Use of Information: An Introduction to Information Search, edited by Yoshitaka Kawasaki. Kyoto Institute for Library and Information Science Study Group, 2001. [Japanese] https://kuline.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/opac/opac_link/bibid/BB00685060

2. Search for the literature about your topic

It is important to collect previous studies which will give you an overview of the research field in order to write good reports and papers. The previous studies will show you what to do. After learning a basic structure of reports and papers, search for items which help you understand your topic.

Learn how to choose items

• Search for the literature to which your professor referred in your class.
• In addition, see the bibliography list in it.
• Search on the KULINE by your research topic and related keywords.

For a more advanced search, see  The Basics of Collecting Documents .

Searching on databases

You can search on databases for electronic information and statistics as well as printed books. For example, past articles in newspaper retrieved from a newspaper database may be useful for your research.

• Kyoto University Library Network > Databases
• Kyoto University Library Network > Databases > Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
• Kyoto University Library Network > Databases > News and Newspaper

3. Make a reference list

At the end of your reports and papers, you MUST give information about references on which you based your reports and papers. The aim at a reference list is the followings.

• To distinguish your own ideas and findings from those you have drawn from the work of others
• To pay tribute to previous researches
• To clarify citation
• To enable readers to find your sources

Learn how to write a reference

There are many different referencing conventions. You should follow the directions given by your professor, or the style specified according to your major or target journal. You can refer to the following style when a style guide is not specified.

Style for Japanese journals

• Rules and methods of reference: applying the Standards for Information of Science and Technology (SIST) [Japanese] This is a guidebook explaining how to write a list of references.

Styles for overseas journals

• The ACS Style Guide, 3rd ed. (2006) https://kuline.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/opac/opac_link/bibid/BB02250265
• ACS Style Guide  [University of Wisconsin-Madison]
• The ACS style guide: a manual for authors and editors. Janet S. Dodd (ed.), Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, c1997. https://kuline.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/opac/opac_link/bibid/BB01132970
• Authoring Tools and Templates This includes templates for writing papers in Transaction, Word, LaTex, etc.
• IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors
• Featured Resources for Researchers
• Physical Review Style and Notation Guide
• The Basics of Sixth Edition APA Style
• Laurie Rozakis. Schaum's quick guide to writing great research papers. 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, 2007 https://kuline.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/opac/opac_link/bibid/EB03065424
• The Chicago manual of style Online
• Purdue Online Writing Lab [Purdue University] Style guide for APA, MLA, Chicago.
• Citation Guide [Florida State University Libraries] Style guide for APA, MLA, Chicago, and citation tools.

Citation tools

Citation tools store a large number of style templates and can be used to easily standardize and change the reference style throughout your document.

• Using citation tool (EndNote Online) [Japanese] This is an introduction to citation management.
• Abha Agrawal. EndNote 1 - 2 - 3 Easy! : Reference Management for the Professional. Springer-Verlag US, 2009. https://kuline.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/opac/opac_link/bibid/EB03620926
• EndNote (CD-ROM ver.) [Japanese] About EndNote (CD-ROM ver.) at Kyoto University Medical Library website. *It is not provided by the library.
• Mendeley It is a free multifunctional citation tool. *It is not provided by the library.

JLPT N4 Vocabulary レポート (repooto)

Definition: 意味.

Learn Japanese vocabulary: レポート (repooto). Meaning: report.

Type: Noun, Katakana

Level: JLPT N4 Vocabulary

Similar Vocabulary

レポート - example sentences 例文.

Each example sentence includes a Japanese furigana reading, the romaji reading, and the English translation.

Click the below red button to toggle off and and on all of the hints, and you can click on the buttons individually to show only the ones you want to see.

Toggle all hints!

私は今 レポート を書いている。

ふりがな romaji English

いつ レポート を提出するのですか。

私が書いた レポート を見て欲しい。

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StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

How To Write In Japanese – A Beginner’s Guide

Do you want to learn how to write in Japanese , but feel confused or intimidated by the script?

This post will break it all down for you, in a step-by-step guide to reading and writing skills this beautiful language.

I remember when I first started learning Japanese and how daunting the writing system seemed. I even wondered whether I could get away without learning the script altogether and just sticking with romaji (writing Japanese with the roman letters).

I’m glad I didn’t.

If you’re serious about learning Japanese, you have to get to grips with the script sooner or later. If you don’t, you won’t be able to read or write anything useful, and that’s no way to learn a language.

The good news is that it isn’t as hard as you think. And I’ve teamed up with my friend Luca Toma (who’s also a Japanese coach ) to bring you this comprehensive guide to reading and writing Japanese.

By the way, if you want to learn Japanese fast and have fun while doing it, my top recommendation is  Japanese Uncovered  which teaches you through StoryLearning®. 

With  Japanese Uncovered  you’ll use my unique StoryLearning® method to learn Japanese naturally through story… not rules. It’s as fun as it is effective.

If you’re ready to get started,  click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

If you have a friend who’s learning Japanese, you might like to share it with them. Now, let’s get stuck in…

One Language, Two Systems, Three Scripts

If you are a complete beginner, Japanese writing may appear just like Chinese.

But if you look at it more carefully you'll notice that it doesn’t just contain complex Chinese characters… there are lots of simpler ones too.

Take a look.

それでも、 日本人 の 食生活 も 急速 に 変化 してきています 。 ハンバーグ や カレーライス は 子供に人気 がありますし 、都会 では 、 イタリア 料理、東南 アジア 料理、多国籍料理 などを 出 す エスニック 料理店 がどんどん 増 えています 。

Nevertheless, the eating habits of Japanese people are also rapid ly chang ing . Hamburgers and curry rice are popular with children . In cities , ethnic   restaurants serv ing Italian cuisine , Southeast Asian cuisine and multi-national cuisine keep increas ing more and more .

(Source: “Japan: Then and Now”, 2001, p. 62-63)

As you can see from this sample, within one Japanese text there are actually three different scripts intertwined. We’ve colour coded them to help you tell them apart.

(What’s really interesting is the different types of words – parts of speech – represented by each colour – it tells you a lot about what you use each of the three scripts for.)

Can you see the contrast between complex characters (orange) and simpler ones (blue and green)?

The complex characters are called kanji (漢字 lit. Chinese characters) and were borrowed from Chinese. They are what’s called a ‘logographic system' in which each symbol corresponds to a block of meaning (食 ‘to eat', 南 ‘south', 国 ‘country').

Each kanji also has its own pronunciation, which has to be learnt – you can’t “read” an unknown kanji like you could an unknown word in English.

Luckily, the other two sets of characters are simpler!

Those in blue above are called hiragana and those in green are called katakana . Katakana and hiragana are both examples of ‘syllabic systems', and unlike the kanji , each character corresponds to single sound. For example, そ= so, れ= re; イ= i, タ = ta.

Hiragana and katakana are a godsend for Japanese learners because the pronunciation isn’t a problem. If you see it, you can say it!

So, at this point, you’re probably wondering:

“What’s the point of using three different types of script? How could that have come about?”

In fact, all these scripts have a very specific role to play in a piece of Japanese writing, and you’ll find that they all work together in harmony in representing the Japanese language in a written form.

So let’s check them out in more detail.

First up, the two syllabic systems: hiragana and katakana (known collectively as kana ).

The ‘Kana' – One Symbol, One Sound

Both hiragana and katakana have a fixed number of symbols: 46 characters in each, to be precise.

Each of these corresponds to a combination of the 5 Japanese vowels (a, i, u, e o) and the 9 consonants (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w).

(Source: Wikipedia Commons )

Hiragana  (the blue characters in our sample text) are recognizable for their roundish shape and you’ll find them being used for three functions in Japanese writing:

1. Particles (used to indicate the grammatical function of a word)

は     wa     topic marker

が     ga      subject marker

を     wo      direct object marker

2. To change the meaning of verbs, adverbs or adjectives, which generally have a root written in kanji. (“Inflectional endings”)

急速 に     kyuusoku ni        rapid ly

増 えています       fu ete imasu     are increas ing

3. Native Japanese words not covered by the other two scripts

それでも     soredemo     nevertheless

どんどん     dondon     more and more

Katakana  (the green characters in our sample text) are recognisable for their straight lines and sharp corners. They are generally reserved for:

1. Loanwords from other languages. See what you can spot!

ハンバーグ     hanbaagu     hamburger

カレーライス     karee raisu     curry rice

エスニック     esunikku     ethnic

2. Transcribing foreign names

イタリア     itaria     Italy

アジア     ajia     Asia

They are also used for emphasis (the equivalent of italics or underlining in English), and for scientific terms (plants, animals, minerals, etc.).

So where did hiragana and katakana come from?

In fact, they were both derived from kanji which had a particular pronunciation; Hiragana took from the Chinese cursive script  (安 an →あ a), whereas katakana developed from single components of the regular Chinese script (阿 a →ア a ).

So that covers the origins the two kana scripts in Japanese, and how we use them.

Now let’s get on to the fun stuff… kanji !

The Kanji – One Symbol, One Meaning

Kanji  – the most formidable hurdle for learners of Japanese!

We said earlier that kanji is a logographic system, in which each symbol corresponds to a “block of meaning”.

食     eating

生     life, birth

活     vivid, lively

“Block of meaning” is the best phrase, because one kanji is not necessarily a “word” on its own.

You might have to combine one kanji with another in order to make an actual word, and also to express more complex concepts:

生 + 活   =   生活     lifestyle

食 + 生活   =  食生活     eating habits

If that sounds complicated, remember that you see the same principle in other languages.

Think about the word ‘telephone' in English – you can break it down into two main components derived from Greek:

‘tele' (far)  +  ‘phone' (sound)  = telephone

Neither of them are words in their own right.

So there are lots and lots of kanji , but in order to make more sense of them we can start by categorising them.

There are several categories of kanji , starting with the ‘pictographs' (象形文字 sh ōkei moji), which look like the objects they represent:

(Source: Wikipedia Commons )

In fact, there aren’t too many of these pictographs.

Around 90% of the kanji in fact come from six other categories, in which several basic elements (called ‘radicals') are combined to form new concepts.

For example:

人 (‘man' as a radical)   +   木 (‘tree')    =  休 (‘to rest')

These are known as 形声文字 keisei moji or ‘radical-phonetic compounds'.

You can think of these characters as being made up of two parts:

• A radical that tells you what category of word it is: animals, plants, metals, etc.)
• A second component that completes the character and give it its pronunciation (a sort of Japanese approximation from Chinese).

So that’s the story behind the kanji , but what are they used for in Japanese writing?

Typically, they are used to represent concrete concepts.

When you look at a piece of Japanese writing, you’ll see kanji being used for nouns, and in the stem of verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Here are some of them from our sample text at the start of the article:

日本人     Japanese people 多国籍料理     multinational cuisine 東南     Southeast

Now, here’s the big question!

Once you’ve learnt to read or write a kanji , how do you pronounce it?

If you took the character from the original Chinese, it would usually only have one pronunciation.

However, by the time these characters leave China and reach Japan, they usually have two or sometimes even more pronunciations.

How or why does this happen?

Let's look at an example.

To say ‘mountain', the Chinese use the pictograph 山 which depicts a mountain with three peaks. The pronunciation of this character in Chinese is sh ā n (in the first tone).

Now, in Japanese the word for ‘mountain' is ‘yama'.

So in this case, the Japanese decided to borrow the character山from Chinese, but to pronounce it differently: yama .

