Question
I’m visiting our Tokyo branch next month for the first time and will be meeting clients I’ve only ever emailed with my Japanese colleagues. They keep opening their messages with “osewa ni narimasu” and I want to say the same thing in person when we greet at the office. How do I use お世話（せわ）になります correctly?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
お世話（せわ）になります。
Osewa ni narimasu.
Thank you for working with us. / Thanks for taking care of things on our side.
This is the standard Japanese business greeting — there is no clean one-line English equivalent, which is why it feels strange the first time you use it. The literal meaning is closer to “I will be receiving your care,” but in practice it works like “Hello” between people in a business relationship. You use it at the start of phone calls, in emails, and when you walk into a client’s office. The register is polite (です／ます form), neutral enough for almost any work context — first-time meetings, vendors, partner companies, your own clients.
Word-by-word breakdown
- お — honorific prefix that softens the noun that follows.
- 世話（せわ） — care, looking-after, help with day-to-day matters.
- に — particle marking what you are about to receive.
- なります — the polite form of なる (to become / to come into a state). Together with に, it carries the nuance of “I’ll be in the position of receiving.”
A quick practical tip: use お世話（せわ）になります the first time you contact someone, and switch to お世話（せわ）になっております once the relationship is ongoing. In email and on the phone it’s almost reflexive — Japanese colleagues open with it the same way English speakers open with “Hi, this is Sarah from accounting.”
