Japanese Work Handover (Hikitsugi): Phrases, the Hikitsugisho and Clients

Three kinds of hikitsugi and when they start

Hikitsugi covers three situations that feel different but use the same language. Before kyūka, leave, you hand over the tasks that will fall due while you are away, usually to one colleague and usually in a short message plus a word in person. Before jinji idō, a transfer within the company, you hand over a whole role, often in the weeks between the announcement and the move date. Before taishoku, resignation, you hand over everything, and the company will expect it to be complete before your last day.

Timing is where learners get caught. Leave needs a day or two of preparation. A transfer starts the day it is announced. A resignation handover runs through the notice period, and many managers will ask for a hikitsugi keikaku, a handover plan, in the first week. Company expectations differ, so ask what the team's hikitsugi normally looks like.

The hikitsugisho: what goes in the document

The hikitsugisho is the backbone of the handover. It is read by your successor, your manager and, months later, by whoever has to answer a question nobody else can. Write it in plain desu and masu or in the noun-heavy style of internal documents, whichever your team uses, and organise it by task rather than by date. For each task: what it is for, how often it happens, what state it is in, who is involved, where the files are, and what could go wrong.

Two things make a hikitsugisho genuinely useful. The first is the keii, the history: why a client is handled a certain way, which decisions were made and by whom. The second is the unwritten rules: the client who dislikes phone calls, the report that must go to a particular person first. These never appear in official procedures, and they are exactly what a successor cannot find out alone.

Passwords and account details are usually handed over through the company's own system, not written in the document. Ask IT how your company handles them.

Phrases for handing over

The spoken walkthrough follows the document. Sit with your successor, go through each task, and say what the document cannot: the tone a client expects, the parts of a process that are slower than they look. Use hikitsugimasu for the act, o-negai shimasu for the request, and go-fumei na ten, unclear points, to invite questions. Keep the walkthrough in desu and masu even with a close colleague; the formality signals that this is an official transfer of responsibility.

End by saying when you will be reachable and for how long. In many companies it is normal to answer a successor's questions for a few weeks after a transfer; after resignation it is a courtesy, not an obligation, and you can set limits politely.

Phrases for receiving a handover

When you are the successor, your job is to ask. Japanese colleagues often hand over what they think matters and forget what they have stopped noticing, so the questions you bring shape what you get. Ask about priority first, then history, then pending problems, then people. Confirm what you heard with to iu koto desu ne, so that is the case, and write the answer into the document yourself, because the outgoing person will not have time.

Show that you are taking the work seriously without over-promising. Hikitsugasete itadakimasu, I will take it over, and shikkari hikitsugimasu, I will take it over properly, are the standard lines, and a short thank-you at the end for the time spent is expected.

Introducing the successor to clients

Clients are handed over in two steps. First comes the kōnin no go-shōkai email: you announce the change, name the successor, copy them in, and thank the client for their support. The successor then replies to the thread with a short self-introduction. Second comes a joint visit or call, where you introduce them face to face and step back while they speak. After your last day, the successor sends a follow-up on their own.

The rows below are the pieces of that email and the spoken introduction. Keep the tone warm and slightly formal, and avoid explaining why you are leaving; a plain isshin ni yori, for personal reasons, is all a client needs.

A handover checklist for the giving side

The list below covers the giving side from announcement to last day. Not every item applies to a short leave, but for a transfer or resignation, working through all of it is what colleagues will silently expect.

• Agree the successor and the handover schedule with your manager first
• Update or write the hikitsugisho, organised by task, with status and history
• Tidy shared folders and name files so a stranger can find them
• Walk the successor through the document in person, task by task
• Send the client notification email with the successor copied in
• Make joint visits or calls to the most important clients
• Hand over accounts and passwords through the company's official process
• Cancel or transfer recurring meetings, subscriptions and system roles
• Say when you will still answer questions, and for how long
• Thank the successor, your manager and the team on your final day

For a short leave, the list collapses to three lines: tell one colleague what falls due, write where the files are, and put an out-of-office message up.

Mistakes to avoid

The most common mistake is a handover that lives only in your head, delivered as a rushed conversation on the last afternoon. Write it down early and let the conversation follow the document. The second is listing tasks without history: a successor who knows what to do but not why will repeat old mistakes. The third is forgetting clients, who will remember learning of the change from a bounced email.

On the receiving side, the mistake is politeness that stops you asking. Nodding through a walkthrough and discovering the gaps a month later helps nobody. Ask, confirm, write it down. And on both sides, do not treat hikitsugi as optional because you are only going on holiday; a two-line message about what falls due is still a handover, and skipping it is noticed.