However, this isn’t the end of the story!

The Japanese did decide to borrow the pronunciation from the original Chinese, but only to use it when that character is used in compound words.

So, in this case, when the character 山 is part of a compound word, it is pronounced as san/zan – clearly an approximation to the original Chinese pronunciation.

Here’s the kanji on its own:

山は…      Yama wa…     The mountain….

And here’s the kanji when it appears in compound words:

火山は…     Ka zan wa     The volcano…

富士山は…     Fuji san wa…     Mount Fuji….

To recap, every kanji has at least two pronunciations.

The first one (the so-called訓読み kun'yomi or ‘meaning reading') has an original Japanese pronunciation, and is used with one kanji on it’s own.

The second one (called音読み  on'yomi or ‘sound-based reading') is used in compound words, and comes from the original Chinese.

Makes sense, right? 😉

In Japan, there’s an official number of kanji that are classified for “daily use” (常用漢字 joy ō kanji ) by the Japanese Ministry of Education – currently 2,136.

(Although remember that the number of actual words that you can form using these characters is much higher.)

So now… if you wanted to actually learn all these kanji , how should you go about it?

To answer this question, Luca’s going to give us an insight into how he did it.  

How I Learnt Kanji

I started to learn kanji more than 10 years ago at a time when you couldn't find all the great resources that are available nowadays. I only had paper kanji dictionary and simple lists from my textbook.

What I did have, however, was the memory of a fantastic teacher.

I studied Chinese for two years in college, and this teacher taught us characters in two helpful ways:

• He would analyse them in terms of their radicals and other components
• He kept us motivated and interested in the process by using fascinating stories based on etymology (the origin of the characters)

Once I’d learnt to recognise the 214 radicals which make up all characters – the building blocks of Chinese characters – it was then much easier to go on and learn the characters and the words themselves.

It’s back to the earlier analogy of dividing the word ‘telephone' into tele and phone .

But here’s the thing – knowing the characters alone isn’t enough. There are too many, and they’re all very similar to one another.

If you want to get really good at the language, and really know how to read and how to write in Japanese, you need a higher-order strategy.

The number one strategy that I used to reach a near-native ability in reading and writing in Japanese was to learn the kanji within the context of dialogues or other texts .

I never studied them as individual characters or words.

Now, I could give you a few dozen ninja tricks for how to learn Japanese kanji. B ut the one secret that blows everything else out of the water and guarantees real success in the long-term, is extensive reading and massive exposure.

This is the foundation of the StoryLearning® method , where you immerse yourself in language through story.

In the meantime, there are a lot of resources both online and offline to learn kanji , each of which is based on a particular method or approach (from flashcards to mnemonic and so on).

The decision of which approach to use can be made easier by understanding the way you learn best.

Do you have a photographic memory or prefer working with images? Do you prefer to listen to audio? Or perhaps you prefer to write things by hands?

You can and should try more than one method, in order to figure out which works best for you.

( Note : You should get a copy of this excellent guide by John Fotheringham, which has all the resources you’ll ever need to learn kanji )

Summary Of How To Write In Japanese

So you’ve made it to the end!

See – I told you it wasn’t that bad! Let’s recap what we’ve covered.

Ordinary written Japanese employs a mixture of three scripts:

• Kanji, or Chinese characters, of which there are officially 2,136 in daily use (more in practice)
• 2 syllabic alphabets called hiragana and katakana, containing 42 symbols each

In special cases, such as children’s books or simplified materials for language learners, you might find everything written using only hiragana or katakana .

But apart from those materials, everything in Japanese is written by employing the three scripts together. And it’s the kanji which represent the cultural and linguistic challenge in the Japanese language.

If you want to become proficient in Japanese you have to learn all three!

Although it seems like a daunting task, remember that there are many people before you who have found themselves right at the beginning of their journey in learning Japanese.

And every journey begins with a single step.

So what are you waiting for?

The best place to start is to enrol in  Japanese Uncovered . The course includes a series of lessons that teach you hiragana, katakana and kanji. It also includes an exciting Japanese story which comes in different formats (romaji, hiragana, kana and kanji) so you can practice reading Japanese, no matter what level you're at right now.

– – –

It’s been a pleasure for me to work on this article with Luca Toma, and I’ve learnt a lot in the process.

Now he didn’t ask me to write this, but if you’re serious about learning Japanese, you should consider hiring Luca as a coach. The reasons are many, and you can find out more on his website: JapaneseCoaching.it

Do you know anyone learning Japanese? Why not send them this article, or click here to send a tweet .

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Home » Articles » How to Write in Japanese — A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Writing

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. ?

written by Caitlin Sacasas

Language: Japanese

Reading time: 13 minutes

Published: Apr 2, 2021

Updated: Oct 18, 2021

How to Write in Japanese — A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Writing

Does the Japanese writing system intimidate you?

For most people, this seems like the hardest part of learning Japanese. How to write in Japanese is a bit more complex than some other languages. But there are ways to make it easier so you can master it!

Here at Fluent in 3 Months , we encourage actually speaking over intensive studying, reading, and listening. But writing is an active form of learning too, and crucial for Japanese. Japanese culture is deeply ingrained in its writing systems. If you can’t read or write it, you’ll struggle as you go along in your studies.

Some of the best Japanese textbooks expect you to master these writing systems… fast . For instance, the popular college textbook Genki , published by the Japan Times, expects you to master the basics in as little as a week. After that, they start to phase out the romanized versions of the word.

It’s also easy to mispronounce words when they’re romanized into English instead of the original writing system. If you have any experience learning how to write in Korean , then you know that romanization can vary and the way it reads isn’t often how it’s spoken.

Despite having three writing systems, there are benefits to it. Kanji, the “most difficult,” actually makes memorizing vocabulary easier!

So, learning to write in Japanese will go a long way in your language studies and help you to speak Japanese fast .

Why Does Japanese Have Three Writing Systems? A Brief Explainer

Japanese has three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two are collectively called kana and are the basics of writing in Japanese.

Writing Kana

If you think about English, we have two writing systems — print and cursive. Both print and cursive write out the same letters, but they look “sharp” and “curvy.” The same is true for kana. Hiragana is “curvy” and katakana is “sharp,” but they both represent the same Japanese alphabet (which is actually called a syllabary). They both represent sounds, or syllables, rather than single letters (except for vowels and “n”, hiragana ん or katakana ン). Hiragana and katakana serve two different purposes.

Hiragana is the most common, and the first taught to Japanese children. If this is all you learn, you would be understood (although you’d come across child-like). Hiragana is used for grammar functions, like changing conjugation or marking the subject of a sentence. Because of this, hiragana helps break up a sentence when combined with kanji. It makes it easier to tell where a word begins and ends, especially since Japanese doesn’t use spaces. It’s also used for furigana, which are small hiragana written next to kanji to help with the reading. You see furigana often in manga , Japanese comics, for younger audiences who haven’t yet learned to read all the kanji. (Or learners like us!)

Katakana serves to mark foreign words. When words from other languages are imported into Japanese, they’re often written in Japanese as close as possible to the original word. (Like how you can romanize Japanese into English, called romaji). For example, パン ( pan ) comes from Spanish, and means “bread.” Or from English, “smartphone” is スマートフォン ( suma-tofon ) or shortened, slang form スマホ ( sumaho ). Katakana can also be used to stylistically write a Japanese name, to write your own foreign name in Japanese, or to add emphasis to a word when writing.

Writing Kanji

Then there’s kanji. Kanji was imported from Chinese, and each character means a word, instead of a syllable or letter. 犬, read inu , means “dog.” And 食, read ta or shoku , means “food” or “to eat.” They combine with hiragana or other kanji to complete their meaning and define how you pronounce them.

So if you wanted to say “I’m eating,” you would say 食べます ( tabemasu ), where -bemasu completes the verb and puts it in grammatical tense using hiragana. If you wanted to say “Japanese food,” it would be 日本食 ( nipponshoku ), where it’s connected to other kanji.

If you didn’t have these three forms, it would make reading Japanese very difficult. The sentences would run together and it would be confusing. Like in this famous Japanese tongue twister: にわにはにわにわとりがいる, or romanized niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru . But in kanji, it looks like 庭には二羽鶏がいる. The meaning? “There are chickens in the garden.” Thanks to the different writing systems, we know that the first niwa means garden, the second ni wa are the grammatical particles, the third niwa is to say there are at least two, and niwatori is “chickens.”

Japanese Pronunciation

Japanese has fewer sounds than English, and except for “r,” most of them are in the English language. So you should find most of the sounds easy to pick up!

Japanese has the same 5 vowels, but only 16 consonants. For the most part, all syllables consist of only a vowel, or a consonant plus a vowel. But there is the single “n,” and “sh,” “ts,” and “ch” sounds, as well as consonant + -ya/-yu/-yo sounds. I’ll explain this more in a minute.

Although Japanese has the same 5 vowel sounds, they only have one sound . Unlike English, there is no “long A” and “short A” sound. This makes it easy when reading kana because the sound never changes . So, once you learn how to write kana, you will always know how to pronounce it.

Here’s how the 5 vowels sound in Japanese:

• あ / ア: “ah” as in “latte”
• い / イ: “ee” as in “bee”
• う / ウ: “oo” as in “tooth”
• え / エ: “eh” as in “echo”
• お / オ: “oh” as in “open”

Even when combined with consonants, the sound of the vowel stays the same. Look at these examples:

• か / カ: “kah” as in “copy”
• ち / チ: “chi” as in “cheap”
• む / ム: “mu” as in “move”
• せ / セ: “se” as in “set”
• の / ノ: “no” as in “note”

Take a look at the entire syllabary chart:

Based on learning how to pronounce the vowels, can you pronounce the rest of the syllables? The hardest ones will be the R-row of sounds, “tsu,” “fu,” and “n.”

For “r” it sounds between an “r” and an “l” sound in English. Almost like the Spanish, actually. First, try saying “la, la, la.” Your tongue should push off of the back of your teeth to make this sound. Now say “rah, rah, rah.” Notice how your tongue pulls back to touch your back teeth. Now, say “dah, dah, dah.” That placement of your tongue to make the “d” sound is actually where you make the Japanese “r” sound. You gently push off of this spot on the roof of your mouth as you pull back your tongue like an English “r.”

“Tsu” blends together “t” and “s” in a way we don’t quite have in English. You push off the “t” sound, and should almost sound like the “s” is drawn out. The sound “fu” is so soft, and like a breath of air coming out. Think like a sigh, “phew.” It doesn’t sound like “who,” but a soft “f.” As for our lone consonant, “n” can sound like “n” or “m,” depending on the word.

Special Japanese Character Readings and How to Write Them

There are a few Japanese characters that combine with others to create more sounds. You’ll often see dakuten , which are double accent marks above the character on the right side ( ﾞ), and handakuten , which is a small circle on the right side ( ﾟ).

Here’s how dakuten affect the characters:

And handakuten are only used with the H-row characters, changing it from “h” to “p.” So か ( ka ) becomes が ( ga ), and ひ ( hi ) becomes either び ( bi ) or ぴ ( pi ).

A sokuon adds a small っ between two characters to double the consonant that follows it and make a “stop” in the word. In the saying いらっしゃいませ ( irasshaimase , “Welcome!”), the “rahs-shai” has a slight glottal pause where the “tsu” emphasizes the double “s.”

One of the special readings that tend to be mispronounced are the yoon characters. These characters add a small “y” row character to the other rows to blend the sounds together. These look like ちゃ ( cha ), きょ ( kyo ), and しゅ ( shu ). They’re added to the “i” column of kana characters.

An example of a common mispronunciation is “Tokyo.” It’s often said “Toh-key-yo,” but it’s actually only two syllables: “Toh-kyo.” The k and y are blended; there is no “ee” sound in the middle.

How to Read, Write, and Pronounce Kanji Characters

Here’s where things get tricky. Kanji, since it represents a whole word or idea, and combines with hiragana… It almost always has more than one way to read and pronounce it. And when it comes to writing them, they have a lot more to them.

Let’s start by breaking down the kanji a bit, shall we?

Most kanji consist of radicals, the basic elements or building blocks. For instance, 日 (“sun” or “day”) is a radical. So is 言 (“words” or “to say”) and 心 (“heart”). So when we see the kanji 曜, we see that “day” has been squished in this complex kanji. This kanji means “day of the week.” It’s in every weekday’s name: 月曜日 ( getsuyoubi , “Monday”), 火曜日 ( kayoubi , “Tuesday”), 水曜日 ( suiyoubi , “Wednesday”), etc.

When the kanji for “words” is mixed into another kanji, it usually has something to do with conversation or language. 日本語 ( nihongo ) is the word for “Japanese” and the final kanji 語 includes 言. And as for 心, it’s often in kanji related to expressing emotions and feelings, like 怒る ( okoru , “angry”) and 思う ( omou , “to think”).

In this way, some kanji make a lot of sense when we break them down like this. A good example is 妹 ( imouto ), the kanji for “little sister.” It’s made up of two radicals: 女, “woman,” and 未, “not yet.” She’s “not yet a woman,” because she’s your kid sister.

So why learn radicals? Because radicals make it easier to memorize, read, and write the kanji. By learning radicals, you can break the kanji down using mnemonics (like “not yet a woman” to remember imouto ). If you know each “part,” you’ll remember how to write it. 妹 has 7 strokes to it, but only 2 radicals. So instead of memorizing tons of tiny lines, memorize the parts.

As for pronouncing them, this is largely a memorization game. But here’s a pro-tip. Each kanji has “common” readings — often only one or two. Memorize how to read the kanji with common words that use them, and you’ll know how to read that kanji more often than not.

Japanese Writing: Stroke Order

So, I mentioned stroke order with kanji. But what is that? Stroke order is the proper sequence you use to write Japanese characters.

The rule of stroke order is you go from top to bottom, left to right.

This can still be confusing with some complex kanji, but again, radicals play a part here. You would break down each radical top left-most stroke to bottom right stroke, then move on to the next radical. A helpful resource is Jisho.org , which shows you how to properly write all the characters. Check out how to write the kanji for “kanji” as a perfect example of breaking down radicals.

When it comes to kana, stroke order still matters. Even though they’re simpler, proper stroke order makes your characters easier to read. And some characters rely on stroke order to tell them apart. Take シ and ツ:

[Shi and Tsu example]

If you didn’t use proper stroke order, these two katakana characters would look the same!

How to Memorize Japanese Kanji and Kana

When it comes to Japanese writing, practice makes perfect. Practice writing your sentences down in Japanese, every day. Practice filling in the kana syllabary chart for hiragana and katakana, until there are no blank boxes and you’ve got them all right.

Create mnemonics for both kanji and kana. Heisig’s method is one of the best ways to memorize how to write kanji with mnemonics. Using spaced repetition helps too, like Anki. Then you’re regularly seeing each character, and you can input your mnemonics into the note of the card so you have it as a reminder.

Another great way to practice is to write out words you already know. If you know mizu means “water,” then learn the kanji 水 and write it with the kanji every time from here on out. If you know the phrase おはようございます means “good morning,” practice writing in in kana every morning. That phrase alone gives you practice with 9 characters and two with dakuten! And try looking up loan words to practice katakana.

Tools to Help You with Japanese Writing

There are some fantastic resources out there to help you practice writing in Japanese. Here are a few to help you learn it fast:

• JapanesePod101 : Yes, JapanesePod101 is a podcast. But they often feature YouTube videos and have helpful PDFs that teach you kanji and kana! Plus, you’ll pick up all kinds of helpful cultural insights and grammar tips.
• LingQ : LingQ is chock full of reading material in Japanese, giving you plenty of exposure to kana, new kanji, and words. It uses spaced repetition to help you review.
• Skritter : Skritter is one of the best apps for Japanese writing. You can practice writing kanji on the app, and review them periodically so you don’t forget. It’s an incredible resource to keep up with your Japanese writing practice on the go.
• Scripts : From the creator of Drops, this app was designed specifically for learning languages with a different script from your own.

How to Type in Japanese

It’s actually quite simple to type in Japanese! On a PC, you can go to “Language Settings” and click “Add a preferred language.” Download Japanese — 日本語 — and make sure to move it below English. (Otherwise, it will change your laptop’s language to Japanese… Which can be an effective study tool , though!)

To start typing in Japanese, you would press the Windows key + space. Your keyboard will now be set to Japanese! You can type the romanized script, and it will show you the suggestions for kanji and kana. To easily change back and forth between Japanese and English, use the alt key + “~” key.

For Mac, you can go to “System Preferences”, then “Keyboard” and then click the “+” button to add and set Japanese. To toggle between languages, use the command key and space bar.

For mobile devices, it’s very similar. You’ll go to your settings, then language and input settings. Add the Japanese keyboard, and then you’ll be able to toggle back and forth when your typing from the keyboard!

Japanese Writing Isn’t Scary!

Japanese writing isn’t that bad. It does take practice, but it’s fun to write! It’s a beautiful script. So, don’t believe the old ideology that “three different writing systems will take thousands of hours to learn!” A different writing system shouldn’t scare you off. Each writing system has a purpose and makes sense once you start learning. They build on each other, so learning it gets easier as you go. Realistically, you could read a Japanese newspaper after only about two months of consistent studying and practice with kanji!

Caitlin Sacasas

Content Writer, Fluent in 3 Months

Caitlin is a copywriter, content strategist, and language learner. Besides languages, her passions are fitness, books, and Star Wars. Connect with her: Twitter | LinkedIn

Speaks: English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

Have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days

A Complete Guide to the Three Writing Systems in Japanese

Are you ready to start your Japanese journey but the writing systems seem daunting and a little scary? Well look no further, I am here to help explain the basics of the Japanese writing systems and break down the differences between them. With a little help, you will be well on your way to learning how to read and write in Japanese!

Introduction to the Three Writing Systems

Effective ways to memorize kana and kanji.

Japanese has three distinct scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In normal Japanese writing, you will see all of these jumbled together in a sentence, but each of them has a unique role in the language, so let’s learn about them separately. 

Hiragana, the first script typically taught to learners, consists of 46 characters, each representing a syllable. It has a soft and cursive appearance. For instance, the word こんにちは “konnichiwa” meaning “hello” is written entirely in hiragana. Additionally, hiragana is used for verb conjugations, particles, and other essential elements of Japanese sentences, allowing learners to form coherent sentences and comprehend basic expressions.

Katakana, similar in structure to hiragana, also comprises 46 characters, but its appearance is angular and sharp. Katakana is primarily used for foreign words, names, and loanwords from other languages. For example, コーヒー “koohii” is the katakana word for “coffee.” Katakana usually means that the word is of foreign origin, making it easier for Japanese speakers to recognize and pronounce these words.

Kanji, the most intricate script, is derived from Chinese characters and consists of thousands of characters. Each Kanji represents a concept, word, or idea. For instance, the kanji 今 means “now” or the kanji 日 means “day.” We can also combine certain kanji to make more complex words, like 今日 which makes the word “today.” Kanji is commonly used for nouns, adjectives, verbs, and other essential elements of Japanese text. Kanji might seem overwhelming at first, but don’t worry, they aren’t that complicated and there are plenty of strategies that can help you learn them effectively!

Together, these three scripts are used to create full Japanese sentences. For instance, a Japanese sentence might look like this: 

今日はコーヒーを飲みました。

“Kyou ha koohii wo nomimashita”

Today I drank coffee.

Hiragana is made up of 46 main symbols. Each of these represents a syllable. For example, the hiragana ね is pronounced “ne” and こ is pronounced “ko.” We can put these together to make the word ねこ or “neko” meaning cat. Hiragana is used for some words, but it can also be used for grammatical parts of speech like particles or at the end of verbs to conjugate them. Most importantly, hiragana is the foundation of Japanese, so when you are learning kanji, the pronunciation for them can be spelled out with hiragana, which makes it a great stepping stone to learning kanji. So once you learn these symbols thoroughly, you can always fall back on using them if you don’t remember the kanji for a certain word. 

You can tell hiragana apart from katakana because it is more rounded and curved. 

Similar in structure to hiragana, katakana is another essential script in the Japanese writing system. Comprising 46 characters as well, katakana, however, serves a different purpose. It is mostly used for foreign words, names, and loanwords from other languages. For instance, the word ミルク is pronounced “miruku” and means “milk.” 

The best part about katakana is that when you get used to Japanese pronunciation, you can sound out most of these words with no need to translate them because most words come from English! So “table” in Japanese is simply テーブル “teeburu,” or “lemon” is レモン is “remon.” Essentially these are just English words pronounced with a Japanese accent. 

Katakana can also be used to emphasize words, or the foreign word can come from a language other than English, so this isn’t always the case. But for the most part, katakana will be the easiest script for you to learn in Japanese. You can tell the difference between hiragana and katakana because katakana is more angular with sharp angles. 

Arguably the most intricate and fascinating writing system, kanji, consists of thousands of characters. Don’t let this intimate you though! You only need to know about 1000 to function in Japanese life, and there are a ton of helpful ways to learn them to make it easy. 

The kanji are derived from Chinese characters, and each kanji represents a concept, word, or idea. For example, the kanji 外 is pronounced がい “gai” and means “outside.” The kanji 国 is pronounced こく “koku” and means “country.” You can use each of these kanji on its own, but together they make 外国 or がいこく which means “foreign country.” 

This is really the beauty of Japanese; you can actually see the meanings of words with the images that kanji create. One of my favorites is 花火 (はなび or “hanabi”) which comprises the kanji for “flower” and “fire,” and together they make the word “fireworks.” Isn’t kanji beautiful!?

Kanji is commonly used for nouns, adjectives, verbs, and other essential elements of Japanese text, and mastering it provides insight into the depth of Japanese literature and history.

As learners start on their journey to master the Japanese writing systems, memorization techniques are key. Hiragana and katakana together are simply called the “kana,” and for these, the best way to memorize them is through writing and flashcards. Language apps online can really help you with correct pronunciation and memorizing each symbol. But don’t rule out good old-fashioned pen and paper as well. Science has proven over and over that writing helps cement concepts in your brain! The good news is that the kana each only has 46 base symbols, so it should only take you a few days to a few weeks to get a good grasp of them all. Once you have your flashcards down, try testing yourself by reading Japanese words and seeing how fast you can pronounce each kana. 

Conquering kanji requires patience and dedication. You might feel like it’s impossible to learn so many, but starting out with a few dozen simple ones that are used every day will help you get the hang of how they work. Once you know a few dozen and their meanings and how to read them, there are a few tips that can help you expand your kanji knowledge. 

