Japanese Convenience Store Phrases: the 5 Konbini Questions

A konbini clerk works from a script: the same five questions, usually in the same order, at every chain. Learn those five questions and you have learned the whole exchange.

Here is a customer answering two of those questions at once:

はい、温めてください。お箸もお願いしますはい、あたためてください。おはしもおねがいします (hai,atatametekudasai.ohashimoonegaishimasu)

Yes, please heat it up. Chopsticks too, please.

Say お願いしますおねがいします (onegaishimasu) at any konbini register when you want what the clerk offered. Do not use it to decline, because a refusal needs 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu). The age-check question needs a tap on the screen instead of either phrase.

Konbini Japanese has a reputation for being fast and terrifying. The speed comes from the script. Because the lines are fixed, the wording barely changes from store to store.

One phrase, 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu), is a valid answer to almost all five questions.

Clerks use maximum-courtesy keigo because chains train it from a service manual. The register script is company policy, not a personal choice. That is also why it sounds so fast and formal: they have said it 10,000 times.

Nobody expects keigo back from you, though. はい (hai) and 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu) are perfect customer Japanese.

In rough order of appearance at the register:

お願いしますおねがいします (onegaishimasu) = “yes, please.” 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu) = “no, thank you.” That pair, plus pointing, completes almost every konbini transaction in Japan.

If you catch nothing else the clerk says, wait for the rising question intonation and use one of the two.

When you want something done, lead with it instead of waiting. Hand over the bento with 温めお願いしますあたためおねがいします (atatameonegaishimasu) (“please heat it up”) and you'll get a small nod of respect.

Japan has over 55,000 konbini, more than twice the number of post offices. At that same register you can pay utility bills, buy concert tickets, and ship your luggage.

In winter, the pot of おでん (oden) simmering by the counter is a national comfort food. Point at what you want, and the clerk serves it to you.

Answer the bag, bento, and chopsticks questions with お願いしますおねがいします (onegaishimasu) for yes and 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu) for no.

For the point card, show it or say 大丈夫ですだいじょうぶです (daijoubudesu), and for the age check, tap the screen.

Say 温めお願いしますあたためおねがいします (atatameonegaishimasu) first when you want the bento heated.

Reading the five questions is one thing. Catching them at a real clerk's speed is another.

Practice the listening flow in the konbini scenario, and the next real clerk will sound like they are reading their script slowly, for you alone.