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I have always pictured Japanese business letters as a flowchart of questions like “What is the current season?” and “Does the addressee work at a company or a school?". The answers to these questions largely determine the wording of the letter (see the Sample Answers at the end of this article). This means that writing these letters is often very formulaic, and that is exactly why native Japanese speakers use websites dedicated to the art of writing business letters.
In this short article, I would like to share the formula for polite and appropriate Japanese business letters. In addition, free yet very helpful websites where you can find sample letters will be shown for your reference.
*If you would like to print out this article, please do so from the "Full Article" page not the "Printer Version" page - the format will be not correct.