Firstly, learning the radicals, which are the smaller parts that make up the kanji, can really help with meanings. For instance the radical 亻means “person” and when it shows up in a kanji, you can usually assume that the meaning will have to do with people. For example, the word “body” is 体. Learning these radicals can really give you a leg up on meanings when it comes to learning new kanji.

Another great way to help you learn the kanji is through SRS or spaced-repetition systems. This is just a fancy way to use flashcards that are backed by science to help you remember more effectively. The app Anki is one of the best SRS to use for flashcards and comes with a ton of great decks to help you learn the kanji characters. 

Lastly, learning the stroke order for kanji can help you write them and tell the difference between characters that might look similar. Each kanji has a specific order you write the strokes in. Once you know this, you will be able to more easily recognize the characters, and be able to write them yourself, which will aid in memorization. 

The three writing systems, hiragana, katakana, and kanji, form the bedrock of the Japanese language, providing learners with an exciting journey into the heart of Japanese culture and communication. As you start your quest to master these scripts, embrace the beauty of each system, and remember that consistent practice and perseverance are the keys to unlocking reading and writing in Japanese!

How to Say “To Write” in Japanese: Formal and Informal Expressions

Learning how to express the action of writing in Japanese is an essential step for anyone studying the language. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore both the formal and informal ways of saying “to write” in Japanese. We’ll also provide you with helpful tips, examples, and even regional variations if necessary. So, let’s dive in and expand our knowledge!

Formal Expressions

Formal expressions are typically used in polite or respectful contexts such as business interactions, official documents, or when addressing someone unfamiliar or of higher status. Here are some formal ways to say “to write” in Japanese:

1. 書く (kaku) The most common and straightforward verb for “to write” is 書く (kaku). It is used in formal situations and suits various contexts. Example: 私は手紙を書きます。 (Watashi wa tegami o kakimasu.) – I write letters.

2. お書きになる (o-kaki ni naru) When emphasizing respect, especially toward customers, clients, or someone of high status, the honorific form お書きになる (o-kaki ni naru) is employed. Example: 申請書をお書きになってください。 (Shinseisho o o-kaki ni natte kudasai.) – Please write the application form.

Informal Expressions

Informal expressions are used in casual and familiar settings such as conversations with friends, family, or people of similar age and status. Here are some informal ways to say “to write” in Japanese:

1. 書く (kaku) Just like in formal language, 書く (kaku) is widely used in informal situations as well. Example: メモを書いたよ。 (Memo o kaita yo.) – I wrote a memo.

2. 書いちゃう (kaichau) / 書いちゃった (kaichatta) For a more casual tone, you can use 書いちゃう (kaichau) when expressing completion of writing, or 書いちゃった (kaichatta) for past tense. Example: レポートを書いちゃったんだ。 (Repo-to o kaichattan da.) – I went and wrote the report.

Tips and Additional Phrases

Here are some additional tips to enhance your understanding of how to say “to write” in Japanese:

• When encountering kanji (Chinese characters) for “to write,” pay attention to stroke order, as it influences proper form and readability.
• Practice writing hiragana and katakana to improve your overall writing skills in Japanese.
• Experiment with different writing tools, such as brushes, pens, or calligraphy pens, to experience various traditional and contemporary writing styles.
• Remember that context is crucial when using different expressions for “to write” in Japanese, so always consider the situation and your relationship with the listener.

Now that you have a solid foundation in how to say “to write” in formal and informal Japanese, you can confidently express this action in a range of situations. Keep practicing and incorporating these phrases into your daily interactions to strengthen your language skills over time. Happy writing!

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The Ultimate Guide to Citing Japanese Sources Everything you need to know about properly giving credit in Japanese

September 4, 2015 • words written by Kristen Dexter • Art by Aya Francisco

Whether you're in high school, college, or grad school, you need to know how to cite your sources. Guides and styles litter the internet but the moment you have to cite something that isn't in English all of those sources of knowledge seem to dry up. That's where we come in! You're about to learn everything there is to know about citing Japanese sources and making your works cited/bibliography page with those sources. Let's get started.

What is a Colophon?

A colophon is something you're probably familiar with but never knew it had a name. It's that page at the beginning of a book that looks a little something like this:

It has all the information you need to write a citation, nicely organized into one easy to access place. Whether you're citing in MLA, Chicago, or APA, everything you need should be here. It has some extra info you don't need, like what font they used, but it's going to be your best friend regardless.

In Japanese this is called okudzuke 奥付 （ おくづけ ） . These colophons are a little different from the ones your probably used to. They contain way more information than English language ones usually do. The terms they use can change simply for style purposes, and they are almost always at the back of the book (but sometimes they're at the front like English ones). This may sound daunting at first, but once you know what you're looking for it's actually quite simple!

Important Terms

Knowing what the colophon is will help, but not if you don't know what you're looking for. Here's what you need to have a complete citation:

• Place of Publication
• Date of Publication

That's all well and good, but if you don't know those terms in Japanese they aren't very helpful. Learn these words:

• 著 / 著者 – Author
• 発行所 / 出版社 – Publisher
• 出版 / 発行日 / 発行の年月日 – Date of Publication

The title should be pretty obvious, it's going to be on the cover and usually at the top of the colophon. The date is also pretty easy to find since it should be in roman numerals, but if you're using a super old, dusty book it might be written with the Japanese date. If you see something like 昭和６４ (Showa 64) that was 1989. But so was Heisei 1. Make sure to brush up on your Japanese calendar skills if you need to. Whenever you encounter these dates, change them over to the western calendar and use roman numerals.

If you'd like to know what the rest of the information you're looking at is, take a look at this vocabulary list:

• 発行者 – Publisher (Person)
• 発行人 – Publisher / Issuer (Person)
• 印刷者 – Printer
• 印刷所 – Printing Office / Press
• 編集 – Editor
• 組版所 – Typesetter

Edition Information:

• 初版 / 初版発行 – First Edition
• 〜版発行 – (number) Edition
• 第〜版発行 – (number) Issue / Edition
• 印行 – Reprinting

Less common nowadays:

• 本文製版 – Text Printing
• 印刷 – Printing
• 製本 /製本所- Book Making / Binding / Book Bindery
• 製版所 – Platemaking shop

Practice Makes Perfect

The best way to learn this kind of thing is with examples and practice. Here are a few colophons. Let's find the information we need to make a citation with some manga!

• Author: 貴家悠
• Title: テラフォーマーズ
• Publisher: 株式会社集英社
• Place of Publication: 東京都

• Author: 奥 浩哉
• Title: GANTZ -ガンツ-

That wasn't so bad, right? And they were very similar in style and used all the same terms. That's because, as you now know, they were both published by the same publishing company 株式会社集英社 which translates to Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. and is one of the biggest manga publishing companies in Japan.

Style and Consistency

Before we go over what to do with this information, you have to decide what style you're going to use. It doesn't really matter which one you pick, as long as you are consistent throughout your paper and works cited page. Some stylistic choices you get to make are:

• MLA, Chicago, or APA
• Japanese or English
• Italics or No Italics

Your teacher/professor might choose that first one for you. Most of my professors preferred Chicago Style because of it's simple, straightforward citations. But you might have to follow a different one. Make sure you follow whatever those guidelines may be throughout your entire paper! You may never encounter APA (it's mainly used for psychology), so you should probably only focus on MLA and Chicago.

Using Japanese and/or English is the more fun and challenging decision you get to make. But if you provide both Japanese and English for one citation, you have to do it for all of them. That means translating non-translated titles and author names. If your professor doesn't speak Japanese you should probably provide English for their convenience. If your professor is Japanese and you're at a Japanese school you can stick with just Japanese. You can also choose to ditch the Japanese all together and only use English, but I wouldn't recommend it. Especially if you're using a Japanese-only source. Your professors might not like having to work harder to find what you're referencing.

Within your paper you'll need to decide whether you should or should not use italics when using romaji. If you're only using Japanese words in Japanese, you should not italicize them. Ever. Please don't, it's hard to read and looks terrible. But with romaji, it can be helpful for clarification reasons if you at least italicize Japanese words the first time you use them. Then you can leave them as is. Or you can choose to always italicize them. But never ever sometimes do and sometimes don't. If you're going to do one word one way, you need to treat the rest the same.

Works Cited

Your works cited/bibliography is where we put all this new knowledge to work. Once you pick your style, look up the guidelines, and put everything in the right place. This is where you make most of your stylistic choices. Are you using all Japanese, all English, or a mix? Choosing this before you start will make everything go much faster. And if you make your Works Cited before you write your paper, your in text citations will be more organized and easy to do.

After you decide what style you're going to use, you need to know a few important things about citing Japanese sources:

• Last name always comes first in Japanese AND English
• If you include English for one title you must include English for them all
• Use macrons, or do not

When citing using Japanese you should always use Japanese name ordering. That means surname first and given name second. You might be thinking, but isn't that how all citations are done? Kind of. But you do not add a comma after the surname, like you would with an English language citation.

If you decide to provide English for a Japanese title, which can be pretty easy if it's been translated, you need to do it for all of them. This can be a pain if you realize you're using something that has never been translated or talked about in English. This means translating the title yourself. If you aren't comfortable with that, don't use any English at all. If you think that's fun and want some practice (or if your professor requires English and Japanese) give it a try!

Macrons are the long marks, or diacritical marks, you see over vowels to indicate that they are long (also called "heavy"). They let us know that you're saying よう and not よ.

They look like this: ā ī ū ē ō

You'll probably only see ū and ō, because they are the most common, but it is possible to see the others. If you decide to use them, you need to use them the whole time. That means you need to know your romaji well. The only exception for this is when a company or person has a specific stylized preference to their English name. If that's the case, like it is with Shueisha (technically Shuueisha or Shūeisha), then it's common to choose whatever their preference is to avoid misunderstandings.

Once you've figured all that out it's time to get citing! Below are citations in MLA, Chicago, and APA for the Terra Formars manga we cited above.

貴家悠. テラフォーマーズ. 東京都: 株式会社集英社, 2012. Print.

Sasuga Yuu 貴家悠. Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ. Tokyo 東京都: Shueisha Inc. 株式会社集英社, 2012. Print.

Sasuga Yuu. Terra Formars . Tokyo: Shueisha Inc., 2012. Print.

貴家悠. テラフォーマーズ. 東京都: 株式会社集英社, 2012.

Sasuga Yuu 貴家悠. Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ. Tokyo 東京都: Shueisha Inc. 株式会社集英社, 2012.

Sasuga Yuu. Terra Formars . Tokyo: Shueisha Inc., 2012.

貴家悠. (2012). テラフォーマーズ. 東京都: 株式会社集英社.

Sasuga Yuu 貴家悠 (2012). Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ. Tokyo 東京都: Shueisha Inc. 株式会社集英社.

Sasuga Yuu. (2012). Terra Formars . Tokyo: Shueisha Inc.

(If you decided that you wanted to use macrons, Sasuga Yuu's name would look like this: Sasuga Yū.)

In Text Citations

In text citations are formatted the same as your works cited/bibliography page! Sometimes they are very similar, but there are usually small differences.

MLA loves to be short and sweet. You put the author's last name and the page number(s) you are citing in parenthesis after the quote or piece of information.

The first character to die has her neck snapped by one of the creatures (Sasuga 30).

Sasuga kills the first character within minutes of introducing her (30).

Sasuga's first female character's neck went, "Crack" (30).

