Business Japanese: the glow-up (thanks, Shohei Yoshida)

For Fun Friday, I want to invite you to think for a moment about your own long‑running professional struggles. The ones you have worked around for years, compensated for, maybe even joked about, but never quite solved. For me, that was polite and business Japanese.

After more than 30 years of living and working with Japan, I could function just fine. I could participate in meetings, manage relationships, and get my point across. And yet, business Japanese always felt like a trap. I vividly remember trying so hard to be polite that I once said almost the opposite of what I actually meant. I looked over and saw my husband’s eyebrows slowly rise, which told me everything I needed to know about how that had landed. Moments like that are funny in retrospect, but in the moment they are frustrating and confidence‑shaking.

That is why working with Shohei Yoshida was such a turning point for me. Thanks to Shohei, I finally made real progress with polite and business Japanese instead of just circling around the same issues.

Shohei is an exceptionally patient teacher and explains things clearly in both Japanese and English. That matters enormously when you are dealing with nuance and intent, not just vocabulary or grammar. He understands how Japanese business language actually works in real professional settings and how easily things can go wrong when you are trying to be polite without fully understanding the structure behind it. He is also very accommodating when schedules change, which makes his coaching realistic for busy professionals.

What I also truly appreciate is his overall learning system. In addition to live classes, he offers an online platform with pre‑recorded lessons and tests that you can revisit as often as you want. Being able to repeat material and retake tests helped me deepen and consolidate what I was learning instead of constantly feeling like I was guessing under pressure.

If you are a professional working with Japan and you have that one lingering language struggle you never quite resolved, I encourage you to reflect on what it would feel like to finally move past it. For anyone serious about improving business Japanese in a structured, practical, and sustainable way, I can honestly say Shohei is the one you want to work with.