How to address and greet Japanese people in an english email


I am aware that in Japanese it is considered to be rude to address other
people with just their first name, but I wonder if this is only true for
communication in Japanese, of if this still holds true when communicating with
Japanese people in other languages than Japanese like for example in English.

I am especially interested in business communication in industries that use to
prefer rather informal communication between business partners in the western
world.

For example in the computer games industry a typical email would just be
started with "Hi recipientsFirstname" and ended with something like "Kind
regards, sendersFirstname", even when addressing people that one has never
talked to before and no matter of where in the world the recipient is from,
except when it comes to Japanese people. Whenever the recipient is Japanese,
then even for English mails most colleagues try to get more formal and start
their email with either "Hi recipientsLastname-San" or just "Hi
recipientsLastname" (interestingly, Mr./Mrs./Ms. always gets left out), but
they still end it with something like "Kind regards, sendersFirstname".

Now this looks very strange to me and feels just terribly wrong.

Am I even supposed to attach "San" to the name, even when I am not writing in
Japanese, but in English, even in the most informal industries?

What about this weird mix of addressing the recipient with his/her last name,
but using only the own first name in the greeting, so that in worst case (if
he/her can't get it from anywhere else and its neither contained in the
signature nor in the email-address of the sender) the recipient would not even
know the senders last name?

PS: I am aware that this is more a question about the Japanese culture and
etiquette than about the Japanese language, but unfortunately those don't have
there own stackoverflow communities. Please move this question if there is a
more appropriate community for it than "Japanese Language".




It would **not** be considered polite to use the suffix "-san" in a formal
letter or a business email written in Japanese, so there is no reason to claim
it would make an English phrase more polite.

In written formal and business Japanese formal suffix さま or 様 (both -sama)
would be used.

* * *

I am a foreigner living in Japan and the only people who start English emails
with "Dear Myname-san" are other foreigners. I find it highly pretentious and
never use it.

In email communication with Japanese people I use "Dear Mr Lastname" most
often.

I tend to end with "Kind regards, Myfirstname MYLASTNAME" (last name in
capital letters to avoid confusion)

If Japanese recipient responded using my firstname, only then I would switch
to "Hi Firstname" in subsequent emails.




It would **not** be considered polite to use the suffix "-san" in a formal
letter or a business email written in Japanese, so there is no reason to claim
it would make an English phrase more polite.

In written formal and business Japanese formal suffix さま or 様 (both -sama)
would be used.

* * *

I am a foreigner living in Japan and the only people who start English emails
with "Dear Myname-san" are other foreigners. I find it highly pretentious and
never use it.

In email communication with Japanese people I use "Dear Mr Lastname" most
often.

I tend to end with "Kind regards, Myfirstname MYLASTNAME" (last name in
capital letters to avoid confusion)

If Japanese recipient responded using my firstname, only then I would switch
to "Hi Firstname" in subsequent emails.