Chicago uses footnotes and endnotes. They're indicated with numbers either at the end of each page (footnotes) or at the end of the paper (endnotes). Once you've cited something once in text, you get to shorten the rest of the citations that use the same work from then on.

Sasuga Yuu 貴家悠. Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ. (Tokyo 東京都: Shueisha Inc. 株式会社集英社, 2012), 3-40. Sasuga, Terra Formars , 3-40. Make sure you remember to add page numbers when you cite in text.

APA loves footnotes too, but these are more about elaboration than citation of where you got the information from. You should be citing in text with quotations like MLA does. They also really like dates, which makes sense since this is mostly used for psychology.

The main character yelled, "Aki" (Sasuga, 2012, p. 45-46), exactly six times after she died.

Supplemental Practice Citing Japanese Sources

If you'd like to test what you've learned you can! Below are three pdfs that you can use for practice. Use them to make your own works cited page and compare it to the answer sheet!

• Colophon Practice
• Colophon Practice Answer Key
• Works Cited/Bibliography Answer Key

• Spanish (Mexico)

How do you say this in Japanese? i write a report in Japanese    i write a report in Japan See a translation

• Report copyright infringement

日本語で報告書を作成した 日本でレポートを書いた

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Write Japanese

The typical order to master the Japanese writing system is a follows:

• learn hiragana , then
• learn katakana and finally
• learn kanji .

The Japanese writing system uses two syllabic scripts, known separately as hiragana （ひらがな）and katakana (カタカナ) and collectively as kana, and thousands of Chinese characters known as kanji (漢字). Each script serves a different function. Hiragana are used for grammatical elements and for words that do not use kanji (or for words where the author doesn’t know the kanji). Katakana is mostly used to write borrowed words of foreign origin, and onomatopoeic sound effects. Kanji is used for words of both Japanese and Chinese origin, as well as many Japanese names.

The earliest written form of Japanese was based on kanji. In this system, known as man’yogana, these kanji were used for their pronunciation rather than their meaning. Because this system was quite complicated, kana were invented as a way to simplify it. As a result, each hiragana and katakana character comes from a simplified version of a man’yogana kanji. If you look at some of these man’yogana kanji and their simplified kana equivalents side-by-side it is easy to see how they came to be.

There are 46 characters in the hiragana and katakana scripts, for a total of 92 characters in all. These characters represent sounds, specifically syllables. A syllable is generally made up of a consonant plus a vowel, though there are some that are only a vowel. In Japanese, there are five vowels: a, i, u, e, and o; and fourteen basic consonants: k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, g, z, d, b, and p.

The Hiragana (ひらがな) syllabary is used for words that do not use kanji, grammatical elements such as particles and inflected verb and adjective endings (known as okurigana, 送り仮名), and for writing the readings of kanji characters (known as furigana, ふりがな). Furigana are small hiragana symbols placed above or to the side of a kanji character that indicate how it is read. While furigana are mostly used to aid children and foreigners learning Japanese, it is also used when the reading for a kanji is particularly difficult or uncommon. Hiragana symbols are characterized by their curvy, flowing lines.

The Katakana (カタカナ) syllabary is used for words of foreign origin (known as gairaigo, 外来語), onomatopoeic words that indicate sounds, scientific names, and also for emphasis, much like how italics are used in English. Katakana symbols are characterized by their angular, boxy lines.

Kanji (漢字) are Chinese characters that have been adapted into Japanese over many years. The characters were originally pictures of people, animals or other things, but over the centuries they have become increasingly stylized and most no longer resemble the things they represent. Kanji are made up of smaller parts known as radicals. Many characters have been combined with others to create new ones. When written on the page, each character is given exactly the same amount of space, no matter how complex it is. In written Japanese, there are no spaces between characters.

The number of kanji in existence number into the tens of thousands, but the good news is that a large number of these are rarely used variants, accumulated throughout history. The Japanese government has created a list of recommended characters known as Jouyou Kanji (常用漢字), which currently contains 1,945 characters (as of 2009). As this list occasionally undergoes revisions, it is possible that this number may increase in the future. Studies have shown that full literacy in the Japanese language requires a knowledge of around two thousand characters.

Most kanji have at least two different kinds of readings: kunyomi (訓読み), which is the Japanese reading, and onyomi (音読み), which is the original Chinese reading. The kunyomi is usually used when the kanji stands alone, and the onyomi when it is part of a compound. To give an example, the kanji 水 (“water”) can be read as either “mizu” (kunyomi) or “sui” (onyomi). However, there are exceptions to this rule that simply must be remembered.

Romaji (ローマ字) is Japanese transliterated into the Roman alphabet. With Romaji, one can read Japanese without any prior knowledge of the Japanese writing system. There are several systems of Romaji, with the Hepburn system being the most widely used.

How do you write for a Japanese audience

Perhaps you are a student and you need to write an essay in class or perhaps you are trying to write a report for your boss at work. In Japan, it feels like we constantly have to be writing for some form of paperwork or another. However, as you sit down to begin writing, there may be many questions immediately coming to mind. Is this article I would like to discuss a few different things to keep in mind while writing to a Japanese audience.

How should you structure your writing?

Typically, when we are writing in English, we like to start with a conclusion. In English, we tend to speak with an SVO order. In this structure, important actions are often placed at the beginning of a sentence. For example:

“I ate sushi.”

In this sentence the action “to eat (ate)” is placed immediately after the subject “I”. This causes the important information to be weighted at the beginning. From the action, additional information can then be added.

“I ate sushi with wasabi and soy sauce.”

Or if you like to continue with more:

“I ate a lot of sushi with wasabi and soy sauce and green tea ice cream for dessert.”

Japanese, however, has a different sentence structure by using SVO. This means in Japanese the important action of the sentence is at the end of the sentence. For example, let’s translate the sentence we had before.

「 寿司 ( すし ) を 食 ( た ) べた」

In this sentence 食 ( た ) べる (to eat) can be seen at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning. When we add the additional information like we did before, we can then see that information comes before the action.

「わさび 入 ( い ) りのお 寿司 ( すし ) をたくさん 食 ( た ) べた」

As a result of this difference in structure, the difference attentional weight between the language shifts from the beginning (using SVO) to the end (SOV). Subsequently, this translates as you begin writing large structures. This means in writing Japanese tends to place major conclusions and thoughts at the end of a paragraph with the details and evidence leading up to it. In contrast, English tends to format critical information at the beginning of the paragraph leading with conclusion and following with supporting details and evidence.

So while you are writing towards a Japanese audience, you may want to keep this in mind as their attention may be biased towards the end rather than expecting the main idea to be presented early on during the introduction and the ending to be a summary.

Is my writing too assertive?

In English, it is not uncommon to hear teachers say to avoid passive voice over active voice. Often the tip is that passive voice weakens the sound of the writing and makes you sound less confident.

Perhaps you are wondering what an active or a passive voice means? Let me explain, when you use active voice, it typically means that in the sentence, the subject performs an action rather than receiving the action as in a passive voice. Let me show you two examples:

• (Active) The boy ate sushi.
• (Passive) The sushi was eaten by the boy.

Here the subject (the boy) is doing the action (eating) on the object (sushi). In the active voice, it is written as the boy is performing the action of eating in an active manner while in the passive voice the sushi is having the action of eating done to it.

In Japanese these differences of voices also exist by using the conjugation of 〜られる (rareru) (passive voice being called 受動態 ( じゅどうたい ) while active voice is called 能動態 ( のうどうたい ) .

So let’s translate our examples:

• (Active) 男 ( おとこ ) の 子 ( こ ) は 寿司 ( すし ) を 食 ( た ) べた
• (Passive) 寿司 ( すし ) は 男 ( おとこ ) の 子 ( こ ) に 食 ( た ) べられた

Here you can see the subject (marked by は, this being called a particle) shifts from the active agent (the boy/男の子) to the object (寿司/sushi). Likewise the particle marking the object goes from を to に. Of course, in this case you don’t have to worry about exactly what the particles mean to understand how the order of action works in the sentence.

However, an important thing to note is that Japanese passive sentences tend to get more complex than that. For one, there are two types of passives: direct and indirect passives. In direct passive, the effect that the action occurring has is obvious because it shows the directness of the action.

For example:

「この 犬 ( いぬ ) に 手 ( て ) をかまれた」(I was bitten by this dog on the hand)

In Japanese, this sentence indicates that something unfortunate or something outside of the subject’s control occurred whereas its active counterpart would be more neutral.

However, indirect passive is what is quite different than English because it has no equivalent in English. This form of passive speech is used to express something that has an effect on me. So, let’s take an example of say you are sitting in a bar and a man next to you lights up a cigarette. The smoke keeps wafting on you and you are getting frustrated, so you say:

「（あのおじさんに）タバコを 吸 ( す ) われた！」 (I got smoked on (by that man).

The action (smoking) is done by the active agent (that old man), but the object is actually the cigarette itself. The subject of the sentence (I or 私は which was omitted) is the what is being effected by the action. By using a passive sentence here, the act of smoking being done to the speaker emphasizes that it is not the speaker’s fault they are being affected by the smoke allowing the speaker to create the nuance that the action was annoying them. The natural English translation would be “This man’s smoke is getting on me!” which is an active sentence rather than a passive sentence in Japanese.

Of course, this grammar structure not always used for negative statements, but we don’t need to worry about all the details. The point is the benefit of passive sentence in Japanese is it allows a more nuanced direction of action. In English, as mentioned before, we have an SVO sentence order, so when we use passive speech, the order of the sentence disrupting the direction of the action. For example, in “The sushi was eaten by the boy” example, the agent of the action “the boy” is put at the end while the object “sushi” is put at the beginning disrupting the flow of action from the agent to the object.

However, in Japanese, this order of action isn’t disrupted as given its difference in sentence structure. Because of it, it doesn’t weaken the flow of sentence making it less unnatural when speaking or writing. Now that I’ve said all of that, you might be wondering “ok so what?” Well, if you understand that there is a difference in passive versus active speak, then when you are communicating with Japanese people, you will start to notice that often, regardless of whether you are speaking in English or Japanese, many Japanese people will prioritize passive over active. This makes the speech sound softer and less assertive.

While writing to a primary Japanese audience (such as a boss or a teacher), you may want to consider this difference in mindset as over relying on active voice might come across as more aggressive and may cause a shift in the information being presented is received. Especially if you are using Japanese in your correspondence.

How formally do I write in Japanese?

This last tip is more for those who are having to write in Japanese language. However, even if you only write in English, I think being aware of how things are said about the Japanese structure is still important when writing for a Japanese audience.

The basic rule of thumb is to use casual form (～だ/である) when you are writing in academic, official, or for things like newspaper. Often using this form makes the writing feel less rigid, especially when you have a general audience in mind rather than a specific person you are writing to.

When you want the reader to feel like you are addressing them more personally (such as in a personal essay) you may choose to write in polite form (～です/ます). So for example, if you are writing to a specific person like in a cover letter or a letter to an editor or you are writing a essay meant to be spoken like a documentary or a memoir, this form tends to feel more personalized. Typically, polite form is used when you want to show someone respect, so in times you are directing your writing at a specific person, showing them respect is a good thing to do.

However, there is overlap. There are times you may choose to use casual form in personal essays and polite form in official documents. In the end it all depends on the reason why you are writing and what sort of impression the writing is meant to leave.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that it is not good to mix forms without reason. If you write in polite form, all of the writing should be in polite form and likewise for casual forms. The only times that there are exception’ is in the case of quotations or titles where the original text may have been written in a different form.

