Keigo for Answering the Phone at Work: A Model Call in Three Registers

The four lines that carry most work calls

Most incoming calls at a Japanese office follow the same path: you greet, you identify the company, you find out who the caller wants, and either you transfer the call or you explain that the person is unavailable and take a message. Four lines do most of the work, and every one of them is already keigo, so you do not have to build them from grammar rules under pressure.

Many offices also have a habit worth copying: if the phone rang more than about three times before you picked up, start with omatase itashimashita, sorry to keep you waiting. It sounds small, but callers notice it.

The same request in three registers

Learners often know the casual form and the desu/masu form of a sentence but freeze when they need the phone version. Seeing the three side by side helps: the meaning stays the same, and only the distance changes. The casual line is for friends and family. The plain polite line is correct Japanese and fine with a colleague you know, but on a company line to an outside caller it sounds a little bare. The keigo line is what the caller expects.

Model call: the person they want is out

This is the most common call a junior employee handles. The caller wants your colleague Tanaka, who is in a meeting. Notice three things: the caller uses Tanaka-sama and respectful verbs, you use plain Tanaka and humble verbs, and you repeat the phone number back before ending the call.

Taking a message that nobody has to call back about

A message slip is only useful if your colleague can act on it without phoning you first. Get these six things, and confirm the spelling of names you are unsure of. Asking how a name is written is normal and polite; guessing is not.

• The caller's name and company, with the kanji if you can get it
• Their phone number, repeated back digit by digit
• What the call is about, in one line
• Whether they want a call back, will call again, or just want the message passed on
• The time of the call
• Your own name, so your colleague knows whom to ask

Uchi and soto: lower your own colleagues

This is the rule that surprises learners most. Inside the office you call your manager Tanaka-buchō and use respectful verbs about them. The moment you speak to an outside caller, your manager becomes part of your side, uchi, and the caller is soto. You drop san and the job title after the name, and you use humble verbs about your own manager, exactly as you would about yourself.

It can feel disrespectful to your boss, but the opposite is true: honouring your own colleague in front of a client sounds as if you are raising your company above the client.

Transferring a call and picking one up

When the person is at their desk, you put the caller on hold and pass the call on, telling your colleague who is calling before you transfer. The colleague who picks up opens with a fixed line that tells the caller the transfer worked.

Notice that inside the office, talking to Tanaka, you use Tanaka-san again. The uchi-soto switch happens in the same minute, depending on who is listening.

Over-keigo traps and other common mistakes

Once learners discover keigo, they tend to stack it. Two honorific forms on one verb, nijū keigo or double keigo, is one of the commonest errors among Japanese new hires too, and it is the kind of thing a careful caller notices. A few forms such as ukagatte orimasu are so widely used in business that people accept them; the ones below are the ones to fix first.

• Saying ryōkai shimashita to a customer: many people find it too casual; use shōchi itashimashita or kashikomarimashita.
• Answering with moshi moshi on an incoming business call: many companies train staff to start with the greeting and company name instead.
• Using de gozaimasu for the caller, as in Satō-sama de gozaimasu ka. It works in some service settings, but Satō-sama de irasshaimasu ka is the respectful form.
• Hanging up first. With customers, many people wait for the caller to hang up, or put the receiver down gently after a short pause.

Rehearse a whole call before the phone rings

Ask Mocchi something specific, such as: give me five sentences about my boss that I must convert from inside-the-office keigo to outside-caller keigo, then check my answers. Mocchi explains each correction, and because it keeps notes on what you keep missing, the uchi-soto switch will come back in later reviews until it sticks.

Then make it real with your voice. In AI Sensei, choose Yamada-sensei and ask the Sensei to play a client calling for your manager. Take the call, explain that your manager is out, take a number and repeat it back. Ask the Sensei to speak at normal office speed the second time; the session report lists the forms you got wrong.