Japanese Jobs and Occupations Vocabulary

A job title or a field of work

English speakers usually answer the question what do you do with a job title, and Japanese has titles too: isha, kyōshi, enjinia. But Japanese speakers just as often answer with a field or an activity, such as eigyō (sales), jimu (office work), or IT kankei no shigoto (IT-related work), and the grammar changes with the choice. A title is a noun you are, so it takes desu. A field is work you do, so it takes o shite imasu. Kaishain (company employee) sits between the two and is by far the most common first answer, even though it tells the listener almost nothing about what you actually do.

Learners often treat kaishain as evasive, but it is the normal opening move. A Japanese speaker says kaishain desu, waits for the follow-up, and only then explains the field. Copy that rhythm and your answer will sound like conversation rather than like a form being filled in.

Desu, o shite imasu, and de hataraite imasu

Three patterns cover almost every answer. Title plus desu states what you are. Field plus o shite imasu states what work you do, and the te imasu form matters because a job is an ongoing state, not a single action; eigyō o shimasu would sound like a one-off plan. Place plus de hataraite imasu says where you work, and the particle is de because working is an action that happens at the place. The slightly more formal tsutomete imasu takes ni instead, since it means being employed by an organisation rather than doing an activity there. Mixing these two particles is the most common error in the whole topic.

Notice the third example: byōin de kangoshi o shite imasu combines a place and a title in one sentence, and it is how many people answer when they want to give both at once. The English at a hospital as a nurse is clumsy, but the Japanese is the everyday form and worth copying.

Asking about someone's work politely

The safest question is o-shigoto wa nan desu ka, with the polite o in front of shigoto because the work belongs to the listener. In real conversation people usually shorten it to o-shigoto wa? with rising intonation, letting the sentence trail off, which is softer than a full question. Shokugyō wa nan desu ka is grammatical but sounds like an official form, so keep it for paperwork. With a client or someone senior, dochira ni o-tsutome desu ka asks where they are employed without pressing for a title, and it is the version you will hear in business settings.

Once you have an answer, react before you ask the next thing. Sō desu ka, taihen sō desu ne, or omoshirosō na o-shigoto desu ne shows you were listening, and then nan-nen-me desu ka or a question about the workplace keeps the exchange going. Firing two questions in a row without a reaction is what makes a learner sound like an interviewer.

In and shain: members of an organisation

The ending 員 in means member, and it attaches to a place or organisation to name the person who works there: kaishain for a company, ginkōin for a bank, ekiin for a station, ten'in for a shop, and kōmuin for the public sector. These words describe your relationship to an institution rather than what you do all day, which is why kaishain is so common and so vague. Shain on its own means an employee of a particular company, so you hear it in seishain (full-time permanent employee) and shinnyū shain (new hire).

When you address one of these people directly, add san: ekiin-san, ten'in-san. Calling out ten'in on its own sounds like a label rather than a form of address, and learners do it more often than they realise when they are trying to get attention in a shop.

Ka, shi, sha, and nin: endings that hint at a profession

Several other endings turn up again and again, and knowing them lets you guess a new word's meaning before you have looked it up. Ka (家) tends to mark a person known for a creative or expert pursuit: sakka (writer), gaka (painter), mangaka, kenchikuka (architect). Shi (士 or 師) tends to mark a licensed or trained profession: bengoshi (lawyer), kangoshi (nurse), kaikeishi (accountant), kyōshi (teacher). Sha (者) means person and gives isha (doctor), kisha (journalist), and hon'yakusha (translator). Nin (人) also means person and appears in trade words such as ryōrinin (cook, chef).

These are tendencies, not rules; the endings were attached over centuries and do not sort neatly. The useful habit is recognising the family a word belongs to, not predicting the ending. One trap: kyōshi is what you call your own job, while sensei is what other people call you. Watashi wa sensei desu sounds self-important, and the same applies to doctors, who say isha desu but are addressed as sensei.

Students and part-time work

Being a student is an occupation answer in Japanese, and gakusei desu is a complete reply. Add the type if you want: daigakusei (university student), kōkōsei (high-school student), ryūgakusei (international student), or the year with nensei. Part-time work is arubaito, shortened to baito in casual speech, and it is treated as an activity, so it takes o shite imasu with the workplace marked by de. Pāto is a separate word for part-time work done mainly by adults with other commitments, so a student says baito and a parent working mornings at a supermarket says pāto.

When a student is asked o-shigoto wa, the natural reply is gakusei desu, followed by the subject or the part-time job, since the asker usually wants to know how the person spends the day rather than a job title. Mentioning the subject or the workplace also gives them something to ask about next.

Freelance, self-employed, and between jobs

Furīransu is the everyday word for freelance and it usually comes with a title after no: furīransu no dezainā, furīransu no hon'yakusha. Jieigyō means self-employed in a broader sense, including people who run a shop or a small business, and jieigyō desu is a perfectly complete answer. If you run the business you can also say keiei shite imasu with the type of business, which is more specific. Shufu (homemaker) works the same way, and it is a normal occupation answer, not an apology.

Being between jobs is easier to say than learners fear. Ima wa shigoto o sagashite imasu (I am looking for work right now) is neutral and common, and tenshoku shita bakari desu (I have just changed jobs) explains a recent move. The blunt word mushoku (unemployed) exists but sounds harsh about yourself, so leave it to forms.

Describing your workplace

After the title comes the description, and this is where the conversation gets interesting. Shokuba is the workplace as a place; kaisha is the company as an organisation. Dōryō (colleagues), jōshi (boss), and buka (subordinates) are the people. Zangyō (overtime) and shutchō (business trips) are what people complain and ask about. Build sentences with wa and a simple adjective, since the shape is the same as describing anything else: shokuba wa eki kara chikai desu, dōryō wa yasashii desu. Joining a positive and a negative clause with ga makes you sound balanced rather than boastful or bitter.

Occupation words by field

Most of these take desu directly. The two that do not are eigyō and jimu, which are fields rather than people, so they take o shite imasu. Notice how many rows end in in, shi, ka, and sha now that you know what to look for.

The full exchange about work

Here is the whole conversation as it usually runs between two adults meeting for the first time. The important move is the short reaction after each answer, and the turn Tanaka-san wa? which hands the question back with two words. Read both roles aloud, then swap, because the listening side (catching a job word inside a fast reply) is as much of the skill as producing your own line.

Practising job vocabulary out loud

• Say your own job three ways: title with desu, field with o shite imasu, place with de hataraite imasu.
• Describe the jobs of five people you know, choosing between desu and o shite imasu for each.
• Read the table aloud and sort each word by its ending, saying the family name (in, shi, ka, sha, nin) after it.
• Ask o-shigoto wa? in a mirror and answer with kaishain desu plus one detail, then add one reaction line.
• Record the full exchange with yourself playing both roles, and listen for the particle after each place name.