If you are learning Japanese and are interested in learning more about academic or professional writing, then I recommend looking into the book series『大学・大学院 留学生の日本語』published by 株式会社アルク. Additionally for those who are able to read Japanese, the book 日本人のための日本語文法入門 by 原沢伊都夫 (静岡大学国際交流センター教授) is also recommended.

Katarina Woodman

I was born in the United States and currently reside in Kyoto, Japan. As an undergrad, I spent a year studying abroad in Japan, living in Nara City. Despite the language barrier, I was able to make many friends, which further fueled my desire to learn Japanese.

After completing my undergraduate degree, I moved to Kyoto, where I am currently enrolled in a graduate program at Kyoto University. I also earn income as a freelance writer and translator on the side. I have an academic background in psychology and philosophy and a special interest in Japanese culture, Eastern philosophy, and linguistics.

​アメリカ生まれ、現在は京都市在住です。学部生の時、1年間日本留学をし、奈良市に住んでいました。言語の壁がある中でも多くの友人を作り、日本語学習への欲望を刺激しました。

大学を卒業後、京都に移り、現在は京都大学で大学院課程に在籍しています。フリーランスライターおよび翻訳者としても副業で収入を得ています。心理学と哲学の学歴を持ち、日本の文化、東洋哲学、言語学に特別な関心を持っています。

More articles by Katarina Woodman

• How to Japan
• Company Spotlight
• Living in Japan
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How to Write A Japanese Resume (Rirekisho)

How to write a Japanese resume, called 履歴書 (Rirekisho) in Japanese, is one of the biggest worries jobseekers face whether they are Japanese or a foreign national looking for work in Japan. Same as an English resume, a Japanese resume is an important document for a company to evaluate job candidates. 

However, the format of a Japanese resume is very different from an English resume. Therefore, it is essential for a successful job hunt to know the proper Rirekisho format and how to write a good Japanese resume. 

First Published: 2021-11-01 Updated: 2024-03-11

Table of Contents

What is a Rirekisho? Is Shokumu Keirekisho different? 

Difference between english resume and japanese resume, personal information and profile photo.

• Academic and Work History 
• Licences, Qualifications and Certifications
• Appeal Points and Reason for Application
• Personal Requests and Other Information

Important Rules When Writing a Japanese Resume (Rirekisho)

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Rirekisho and Shokumu Keirekisho are two different documents though they are both used for job applications. 

履歴書 (Rirekisho) (image above) is a standard two page resume that contains a job candidate’s personal information, academic history, work history, licences & qualifications, and other information. It is required for most, if not all, job applications regardless of fresh graduate or mid career applicants, or full time or part time positions. 

職歴経歴書 (Shokumu Keirekisho) (image above) is only required for mid career candidates when changing jobs in Japan. It is a supplementary document to a Rirekisho containing detailed information about a candidate’s work history including job description, skills gained and use, and projects worked on.  There is no limit to the number of pages as content depends on each candidate’s career experience. Additionally, there is no standard format for Shokumu Keirekisho, though most people use a simple table for writing date (年・月, Month/Year) and workplace (勤務先, Kinmusaki)・job description etc. (業務内容, Gyoumu Naiyou).

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Before we proceed to learning how to write a Japanese resume, let’s first understand the differences between an English resume and a Japanese resume. 

How to Write a Japanese Resume (Rirekisho)

It used to be expected that Rirekishos would be handwritten, however typed Rirekisho are widely accepted nowaday. Make sure to check beforehand if the company you are applying for has a specific requirement or a preference. Traditional companies may want a handwritten Rirekisho. 

If you’d like to, or need to, handwrite your Rirekisho, Rirekisho forms with envelope sets can be easily bought at convenience stores, stationary stores and 100 Yen shops in Japan. 

Rirekisho Standard Template

Below is a sample Rirekisho released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2021 for business owners to follow. The updated Rirekisho format reflects social changes including open answers for gender (previously choices to circle male or female), and the removal of certain categories of information (private information like marital status and number of dependants). 

Below, we will break down the information to be included in a Rirekisho. 

The personal information to be included in a Rirekisho are as follows. 

A profile photo is required for a Rirekisho, and is pasted to the right of your personal information.

The rules of a Rirekisho profile photo are as follows.

• Photo size of 3 cm x 4cm (L x H).
• Clear white, blue or grey background. 
• Front camera facing angle. 
• Professional looking with business attire of white collared shirt, black suit jacket, and tie for men.
• Name written on the back and glued firmly and neatly. 
• Recently taken within 3 months. 

Some things to be careful of include…

• Hair should be neat and not covering eyes.
• Mouth close, no teeth. 
• No sunglasses, hat or jewellery. 
• Simple makeup. 

Profile photographs can be taken at 証明写真機 (Shoumei Shashinki) - ID photo booths . These ID photo booths can usually be found on the streets, at train and subway stations, and near convenience stores. Aside from Rirekisho profile photographs (3cm x 4cm), you can also print passport and ID-sized photographs. Select the correct option. There are limited takes and you can only choose between one or two photos. A set of 6 photographs costs around 700 ~ 1000 Yen. 

Alternatively, you can take your own photo and have it printed in the correct size at convenience stores that offer printing for a much cheaper price. A set of 4 photographs costs around 200 ~ 250 Yen. 

Another alternative is having your photo taken at a photo studio which costs around 400 ~ 1000 Yen per photo print. It is the most expensive option, but additional services like makeup, hair styling, suit rental, and image data may be provided. Depending on the service, the price may go up to 10,000 Yen. 

Academic History - 学歴 (Gakureki) & Work History - 職歴 (Shokureki)

Academic History and Work History share the same section in the Rirekisho. Your education background should come first, followed by your work history. Separate the sections by using the relevant words. If there is space, leave a blank row to clearly separate the two. Like so, 

Academic History - 学歴 (Gakureki)

Gakureki (学歴) is the section for writing your academic history or education background in a Rirekisho. Write your academic history in chronological order beginning from high school education. Unlike an English resume, do not include details about your accomplishments, club activities, etc. 

Information to be included in Gakureki are...

• Name of Educational Institution, Department and Major 
• Period of Enrolment, from Entry (入学, Nyuugaku) to Graduation (卒業, Sotsugyou)
• In the case of current enrolment, indicate by 現在に至る (Genzai ni Itaru)
• Country for studies outside Japan indicated by 〇〇国 (〇〇 Kuni)

Gakureki Example: 

Work History - 職歴 (Shokureki)

Shokureki (職歴) is the section for writing your work history or career background. Shokureki should be written after Gakureki and in chronological order. Unlike an English resume, information is kept brief and does not include appeal points. A short single line of your duties can be included, indicated by 〇〇〇を担当 (〇〇〇 wo tantou) - “In-charge of 〇〇〇” . 

Information to be included in Shokureki are…

• Company Name, Department Assigned, Position
• Period of Work from Enrolment (入社, Nyuusha) to Resignation (退職, Taishoku) including reason for resignation.
• In the case of current employment, indicate by 現在に至る (Genzai ni Itaru) or 在職中 (Zaishokuchuu).
• Part Time Jobs or Internship History should only be included if relevant to the position you are applying for. 

Shokureki Example:

If you are applying for a first job, and therefore have no work experience, then indicate with the words なし (nashi) meaning “none”.

Shokureki First Job Example:

Conclude the Gakureki and Shokureki section with 以上 (Ijou) , meaning “The End” or “That’s All” on the lower right side of the table. 

Closing up Gakureki and Shokurei Section Example:

Licences and Qualifications - 免許 (Menkyo)・資格 (Shikaku)

Menkyo and Shikaku (免許・資格) is the section for writing any licences, qualifications or certifications that you have obtained. If you have many, then only include the most relevant ones for the job. 

Information to be included in this part are…

• Name of Licence, etc.
• If the licence, qualification, or certification was obtained outside Japan, then also include the country. 
• Date Passed (合格, Goukaku) for examinations, or Date Obtained (取得, Shutoku) for licences or scores

For foreign national job applicants, having a Japanese language proficiency test is highly recommended as many jobs hiring foreign nationals usually have a minimum Japanese level requirement. If you have passed multiple levels for the same qualification, then only include the highest achieved. For this section, it is not necessary to end with 以上. 

Menkyo and Shikaku Example: 

If you have no qualifications to write, do not leave it blank but write 特になし (Toku ni nashi) , which means “nothing in particular”. 

Menkyo and Shikaku Nothing to Add Example: 

Appeal Points - 自己PR (Jiko PR) & Reason for Application - 志望動機 (Shiboudouki)

Jiko PR and Shiboudouki (自己PR・志望動機) is the section that provides you with an opportunity to sell your strengths to the company, letting them know why they should pick you. Write clearly, concisely, and straight to the point. If you make it to the interview stage, keep in mind that you may be asked about what you’ve written in this section. 

Information that can be included in this section include…

志望動機 (Shiboudouki) - Reason for Application

Your reason for application and interest in the company. Do some research about the company in advance. Explain why you want to join while highlighting the company’s features. Include information like why you’d make a great fit for the role in the company, and include past experiences and strengths that would make you an asset to the company. To further demonstrate your enthusiasm, you can include your goals and career plan after joining the company. Make sure that your vision for the future is something that can be realised while at the company you are applying for. 

自己PR (Jiko PR) - Promoting Your Positive Qualities 

Recruiters are also interested in you as a person and not just your motivations for joining the company, this is where you can appeal to the company by sharing your positive qualities. If you have hobbies or special skills that can be used at the job, give priority to them. For example, if you are applying for a hotel or tourism job, then highlighting your bilingual or multilingual skills will be an advantage. Further, when writing about your hobbies, elaborate on them a little. Let’s say that your hobby is reading - it would be better to add a sentence to show just how much, such as “I read 20 books a month.” 

特技 (Tokugi) - Special Skill

Through your hobbies, you can also demonstrate your strength and personality by including an episode about your activities. For example, if your hobby is a sport, you can talk about your endeavours to improve yourself and discipline in sticking to your training regime. If you play competitively, you can also demonstrate your will to overcome defeat, teamwork skills, etc. with past experiences to back them up. 

Personal Requests - 本人希望欄 (Honnin Kibouran) & Other Information

Honnin Kibouran (本人希望欄) is a dedicated section for candidates to make requests to the company. If there are multiple positions available, this is where you can write your preferred position. It is not recommended to write salary, working hours, or workplace preferences unless there are special circumstances; these are better brought up during the interview. 

If there is nothing in particular to add, do not leave this section blank but write 貴社規定に従います (Kisha kitei ni shitagaimasu.) which means “I will follow the stipulations provided by the company”. 

Depending on the Rirekisho’s template, additional information may be asked of you…

通勤時間 (Tsuukin Jikan) - Commute Time

Write down the travel time from your current residence to the office. If different modes of commute are required then state the total time. For example, 10 minutes walk to the nearest station plus 20 minutes train commute to the office for a total of 30 minutes commute time. 

If you are planning to move house somewhere nearer to the company upon being hired, then indicate here that commuting will not be a problem.

配偶者の有無 (Haiguusha no Umu) - Marital Status

配偶者 (Haigusha) means “spouse”, and 有無 (Umu) means “Presence or Absence”, so this is basically asking your marital status. Circle 有 if married, 無 if unmarried. 

