Technical Japanese

The Japanese actually used in factories: shop-floor kanji, drawings, safety signs, asking back and confirming, 報連相, emails and reports — 40 lessons with downloadable handbooks.

Start here

1. Technical Japanese #01 — Why Vietnamese Engineers Need Shop-Floor Japanese, and How to Learn It — A practical roadmap into on-site Japanese for engineers: what to learn first, a four-column glossary, a 30-day start and the mistakes that waste a year.
2. Technical Japanese #02 — Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana on the Shop Floor: What to Read First — Three scripts, three jobs. Read them by risk — safety kanji, then equipment katakana, then the hiragana that carries the instruction.
3. Technical Japanese #04 — 100 High-Frequency Kanji for the Japanese Factory Floor — The kanji that actually repeat on the floor, grouped by department, with readings — plus how to guess a new compound instead of looking it up.
4. Technical Japanese #08 — How to Ask Again Safely in Japanese — The dangerous mistake is not weak Japanese, it is pretending to understand. Fixed phrases for asking again, repeating numbers back and reporting early.
5. Technical Japanese #07 — Reading Japanese Safety Signs: Danger, Caution and Restricted Areas — Learn the three levels, a few dozen characters, and what to do the moment you see each sign.
6. Technical Japanese #03 — Reading Dimensions on Japanese Drawings: Numbers, Units and Symbols — φ, R, C and t decide the geometry. Read the units, the general tolerance in the title block and the machining notes before you release a part.
7. Technical Japanese #10 — Quality Japanese: Defects, Inspection, Dimensions and Tolerances — Quality vocabulary is judgement vocabulary — every word carries a pass or fail. Tolerances, limit samples, the two kinds of inspection and how to report a defect.
8. Technical Japanese #29 — HORENSO: Report, Inform and Consult in a Japanese Workplace — 報連相 is judged as hard as technical skill. When each of the three branches applies, and the phrases that make a report land well.
9. Technical Japanese #30 — Writing a Japanese Technical Email: a Reliable Structure — A Japanese business email has a fixed shape: greeting, purpose in one line, body, a polite request with a deadline, closing and signature. Assemble it and it works.
10. Technical Japanese #40 — Build a Personal Technical Japanese Notebook That You Will Actually Use — After 39 posts the rest is yours: a six-column glossary built from the drawings and meetings you actually work on, plus the sources worth trusting.

Calculators and lookup tables

• Japanese–Vietnamese Technical Terms

Downloads

• Technical Japanese Vocabulary Handbook
• Japanese Shop-Floor Term Lookup Table
• Shop-floor Japanese Phrases
• Japanese Technical Emails and Reports Handbook
• Reading Japanese Technical Documents
• Technical Katakana and Japanese Factory Abbreviations
• Japanese Factory Safety Signs: Quick Reference

All articles in this topic (40)

• Technical Japanese #01 — Why Vietnamese Engineers Need Shop-Floor Japanese, and How to Learn It
• Technical Japanese #02 — Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana on the Shop Floor: What to Read First
• Technical Japanese #03 — Reading Dimensions on Japanese Drawings: Numbers, Units and Symbols
• Technical Japanese #04 — 100 High-Frequency Kanji for the Japanese Factory Floor
• Technical Japanese #05 — Technical Katakana: Recognising English Loanwords in Japanese
• Technical Japanese #06 — Shop-Floor Action Verbs: Tighten, Loosen, Adjust, Check and Replace
• Technical Japanese #07 — Reading Japanese Safety Signs: Danger, Caution and Restricted Areas
• Technical Japanese #08 — How to Ask Again Safely in Japanese
• Technical Japanese #09 — Production Engineering Japanese: Core Terms and Department Flow
• Technical Japanese #10 — Quality Japanese: Defects, Inspection, Dimensions and Tolerances
• Technical Japanese #11 — Equipment Japanese: Machines, Fixtures, Setup and Operation
• Technical Japanese #12 — Maintenance Japanese: Preventive Work, Faults and Inspection
• Technical Japanese #13 — Manufacturing Japanese: Process, Takt, Line and Lot
• Technical Japanese #14 — Safety Japanese: KY, Near Miss and 5S in a Japanese Factory
• Technical Japanese #15 — Mechanical Vocabulary: Materials, Machining, Welding and Surface Treatment
• Technical Japanese #16 — Electrical and Automation Vocabulary: Power, PLC, Sensors and Motors
• Technical Japanese #17 — Drawing and Tolerance Vocabulary: GD&T, Datums and Symbols
• Technical Japanese #18 — Measuring Tools in Japanese: Calipers, Micrometers and Torque Wrenches
• Technical Japanese #19 — Consumables and Spare Parts: Japanese Vocabulary for Ordering
• Technical Japanese #20 — Common Japanese Factory Abbreviations: QC, QA, WIP, Takt and Lot
• Technical Japanese #21 — How to Read a Japanese Drawing Title Block (表題欄)
• Technical Japanese #22 — Machining Notes on Japanese Drawings: Chamfer, Deburr and Counterbore
• Technical Japanese #23 — Reading a Japanese Specification Sheet (仕様書): Structure and Risk Points
• Technical Japanese #24 — Reading a QC Process Control Table (QC工程表)
• Technical Japanese #25 — Reading a Japanese Work Instruction (作業手順書)
• Technical Japanese #26 — Standard Samples and Limit Samples: Judging Appearance Consistently
• Technical Japanese #27 — Japanese Electrical Diagram Symbols: Contacts, Coils and Seal-In Circuits
• Technical Japanese #28 — Reading Misumi and Omron Catalogues: Part Numbers and Options
• Technical Japanese #29 — HORENSO: Report, Inform and Consult in a Japanese Workplace
• Technical Japanese #30 — Writing a Japanese Technical Email: a Reliable Structure
• Technical Japanese #31 — Writing a Japanese Technical Report (報告書)
• Technical Japanese #32 — Reporting a Defect Without Blame: Japanese Fuguai Communication
• Technical Japanese #33 — Asking for Confirmation, Approval and Permission in Japanese
• Technical Japanese #34 — A 30-Second Japanese Morning Meeting Update (朝礼)
• Technical Japanese #35 — Politely Declining or Redirecting a Proposal in Japanese Email
• Technical Japanese #36 — Shift Handover Notes (引継ぎ): Results, Work in Progress and Alerts
• Technical Japanese #37 — Giving Instructions and Confirming Numbers at the Machine
• Technical Japanese #38 — Working with Japanese Engineers During Commissioning (試運転)
• Technical Japanese #39 — KAIZEN Japanese: Explaining an Improvement Proposal
• Technical Japanese #40 — Build a Personal Technical Japanese Notebook That You Will Actually Use

Tolerances & drawings · Pneumatics & mechanisms · Electrical & PLC · Materials & machining · Quality

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