Writing Letters in Japanese

by Kikuko Tatematsu (Editor), Yoko Tateoka (Editor), Takashi Matsumoto (Editor)

Writing Letters in Japanese has been created to serve as a guide for foreign students of Japanese who wish to write letters as part of their day-to-day experience in Japan. This book provides the necessary information for letter writing as well as models of letters written for various situations that foreigners are likely to encounter in Japan.

Genres: Japanese Literature

142 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Aleja Rin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is what its title promises: It's a guide, almost like a manual, on how to write letters in Japanese. It's divided in two main sections "Fundamentals" and "Application", each one with its own chapters that go into detail about several elements and types of letters.

The contents are definitely complete and easy to understand, regardless of formality or conceptual/translation complexity. From the most simple characteristics of letters such as literal materials to language usage recommendations such as common expressions, all explanations are written in a way that they convey cultural meanings without putting aside their purpose in letters. Furthermore, the fact that the book provides us with different visual examples, makes the reading experience much more interesting and comprehensible. They helped me a lot to understand the structure of a letter, various formats and, above all, I could practice reading handwritten Japanese.

Talking about language, it's true that the Japanese used in the examples is quite advanced in my opinion. This might not be the best option if you're searching for a guide with beginner level Japanese, especially taking into account that it's made for situations the reader might encounter as a university student, an adult, someone interested in academic research, someone searching for a job, among others. In other words, cases where a high level of Japanese is required to engage in conversations or to communicate with specialized people and/or organizations. Those are mostly professional environments. However, there are chapters were we can find more informal letters addressed to friends or relatives.

I think my only concern is that this book might be slightly outdated. From it's publishing in 1992 until today, there has been a lot of changes in communication. For example, nowadays sending fax is not very common. It's more convenient to just text or even send an email. There's plenty of new ways to reach someone out other than fax. And yes, the entire guide is not focused on this but I point it out because it shows that some things might not be up to date. Additionally, what worries me most about this gap is precisely the language usage. I don't know if Japanese people still write letters with the same exact register, expressions, lexicon and gramatical structures. What if they don't write like this anymore? Do they consider this Japanese is old or too formal? Nonetheless, in spite of this issue, I truly believe this book is awesome and it gives a solid foundation to the reader.

In conclusion, I absolutely recommend "Writing letters in Japanese" or「日本語の手紙の書き方」. Even though I said it has advanced Japanese, there's furigana and everything is translated. You can use it to practice reading too regardless of your fluency (I, myself, I'm not quite advanced either). It's an amazing guide to understand letters written in this language and their cultural background. Also, there's almost an example for any situation you might need a letter for. Actually, I wanted to learn how to thank someone for a gift and found a letter for that!

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been my bible for over twenty years of interacting with Japanese people in writing.