配偶者の扶養義務 (Haiguusha no Fuyougimu) - Duty to Support Spouse

If you financially support your spouse, meaning your spouse is a dependant on account of being a housewife/househusband or earning income below the dependant threshold, then circle 有. If your spouse is self-supporting and earning a salary above the dependant threshold, then circle 無. 

扶養家族 (Fuyou Kazoku) - Dependants

This section inquires whether you have dependants aside from your spouse, the words 配偶者を除く (Haiguusha wo Nozoku) - “excluding spouse” is usually written next to it in brackets. Write down the number of dependants apart from your spouse here, for example children and parents that you are financially supporting. 

There are some important rules to abide by when writing your Rirekisho. Be careful not to make these common mistakes!

• Do not abbreviate names of educational institutions or companies. Always write the full official names.
• Do not use pencils, mechanical pencils, erasable pens when filling out your resume.
• Do not use correction fluid. If there are any mistakes, rewrite from scratch even if it’s troublesome. 
• Do not leave any sections blank. If there is nothing to write, then indicate with 特になし (Toku ni Nashi) meaning “Nothing in particular.” Leaving sections blank can be interpreted as omission out of carelessness. 
• Do not reuse old resumes. Always use updated resumes and customise resumes for each application. 

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① Search Jobs Yourself 

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WeXpats Agent  is a career support service brought to you by WeXpats Jobs. Speak to our bilingual career advisors in English or Japanese, and get introductions for full time positions to companies that best fit you. As we receive job ads with the intention of introducing them to foreign nationals in Japan, we can suggest jobs to you right away. Our support includes helping you with job application aspects that foreign nationals have trouble with, such as how to write a Japanese resume, Japanese interviews, etc. 

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How to Write Japanese CV (Rirekisho and Shokumu Keirekisho)

The very first step of applying for a job in Japan is to send your CV or resume, just like in any other country. However, there are two Japanese resumes you need to submit every time you apply. Let's learn what Rirekisho and Shokumu keirekisho are and how to make stunning ones to land you the job.

Rirekisho (履歴書)

Rirekisho is a basic CV. It contains general background, such as education, work experience, date of birth, picture, and contact information. It has a specific and standardized format, so the space in this resume is very limited. You can't write in detail about your position or experience.

Rirekisho is commonly used anywhere. High school and university students also apply for part-time jobs in the same format. Therefore you can easily get the printed blank rirekisho in convenience stores for around 100 yen.

How to Write Rirekisho

There are 4 sections in the standard two-pages-long Rirekisho:

1. Basic information

Fill this section with your name, date of birth, age, nationality, gender, address, e-mail, and phone number. Attach your ID photo (3x4) to the top right. Make sure it's a formal image like what you use in your ID and passport. This information and photos may seem too personal for some people, but all of them are necessary for a Japanese resume.

2. Education and work experience

List your education and work experience in chronological order, with the most recent mentioned last. You can put all of them on the same table, but leave some space to separate academic and working backgrounds. Write 学歴 in the first line before the educational history and 職歴 before listing your employment history.

For education background, write your two highest educational institutions. For example, a bachelor’s degree holder must write their high school and university enrollment year and month. Don’t forget to put the employment starting date for each company and add information such as 現在に至る (still currently employed there) and 以上 (finished). Simply input the institutions’ names without describing your duty.

3. Licenses, certificates, and qualifications「免許・資格欄」

Licenses and certificates are essential skill indicators in many industries. Make sure to include every qualification related to the company you want. If you have a JLPT certificate, you can write it in the table. If you do not have any licenses or qualifications, write 特になし (none in particular) on the first line.

4. Reasons for applying dan more personal information

This section allows employers to see if you’re a suitable candidate for them. You can appeal to the company by writing why you want to work there. Feel free to be creative and mention your skills, interests, and plans if accepted into the company. Avoid writing very basic answers. This section also contains more personal information, such as residence status, health condition, hobby, commute time, the number of dependents, marital status, and legal guardian status, if applicable.

The last part of Rirekisho is the personal request column. Fill this space with if you have specific needs, such as working hours and work location. You can also write your expected salary here.

Shokumu keirekisho (職務経歴書)

Since you can’t write more about your work experience and skill in Rirekisho, you have to send a separate document to recruiters in case of a mid-career switch. This document is called Shokumu Keirekisho, where you can put your career history in detail. The format of Shokumu Keirekisho is similar to the work experience section in an English resume.

How to Write Shokumu Keirekisho

Shokumu Keirekisho is usually 1 to 3 pages long. There is no strict format, so you can start writing on blank paper or download the template.

1. To begin, put 職務経歴書 as the title at the top in a bigger size font.

2. Write the date of submission and your name under the title in the right-aligned format.

3. Give a summary or overview of your working experience and your strong point in 200-300 characters.

4. Brief information about your position, company, and working date.

5. Describe your language skills.

6. Qualifications, special skills, etc.

Similar to Rirekisho, you can list your qualifications and relevant skills in this section. However, you can also add supplementary information, like describing the level of each skill listed, tools and software you used, and such. For example, 3 years of managing sales or advanced Figma user.

7. Persuasive section

The last section is for appeal. You can point out your strengths, your motivation to work in the company, and what you can bring to the table. If you are inexperienced, you may want to let the recruiter know your passion and attitude.

8. Here is the most important part of your resume. List your detailed working history in reverse chronological order. Here are what you can include in the description of each company:

Duration of employment

Company name

Department (your position)

Business Type

Capital stock

Number of employees

Business content and clients

Tasks (your roles and scope of work)

Results (achievements, evaluations, awards)

These details are necessary to make recruiters grasp what kind of work you do and how difficult it is. Use proper nouns and numbers to make recruiters easily understand. You can also match the words you use to the job posting's requirements to make you seem the best fit.

Sending great Rirekisho and Shokumu Keirekisho is crucial to create a strong impression. Please don't be shy to ask Japanese friends to read your resumes and correct them. Remember to bring out printed Rirekisho and Shokumu Keirekisho during a job interview to be safe. Happy job hunting!

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A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas

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Measures implemented this year could bring down gas imports from Russia by over one-third, with additional temporary options to deepen these cuts to well over half while still lowering emissions.

Europe’s reliance on imported natural gas from Russia has again been thrown into sharp relief by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. In 2021, the European Union imported an average of over 380 million cubic metres (mcm) per day of gas by pipeline from Russia, or around 140 billion cubic metres (bcm) for the year as a whole. As well as that, around 15 bcm was delivered in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The total 155 bcm imported from Russia accounted for around 45% of the EU’s gas imports in 2021 and almost 40% of its total gas consumption.

Progress towards net zero ambitions in Europe will bring down gas use and imports over time, but today’s crisis raises specific questions about imports from Russia and what policy makers and consumers can do to lower them. This IEA analysis proposes a series of immediate actions that could be taken to reduce reliance on Russian gas, while enhancing the near-term resilience of the EU gas network and minimising the hardships for vulnerable consumers.

A suite of measures in our 10-Point Plan, spanning gas supplies, the electricity system and end-use sectors 1 , could result in the EU’s annual call on Russian gas imports falling by more than 50 bcm within one year – a reduction of over one-third. These figures take into account the need for additional refilling of European gas storage facilities in 2022 after low Russian supplies helped drive these storage levels to unusually low levels. The 10-Point Plan is consistent with the EU’s climate ambitions and the European Green Deal and also points towards the outcomes achieved in the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Roadmap, in which the EU totally eliminates the need for Russian gas imports before 2030.

We also consider possibilities for Europe to go even further and faster to limit near-term reliance on Russian gas, although these would mean a slower near-term pace of EU emissions reductions. If Europe were to take these additional steps, then near-term Russian gas imports could be reduced by more than 80 bcm, or well over half.

The analysis highlights some trade-offs. Accelerating investment in clean and efficient technologies is at the heart of the solution, but even very rapid deployment will take time to make a major dent in demand for imported gas. The faster EU policy makers seek to move away from Russian gas supplies, the greater the potential implications in terms of economic costs and/or near-term emissions. Circumstances also vary widely across the EU, depending on geography and supply arrangements.

Reducing reliance on Russian gas will not be simple, requiring a concerted and sustained policy effort across multiple sectors, alongside strong international dialogue on energy markets and security. There are multiple links between Europe’s policy choices and broader global market balances. Strengthened international cooperation with alternative pipeline and LNG exporters – and with other major gas importers and consumers – will be critical. Clear communication between governments, industry and consumers is also an essential element for successful implementation.

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1. No new gas supply contracts with Russia

• Gas import contracts with Gazprom covering more than 15 bcm per year are set to expire by the end of 2022, equating to around 12% of the company’s gas supplies to the EU in 2021. Overall, contracts with Gazprom covering close to 40 bcm per year are due to expire by the end of this decade.
• This provides the EU with a clear near-term window of opportunity to significantly diversify its gas supplies and contracts towards other sources, leveraging the options for imports provided by its large LNG and pipeline infrastructure. 

Impact: Taking advantage of expiring long-term contracts with Russia will reduce the contractual minimum take-or-pay levels for Russian imports and enable greater diversity of supply.

2. Replace Russian supplies with gas from alternative sources

• Complementing the point above, our analysis indicates that production inside the EU and non-Russian pipeline imports (including from Azerbaijan and Norway) could increase over the next year by up to 10 bcm from 2021. This is based on the assumptions of a higher utilisation of import capacity, a less heavy summer maintenance schedule, and production quotas/caps being revised upwards.
• The EU has greater near-term potential to ramp up its LNG imports, considering its ample access to spare regasification capacity. 2 LNG trade is inherently flexible, so the crucial variables for the near-term are the availability of additional cargoes, especially those that have some contractual leeway over the destination, and competition for this supply with other importers, notably in Asia.
• The EU could theoretically increase near-term LNG inflows by some 60 bcm, compared with the average levels in 2021. However, all importers are fishing in the same pool for supply, so (in the absence of weather-related or other factors that limit import demand in other regions) this would mean exceptionally tight LNG markets and very high prices.
• Considering current forward prices and the LNG supply-demand balance, we have factored into our 10-Point Plan a 20 bcm increase in the EU’s LNG imports over the next year. The timely procurement of LNG can be facilitated by enhanced dialogue with LNG exporters and other importers, increased transparency, and efficient use of capacities at LNG regasification terminals.
• The increases in non-Russian pipeline and LNG deliveries assume a concerted effort to tackle methane leaks, both across Europe, where leaks are estimated at 2.5 bcm a year from oil and gas operations, and among other non-European suppliers - especially those that flare significant quantities of gas today.
• There is limited potential to scale up biogas and biomethane supply in the short term because of the lead times for new projects. But this promising low-carbon sector offers important medium-term upside for the EU’s domestic gas output. The same consideration applies to production of low-carbon hydrogen via electrolysis, which is contingent on new electrolyser projects and new low-carbon generation coming online. Increased output of low-carbon gases is vital to meet the EU’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets.

Impact: Around 30 bcm in additional gas supply from non-Russian sources.

