How to say “Nice to meet you” in Japanese

はじめまして (hajimemashite) — literally "for the first time" — is the greeting that opens a first meeting, and only a first meeting. The word itself doesn't flex: the same form serves polite and casual situations, and what changes is what comes after it. You get exactly one はじめまして per person in your life. Use it at a second meeting and you've either forgotten them or made a small, memorable slip.

The full introduction is a two-part move: はじめまして。どうぞよろしくお願いします。 Open with hajimemashite, close with yoroshiku onegaishimasu — a phrase with no English equivalent, roughly "please treat me well going forward." Casually, the same arc compresses to はじめまして。よろしくね。 The yoroshiku half is where the register lives: よろしくね with peers, よろしくお願いします as the safe default, どうぞよろしくお願いします when the situation calls for extra formality.

The English-speaker mistake is structural. "Nice to meet you" appears at both ends of a first conversation in English, so learners reach for はじめまして again while saying goodbye. Japanese doesn't do that — the closing slot belongs to よろしくお願いします, and the parting itself is an ordinary goodbye. From the second meeting on, はじめまして retires permanently in favor of everyday greetings. First impressions being unrepeatable, this is the one phrase where rehearsing before the real thing isn't optional polish — it's the only practice you'll get.