Is マネージャー suitable when describing a manager working in a large business?


In Fluent Forever's Awesome Word List, マネージャー is used to describe a manager in
a bank or similar organisation.

However, doing a search with the basic version of google image search mainly
got middle-aged women wearing sporting gear. jisho.org gave me a couple of
meanings, a manager of a business, an idol, etc, or someone who does boring
work for a sports team. The Wikipedia article
[マネージャー](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%8D%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC)
mainly emphasised meanings outside of a manager at a large organisation. For
example, some of the meanings corresponded to an individual who managed a
single person in entertainment or sport.

However, the word hasn't been mentioned by anyone in a [forum thread about the
Awesome Word List and suspected errors](https://fluent-
forever.com/forums/topic/japanese-word-list/).

Is マネージャー a suitable word to describe a manager in a large business?




I don't see why not, but there are also other titles in a business as with any
other organization. Particularly in Japanese organizations there are simply
many levels in management, and each level could have its own title for
"manager".

The more commonly used ones could be:

  * 社長 company president, manager, director
  * 局長 office/bureau chief
  * 部長 department head
  * 課長 section head
  * 係長 supervisor




"マネージャー" has various connotations in Japanese. If you are high school student
and doing club activities especially in sports, "マネージャー" implies a
person(normally a girl) who does a work for school sports team such as
recording scores for the team's accomplishments, making sure the schedules for
teams, handing sports drink and so on so forth.

If you worked at a foreign affiliate company or Japanese company which often
does business with foreign countries, "マネージャー" might be close to "manager". I
think it depends on the cohorts. I have a strong connotation in the
word"マネージャー" with entertainment or sport as you described.

As keithmaxx explained, I think 部長, 課長, ...長 are still common.

