I'm writing an email to a certain office of a university and wondering what to write at the start and end.

Is this appropriate for this situation?

拝啓

[...]

敬具　
<my name>


I've never written a letter/email in Japanese to someone whose name I didn't know so I'm not 100% sure...

関係者の方へ or 担当者の方へ

dizmox Wrote:Is this appropriate for this situation?

拝啓

[...]

敬具　
<my name>

Yes that's perfect.

If he actually meant to start the letter with 拝啓 and no address at all, it's not perfect -- you should put something (like 関係者の方へ) first. But then haikei and keigu are good.

He doesn't need that. 拝啓 alone is perfectly fine here.

Thank you!

I will admit I don't have a lot of experience writing formal letters or e-mails in Japanese, but it seems very strange to me to start with 拝啓 and no address whatsoever. Have you actually seen this in a book or letter?

I have a book here on job applications, and all of the letter examples they give start with just a pre-packaged greeting (前略、拝啓、謹啓、冠省), and the addresse's name (or a generic address like 人事部ご担当者様 or 人事部人事課課長様) and company appear at the bottom left, after the sender's name. I think starting a letter with ~~へ is somewhat informal.

I also think that ご関係者様 or ご担当者様 would be much better than ~の方.

Another translation of 拝啓 is 'to whom it may concern'.


If you really doubt that the right person is going to get your letter even though your email address should be correct. You can up the formality and write something like this...


何々大学　経済学部御中

拝啓


突然メールをさしあげます失礼をお許しください
Blah blah blah

Ｌｏｖｅ，
敬具

My input that I heard....

If it's a business letter and you don't know who is going to receive it write:
関係者各位
or very common to start like this...
関係者各位
拝啓、時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。

If you already know who is going to receive it then can use...
　　高橋部長殿　(name postion dono or name dono)
拝啓 時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。

socrat Wrote:My input that I heard....

If it's a business letter and you don't know who is going to receive it write:
関係者各位
or very common to start like this...
関係者各位
拝啓、時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。

Actually you should use company/department name+御中

It's more honorific.

kitakitsune Wrote:

socrat Wrote:My input that I heard....

If it's a business letter and you don't know who is going to receive it write:
関係者各位
or very common to start like this...
関係者各位
拝啓、時下ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。

Actually you should use company/department name+御中

It's more honorific.

For +御中 you would only use on the envelope.
So only after the company name and not the person's name or position.

I've always used

各位様、

But i do that more when there are multiple recipients rather than one i do not know the name of. I've never sent an email without knowing the name of the recipient (at least, not in Japanese).

I think if it's an out-of-the-blue email to someone who doesn't know you, including an apology as kitakitsune suggested is also a good idea.

socrat Wrote:For +御中 you would only use on the envelope.
So only after the company name and not the person's name or position.

Not sure where you get your info about 御中 being limited to envelopes but I can say with the highest confidence that you're wrong.

zigmonty Wrote:I've always used

各位様、

But i do that more when there are multiple recipients rather than one i do not know the name of. I've never sent an email without knowing the name of the recipient (at least, not in Japanese).

I think if it's an out-of-the-blue email to someone who doesn't know you, including an apology as kitakitsune suggested is also a good idea.

You should consider dropping 各位様.

With the exception of a few usages of お取引先各位, I have only seen 各位 used in 社内 emails. I haven't run this through a native speaker but I think adding 様 onto 各位 just sounds like weird fake keigo.

kitakitsune Wrote:

socrat Wrote:For +御中 you would only use on the envelope.
So only after the company name and not the person's name or position.

Not sure where you get your info about 御中 being limited to envelopes but I can say with the highest confidence that you're wrong.

This is coming from a native speaker. Just use +御中 after the companies name which is usually on the the envelope. I guess if you have an need to use the companies name in the letter itself for some reason then you could use it there too, but more common on the envelope. Just never use it for a persons name only a company.

Your native speaker is dead wrong. You can use 御中 in the opening of an email. Go look at any book on writing emails and business letters in Japanese and you'll see a few dozen 御中's in them.

If you have a Japanese electronic dictionary just pull up the もっとうまいeメールの書き方 and take a look.

You use 御中 when you are writing to an organization and ~様 when you are writing to a specific person. The OP is writing to a specific office of a specific university so he would use (university name) + (office) + 御中

Remember that even native speakers have trouble writing formal letters and e-mails so you need to be careful who you ask about this. This is a case where you should not trust what a native speaker says unless you know they have good experience writing such letters.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Remember that even native speakers have trouble writing formal letters and e-mails so you need to be careful who you ask about this. This is a case where you should not trust what a native speaker says unless you know they have good experience writing such letters.

True, I don't think there is any disagreement on the 御中 after a company name vs. the original example which doesn't refer to the company.

My source worked in a japanese co. for 10 years writing emails, so hopefully can I can learn something from that experience. I think there are many ways to write an email just like in english.

socrat Wrote:True, I don't think there is any disagreement on the 御中 after a company name vs. the original example which doesn't refer to the company.

My source worked in a japanese co. for 10 years writing emails, so hopefully can I can learn something from that experience. I think there are many ways to write an email just like in english.

You know a Japanese person with 10 years of corporate experience and they are telling you that 御中 goes on envelopes and not in emails?

This is not a case of there being many ways to write emails - they are just giving you wrong information.

kitakitsune Wrote:Another translation of 拝啓 is 'to whom it may concern'.


If you really doubt that the right person is going to get your letter even though your email address should be correct. You can up the formality and write something like this...


何々大学　経済学部御中

拝啓


突然メールをさしあげます失礼をお許しください
Blah blah blah

Ｌｏｖｅ，
敬具

Love? Now that is amusing.

Your Sincerely,
Omoishinji

kitakitsune Wrote:

zigmonty Wrote:I've always used

各位様、

But i do that more when there are multiple recipients rather than one i do not know the name of. I've never sent an email without knowing the name of the recipient (at least, not in Japanese).

I think if it's an out-of-the-blue email to someone who doesn't know you, including an apology as kitakitsune suggested is also a good idea.

You should consider dropping 各位様.

With the exception of a few usages of お取引先各位, I have only seen 各位 used in 社内 emails. I haven't run this through a native speaker but I think adding 様 onto 各位 just sounds like weird fake keigo.

These are sort of 社内 emails. They're to the japanese head office of the company i work for. Not sure who i copied, probably another gaijin. Pretty much posted it here in the hope someone would tell me it was wrong... lol.

Edit: Random post i found backing up kitakitsune: http://silabel.cocolog-nifty.com/note/20..._a559.html

kitakitsune Wrote:

socrat Wrote:True, I don't think there is any disagreement on the 御中 after a company name vs. the original example which doesn't refer to the company.

My source worked in a japanese co. for 10 years writing emails, so hopefully can I can learn something from that experience. I think there are many ways to write an email just like in english.

You know a Japanese person with 10 years of corporate experience and they are telling you that 御中 goes on envelopes and not in emails?

This is not a case of there being many ways to write emails - they are just giving you wrong information.

They were referring to the example I gave. So in the case you don't use the company name but the person's name you wouldn't use 御中. If you want to make a new example with the companies name then it's fine.