7.1 総合読解: Business Emails

7.1 総合読解: Business Emails

Japanese business emails in the BJT Part 3 総合読解 section test your ability to extract one specific functional fact from a 200–400 character message. Unlike Part 1 聴解-style questions that test isolated phrases, Part 3 asks you to read an entire email and answer a single question about its purpose, deadline, attached material, reason, or next action. The official kanken.or.jp/bjt sample03 page demonstrates this with the アドバルーン工業 email where the correct answer ("納期が合わないから") requires locating a single sentence that explains the refusal.

Document Structure of a Japanese Business Email

Every BJT email follows a predictable seven-part skeleton. Recognizing the skeleton lets you skip the greeting ritual and jump to the part that contains the answer.

件名 is the most under-used clue. BJT writers place the email's purpose in the 件名 using a bracketed category prefix such as 【ご案内】【お詫び】【ご報告】【お願い】【ご相談】. A 30-second skim of the 件名 alone often eliminates two of the four options before you read the body.

Common Functional-Language Patterns by Email Type

Each email type uses predictable opening and closing phrases. Recognizing the type tells you what kind of answer the question wants.

The 断り pattern is the most heavily tested. The refusal reason is almost always embedded in a single sentence following 恐縮ですが or あいにく and ending with ため、今回お断りした次第です. Train your eyes to land on that exact sentence.

Question Types

Five question categories appear repeatedly:

• 用件 / 目的 (purpose): このメールの目的は何ですか / 何について書かれていますか — answer is in 件名 or first sentence of 本文
• 期限 / 締切 (deadline): いつまでに〜する必要がありますか — answer is a date near an action verb (提出する, 送付する, 返信する)
• 添付 / 資料 (attachment): 何が添付されていますか — answer is in a sentence containing 添付, 同封, 别添
• 理由 (reason): なぜ〜しましたか / 理由は何ですか — answer follows 恐縮ですが / 〜のため
• 次の行動 (next action): このあとどうすればよいですか — answer is in the closing or a sentence with ご対応, ご確認, お手数ですが

Strategy: Pre-read → Skim → Locate

Use a fixed three-step drill on every email question:

1. Pre-read 件名 (5 seconds) — capture the email category; eliminate mismatched options.
2. Skim greeting + closing (5 seconds) — confirm tone (request, refusal, apology, report).
3. Locate the keyword from the question (10 seconds) — scan for the question's keyword (date, name, action verb) and read only the sentence(s) containing it.

This drill should consume about 20 seconds per email, leaving a 40-second buffer within the 60-second per-question budget for Part 3.

Trap Patterns

Four trap patterns appear in distractors:

• Wrong-date trap: An option names a date that is mentioned in the email but belongs to a different action (e.g., the date the sender received a quote, not the deadline for the reply).
• Topic-not-purpose trap: An option paraphrases a paragraph's topic but misses the email's main purpose.
• Quote-out-of-context trap: An option quotes 「お詫び」 from a thank-you email, or 「お見積り」 from a refusal email, suggesting the wrong function.
• Context-not-deadline trap: An option picks a date mentioned as background ("先月お打ち合わせいただき…") and presents it as the deadline.

Worked Example: アドバルーン工業 Email

The official sample email from アドバルーン工業 explains why its products were not adopted. The question: 今回、採用されなかった理由は何ですか. Four options: 納期が合わない, 価格が高い, 品質が基準未達, サポート体制が不十分.

Pre-reading the 件名 「お見積りのご依頼、ありがとうございます」 does not yet reveal the refusal; it only confirms this is a reply to an inquiry. The body opens with standard greeting, then states 「弊社の日程が1ヵ月後には量産に入る予定だったため、今回お断りした次第です」. That single sentence contains both the keyword (日程 / 量産) and the conclusion marker ため、今回お断りした次第です. The correct answer is 納期が合わないから.

Notice the trap: the email mentions 「お見積り」 and 「品質基準」, which makes 価格が高い and 品質が基準未達 plausible at a glance — but the email never states either. Pre-reading 件名 + locating the refusal sentence eliminates all three distractors.

Email Vocabulary to Memorize

件名, 宛先, 添付ファイル, CC, BCC, ご返信, お伺い, ご相談, ご依頼, ご報告, お詫び, ご案内, ご確認, ご検討, ご対応, ご対応済, ご案内済, 添付, 同封, 别添, お見積り, お見積もり, 見積書, 納期, 納入, 発送, 送付, 添付資料, ご査収, ご確認ください, お手数をおかけします, 何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます.