Ok, I rceived a reply to an e-mail I sent to Toyota in Japan from one Masami Urayama. When I respond, is it Mr(s). Masami or Mr(s). Urayama?
Urayama is the surname and Masami is his first name. Bino is correct, Urayama san is the respectful way to address him. Try not to be demanding in the tone of your letter. In Japanese culture this is considered very rude. It is much more polite to make requests than demands. SCH-I535
Masami could be a female. It's like Lynn or Jesse or Jaime etc, so until its clear Urayama-san is the proper adress.
I have international coworkers. The Asian ones confuse me the most. Some take "Western" names to make communication easier. But their official work emails still have their natural names. Even here in the States, the email can be either [first].[last]@company.com or [last].[first]@company.com. So you can imagine my confusion when I receive an email from a new Asian coworker. I don't know if their email is first.last or last.first or if they intentionally switched last and first to make it easier to read or what. I have even asked my Asian coworkers for their thoughts on someone else's email and many times they are like, "dude, I don't know either."
i recommend being demanding rather than just requesting. therez no reason to kowtow to asian culture. you are better off being manly rather than feminine. of course being overly demanding then becomes feminine also. oh sorry, i see you are thanking him for his email,,, just call him/her masami then,,, thatz much more personal and engaging by skipping the mr/mrs. to: masami urayama dear masami, thank you for your response. yours truly, bob capisce? ps even our President is still called Barry oops this thread is from 2013 hahaha oh well the mails are slow in Hilo Hawaii
