お疲れ様, よろしく, お世話になります — Japanese Greetings Go Way Beyond Hello

The first greetings you learn in Japanese are おはようございます, こんにちは, and こんばんは. But once you actually live or work in Japan, you'll quickly discover that Japanese people use a much wider set of greetings — each tailored to the situation, relationship, and time of day.

This article introduces those everyday greetings that textbooks often skip, helping you sound natural in any context.

The Workplace All-Rounder: お疲れ様です vs ご苦労様です

Both translate roughly to "good work" or "thanks for your hard work," but using the wrong one can be seriously rude.

お疲れ様です is the single most frequently used phrase in Japanese workplaces. People say it when they arrive at work, when they leave, at the start of emails, and on the phone — it's essentially the workplace version of "hello."

お疲れ様です。今日の会議の資料を送ります。 → Good work today. I'll send you the meeting materials.

Meanwhile, ご苦労様です carries a tone of "I'm rewarding you for your labor" — an inherently superior perspective. Using it toward a boss or colleague is very rude.

Boss to subordinate: ご苦労様。もう帰っていいよ。 ✅ Subordinate to boss: ご苦労様です。 ❌ → Should say お疲れ様です。 ✅

Memory Tips

• お疲れ様 → "疲れ" (tired) → empathizing with someone's fatigue → anyone can say it
• ご苦労様 → "苦労" (toil) → rewarding someone's toil → only superiors can say it

The Ultimate All-Purpose Phrase: よろしくお願いします

よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegai shimasu) might be the single most versatile phrase in Japanese. It's not just "pleased to meet you" — it's an all-purpose key:

The formality level can be adjusted:

Business Essential: お世話になります / お世話になっております

Both translate as "thank you for your continued support," but there's a subtle difference:

Starting a phone call: いつもお世話になっております。A社の田中です。 → Thank you for your continued support. This is Tanaka from Company A.

This is the standard opening for Japanese business calls and emails. Omitting it would actually feel awkward.

Reuniting After a Long Time: お久しぶりです vs ご無沙汰しております

ご無沙汰 literally means "long silence," and it carries an apologetic nuance — "I'm sorry for not being in touch." Use this with superiors, clients, or elders.

To a friend: お久しぶりです！元気でしたか？ ✅ To a client: ご無沙汰しております。その節はありがとうございました。 ✅

Mealtime Rituals: いただきます / ごちそうさまでした

These aren't just "let's eat / I'm done." They express gratitude toward the cook, the ingredients, and nature itself. Even when eating instant noodles alone at home, many Japanese people will press their palms together and say いただきます.

After eating at someone's home: ごちそうさまでした。とてもおいしかったです。 → Thank you for the meal. It was delicious.

Leaving and Coming Home: A Set of Four

These four phrases are used in Japanese households every single day:

These come in pairs — saying いってきます naturally prompts the response いってらっしゃい; saying ただいま prompts おかえりなさい.

Morning departure: Child: いってきます！ Mother: いってらっしゃい。気をつけてね。 → Mom: Have a good day. Be careful, okay?

Visiting Someone's Home: お邪魔します

When entering someone's home or office, you say:

邪魔 literally means "hindrance," so the phrase literally translates to "I'm going to be a hindrance to you" — a quintessentially Japanese expression of humility.

Arriving at a friend's house: お邪魔します。わあ、きれいなお部屋ですね。 → Excuse me for intruding. Wow, what a lovely room!

Cultural Note: Greetings Reflect Social Roles

A defining feature of Japanese greetings is that they encode relationships:

• The same meaning ("good work") requires completely different words depending on who you're talking to
• Even formulaic phrases (お世話になっております) are expected — skipping them feels rude
• Paired greetings (いってきます ↔ いってらっしゃい) feel incomplete without a response

Understanding the logic behind these greetings matters more than memorizing them by rote.

Summary

• お疲れ様です is the universal workplace greeting; ご苦労様 is only for subordinates
• よろしくお願いします works from first meetings to email sign-offs — the ultimate all-purpose phrase
• お世話になっております is the standard opening for business calls and emails
• お久しぶりです (standard) vs ご無沙汰しております (formal/humble)
• いただきます / ごちそうさまでした are mealtime rituals of gratitude
• いってきます / ただいま and いってらっしゃい / おかえりなさい come in pairs
• お邪魔します is essential when entering someone's home

Practice Quiz

Q1. You just arrived at work and run into a colleague in the hallway. What should you say? What if it's a subordinate?

Q2. You're writing a business email to a client. What greeting should you open with?

Q3. You're visiting a Japanese friend's home. What do you say when entering? When leaving?