3. Introduce minimum gas storage obligations to enhance market resilience

• Gas storage plays a key role in meeting seasonal demand swings and providing insurance against unexpected events, such as surges in demand or shortfalls in supply, that cause price spikes. The value of the security provided by gas storage is even greater at a time of geopolitical tensions.
• The current tight seasonal price spreads in European gas markets do not provide sufficient incentive for storage injections ahead of the 2022-23 heating season, as demonstrated by the results of the recent gas storage capacity auctions in the EU. A harmonised approach to minimum storage obligations for commercial operators in the EU’s single gas market, together with robust market-based capacity allocation mechanisms, would ensure the optimal use of all available storage capacity in the EU.
• Our analysis, based on the experience of recent years, suggests that fill levels of at least 90% of working storage capacity by 1 October are necessary to provide an adequate buffer for the European gas market through the heating season. Given the depleted levels of storage today, gas injection in 2022 needs to be around 18 bcm higher than in 2021.
• Regional coordination of gas storage levels and access can provide an important element of solidarity among EU member states and reinforce their gas supply security ahead of the next winter season.

Impact: Enhances the resilience of the gas system, although higher injection requirements to refill storage in 2022 will add to gas demand and prop up gas prices.

Power sector

4. accelerate the deployment of new wind and solar projects.

• In 2022, record additions of solar PV and wind power capacity and a return to average weather conditions are already expected to increase the EU’s output from these renewable sources by over 100 terawatt-hours (TWh), a rise of more than 15% compared with 2021.
• A concerted policy effort to fast-track further renewable capacity additions could deliver another 20 TWh over the next year. Most of this would be utility-scale wind and solar PV projects for which completion dates could be brought forward by tackling delays with permitting. This includes clarifying and simplifying responsibilities among various permitting bodies, building up administrative capacity, setting clear deadlines for the permitting process, and digitalising applications.
• Faster deployment of rooftop solar PV systems can reduce consumer bills. A short-term grant programme covering 20% of installation costs could double the pace of investment (compared with the IEA’s base case forecast) at a cost of around EUR 3 billion. This would increase annual output from rooftop solar PV systems by up to 15 TWh.

Impact: An additional 35 TWh of generation from new renewable projects over the next year, over and above the already anticipated growth from these sources, bringing down gas use by 6 bcm.

5. Maximise generation from existing dispatchable low-emissions sources: bioenergy and nuclear

• Nuclear power is the largest source of low emissions electricity in the EU, but several reactors were taken offline for maintenance and safety checks in 2021. Returning these reactors to safe operations in 2022, alongside the start of commercial operations for the completed reactor in Finland, can lead to EU nuclear power generation increasing by up to 20 TWh in 2022.
• A new round of reactor closures, however, would dent this recovery in output: four nuclear reactors are scheduled to shut down by the end of 2022, and another one in 2023. A temporary delay of these closures, conducted in a way that assures the plants’ safe operation, could cut EU gas demand by almost 1 bcm per month.
• The large fleet of bioenergy power plants in the EU operated at about 50% of its total capacity in 2021. These plants could generate up to 50 TWh more electricity in 2022 if appropriate incentives and sustainable supplies of bioenergy are put in place.

Impact: An additional 70 TWh of power generation from existing dispatchable low emissions sources, reducing gas use for electricity by 13 bcm.

6. Enact short-term measures to shelter vulnerable electricity consumers from high prices

• With today’s market design, high gas prices in the EU feed through into high wholesale electricity prices in ways that can lead to windfall profits for companies. This has significant implications for the affordability of electricity, as well as for the economic incentives for the broader electrification of end-uses, which is a key element of clean energy transitions.
• We estimate that spending by EU member states to cushion the impact of the energy price crisis on vulnerable consumers already amounts to a commitment of around EUR 55 billion.
• Increases in electricity costs are unavoidable to a certain extent when gas (and CO 2 ) prices are high. But current wholesale markets create the potential for profits for many electricity generators and their parent companies that are well in excess of the costs related to operations or capital recovery. Current market conditions could lead to excess profits of up to EUR 200 billion in the EU for gas, coal, nuclear, hydropower and other renewables in 2022. 3
• Temporary tax measures to raise rates on electricity companies’ windfall profits could be considered. These tax receipts should then be redistributed to electricity consumers to partially offset higher energy bills. Measures to tax windfall profits have already been adopted in Italy and Romania in 2022.

Impact: Brings down energy bills for consumers even when natural gas prices remain high, making available up to EUR 200 billion to cushion impacts on vulnerable groups. 4

End-use sectors

7. speed up the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps.

• Heat pumps offer a very efficient and cost-effective way to heat homes, replacing boilers that use gas or other fossil fuels. Speeding up anticipated deployment by doubling current EU installation rates of heat pumps would save an additional 2 bcm of gas use within the first year, requiring a total additional investment of EUR 15 billion.
• Alongside existing policy frameworks, targeted support for investment can drive the scaling up of heat pump installations. Ideally, this is best combined with upgrades of the homes themselves to maximise energy efficiency gains and reduce overall costs.
• Replacing gas boilers or furnaces with heat pumps is also an attractive option for industry, although deployment may take longer to scale up.
• A shift from gas to electricity for heating buildings could have the corresponding effect of pushing up gas demand for power generation, depending on the situation. However, any increase would be much lower than the overall amount of gas saved. Such a shift would also transfer seasonal swings in demand from the gas market to the power market.

Impact: Reduces gas use for heating by an additional 2 bcm in one year.

8. Accelerate energy efficiency improvements in buildings and industry

• Energy efficiency is a powerful instrument for secure clean energy transitions, but it often takes time to deliver major results. In this plan, we consider how to pick up the rate of progress, focusing on measures that can make a difference quickly.
• At present, only about 1% of the EU’s building stock is renovated each year. A rapid extension to an additional 0.7%, targeting the least efficient homes and non-residential buildings, would be possible through standardised upgrades, mainly via improved insulation. This would save more than 1 bcm of gas use in the space of a year and would also bring benefits for employment, though it would require parallel efforts to improve supply chains for materials and workforce development.
• This boost to the near-term rate of building retrofits and heat pump deployment accelerates changes that are part of EU policy frameworks. By 2030, the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive and Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, within the Fit for 55 framework, are projected to reduce gas demand in buildings by 45 bcm per year compared with today.
• Many households are installing smart heating controls (smart thermostats) to reduce energy bills and improve home comfort, and this is a simple process that can be scaled up quickly. Tripling the current installation rate of about one million homes per year would reduce gas demand for heating homes by an extra 200 mcm a year at a total cost of EUR 1 billion. These devices can be incentivised through existing programmes such as subsidies to households or utility obligation schemes.
• Annual maintenance checks of gas boilers can be used to ensure hot water boilers in homes are set at a temperature that optimises efficiency, no higher than 60 °C.
• Helping small businesses (SMEs) become more efficient will save energy and also help protect those businesses from price volatility. Many EU states have effective programmes to offer energy efficiency audits and advice to SMEs that can save energy quickly and effectively. Scaling these up to offer them to 5% of SMEs would deliver immediate annual energy savings of 250 mcm.

Impact: Reduces gas consumption for heat by close to an additional 2 bcm within a year, lowering energy bills, enhancing comfort and boosting industrial competitiveness.

9. Encourage a temporary thermostat adjustment by consumers

• Many European citizens have already responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in various ways, via donations or in some cases by directly assisting refugees from Ukraine. Adjusting heating controls in Europe’s gas-heated buildings would be another avenue for temporary action, saving considerable amounts of energy.
• The average temperature for buildings’ heating across the EU at present is above 22°C. Adjusting the thermostat for buildings heating would deliver immediate annual energy savings of around 10 bcm for each degree of reduction while also bringing down energy bills.
• Public awareness campaigns, and other measures such as consumption feedback or corporate targets, could encourage such changes in homes and commercial buildings. Regulations covering heating temperatures in offices could also prove to be an efficient policy tool. 

Impact: Turning down the thermostat for buildings’ heating by just 1°C would reduce gas demand by some 10 bcm a year.

Cross-cutting

10. step up efforts to diversify and decarbonise sources of power system flexibility.

• A key policy challenge for the EU in the coming years is to scale up alternative forms of flexibility for the power system, notably seasonal flexibility but also demand shifting and peak shaving. For the moment, gas is the main source of such flexibility and, as such, the links between gas and electricity security are set to deepen in the coming years, even as overall EU gas demand declines.
• Governments therefore need to step up efforts to develop and deploy workable, sustainable and cost-effective ways to manage the flexibility needs of EU power systems. A portfolio of options will be required, including enhanced grids, energy efficiency, increased electrification and demand-side response, dispatchable low emissions generation, and various large-scale and long-term energy storage technologies alongside short-term sources of flexibility such as batteries. EU member states need to ensure that there are adequate market price signals to support the business case for these investments.
• Flexibility measures to reduce industrial electricity and gas demand in peak hours are particularly important to alleviate the pressure on gas demand for electricity generation.
• Domestically sourced low-carbon gases – including biomethane, low-carbon hydrogen and synthetic methane – could be an important part of the solution, but a much greater demonstration and deployment effort will be required. 

Impact: A major near-term push on innovation can, over time, loosen the strong links between natural gas supply and Europe’s electricity security. Real-time electricity price signals can unlock more flexible demand, in turn reducing expensive and gas-intensive peak supply needs.

Additional fuel switching options

Going faster and further – additional fuel switching options in the power sector.

Other avenues are available to the EU if it wishes or needs to reduce reliance on Russian gas even more quickly – but with notable trade-offs. 5 The main near-term option would involve switching away from gas use in the power sector via an increased call on Europe’s coal-fired fleet or by using alternative fuels – primarily liquid fuels – within existing gas-fired power plants.

Given that these alternatives to gas use would raise the EU’s emissions, they are not included in the 10-Point Plan described above. However, they could displace large volumes of gas relatively quickly. We estimate that a temporary shift from gas to coal- or oil-fired generation could reduce gas demand for power by some 28 bcm before there was an overall increase in the EU’s energy-related emissions.

The larger share of this potential decrease in gas demand would be possible through gas-to-coal switching: an additional 120 TWh in coal-fired generation could cut gas demand by 22 bcm in one year. In addition to opportunities to run on biomethane, nearly a quarter of the EU’s fleet of gas-fired power plants is capable of using alternative fuels – nearly all in the form of liquid fuels. Taking advantage of this capability could displace another 6 bcm of natural gas demand a year, depending on sufficient financial incentives to switch fuels and the availability of those fuels.

If this fuel-switching option were to be fully exercised in addition to the complete implementation of the 10-Point Plan described above, it would result in a total annual reduction in EU imports of gas from Russia of more than 80 bcm, or well over half, while still resulting in a modest decline in overall emissions.

We have not included additional near-term measures to curb industrial demand, because of the risk of wider knock-on effects on the European economy.

The EU has access to more than 200 bcm per year of regasification capacity, including the possibility to bring in gas via UK LNG terminals. However, there is limited interconnection capacity in some areas, notably from Spain to France, which constrains the use of Spanish regasification capacity for imports to other European countries.

Assuming gas prices of EUR 22/MMbtu and CO 2 prices of EUR 90/tonne.

The amounts would depend on how the measures are designed, as well as on other factors affecting the overall profitability of the electricity companies.

We also examined the possibilities to bring down industrial use, especially for feedstocks. On the latter, there is limited scope to improve conversion yields, so a reduction in feedstock gas demand would in practice mean reduced chemical production, with important potential knock-on effects along value chains (e.g. in 2021, the food industry in some countries was disrupted because the supply of CO 2 to food-packing companies was sourced from ammonia plants, which stopped production because of high natural gas prices).

Reference 1

Reference 2, reference 3, reference 4, reference 5, cite report.

IEA (2022), A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas , IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-reduce-the-european-unions-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas, Licence: CC BY 4.0

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