Itsumo osewa ni natte orimasu (いつもお世話になっております): thank you, as always, for your help. The standard opening of an email to a client, followed by the writer’s company and name.
Gobusata shite orimasu (ご無沙汰しております): I have long failed to be in touch. A business guide advises this opening instead of the usual one when some time has passed without contact.
Nenshi mawari is the first greeting visit of the new year to business partners. A business etiquette guide advises finishing the rounds by January 15, the Little New Year. Visitors often bring towels, a box of sweets, or coffee or tea. The gift brought on this visit is called onenga.
An accounting guide notes that some companies hand out towels at the start of the year to clients they have long dealt with. It also mentions New Year hand towels and calendars.
Shochū mimai, the midsummer greeting card, is sent from the end of the rainy season until the day before risshū, the start of autumn in the traditional calendar. In 2024, that day was August 6. After it, the card becomes zansho mimai, a late-summer greeting, and should arrive by the end of August at the latest.
An etiquette guide gives a business version. It opens by wishing the recipient’s company ever greater prosperity.
Yakult’s home delivery by women, the Yakult Ladies, began in 1963. In Kōriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, one Yakult Lady started bringing drinks at her own expense to elderly people who lived alone.
Since 1972, Yakult has continued this as ai no hōmon katsudō, visits of love. Its 2017 report counts about 41,000 elderly people living alone who were visited.
A business etiquette guide advises an employee who is being transferred to visit clients together with the successor. This makes the handover smoother and reassures the clients. Some also give a thank-you gift, such as individually wrapped sweets worth 2,000 to 3,000 yen. Only when a visit is impossible is an email acceptable.
Every year on December 13, the geiko and maiko of Gion in Kyoto walk in a line to the teachers of their arts and to the teahouses that look after them. They bring kagami mochi, round rice cakes, and thank them for the year. The custom is called kotohajime.
On August 1, called hassaku, they make another round in black formal kimono. Bowing, they say otanomōshimasu, we ask for your favor.
A business etiquette guide explains what to do when the president or the contact person of a client dies. The first step is to gather the facts calmly, report to one’s superior and follow instructions.
Business contacts now tend to attend only the wake. A condolence telegram should reach the funeral hall on the day of the wake, or at the latest before the funeral begins.
In December 2025, the credit research firm Tokyo Shoko Research published a survey of companies on New Year cards for 2026. Only 36.0 percent said they would send them. Another 11.3 percent had sent cards the year before but would not send them for 2026.
The survey also found that companies that keep sending them use New Year cards as one tool of communication.
A Japanese etiquette article says that good manners call for a suitable temiyage, a gift carried by hand, when visiting an important customer or business partner. A secretary in the article thinks about where and when the gift will be handed over, how long it will be carried and when it will be eaten. She pays attention to its size, its wrapping paper and its weight, and usually chooses Western or Japanese sweets.
Oseibo is a gift sent at the end of the year. It thanks people for their help, including people who have helped in one’s work.
In summer, ochūgen is sent to relatives and to people who have helped, as a seasonal greeting of thanks. It goes back to the Chinese festival of Zhongyuan, which merged with the Japanese festival of Obon.