Japanese, Chinese and Korean Business Card Titles: A Seniority Reference

A CJK business card is a rank document. Everything about the exchange — who presents first, who speaks, how formally, who you address your follow-up to — is calibrated by the two or three characters printed under the person’s name. Miss them and you will spend the meeting negotiating with someone who cannot decide, or being casual with someone who expects deference.

This is a reference for reading those characters. Company forms first, then each market’s ladder in order, then a cross-market comparison and the traps.

Japanese company forms

The legal form is part of the registered company name and appears on nearly every 名刺.

Native	Reading	Meaning	Notes
株式会社	kabushiki gaisha (KK)	Joint-stock company — “Co., Ltd.” / “Inc.”	The default form for established companies
有限会社	yūgen gaisha	Limited company — “Ltd.”	No longer available for new registration since the 2006 Companies Act; surviving ones are typically older, smaller firms
合同会社	gōdō gaisha (GK)	Limited liability company — “LLC”	Introduced in 2006; common for startups and for the Japanese arms of foreign companies

前株 and 後株. 株式会社 can sit before the name (前株, mae-kabu: 株式会社サクラ商事) or after it (後株, ato-kabu: サクラ商事株式会社). The two are legally identical, but the position is part of the registered name — Japanese counterparts notice when correspondence moves it, so transcribe it where it was printed.

Japanese titles, in order

Native	Reading	Rough English equivalent	Rank
会長	kaichō	Chairman	1
代表取締役社長	daihyō torishimariyaku shachō	Representative Director & President	2
社長	shachō	President / CEO	2
副社長	fuku-shachō	Executive Vice President	3
専務(取締役)	senmu (torishimariyaku)	Senior Managing Director	4
常務(取締役)	jōmu (torishimariyaku)	Managing Director	5
部長	buchō	Department head / General Manager	6
次長	jichō	Deputy department head	7
課長	kachō	Section manager	8
係長	kakarichō	Subsection chief / team leader	9
主任	shunin	Supervisor / senior staff	10
担当 / 社員	tantō / shain	In charge of… / staff	11

Two structural notes make the table usable.

取締役 is a legal role, not a rung. 取締役 (torishimariyaku) means board director — a statutory position under the Companies Act. It is orthogonal to operational rank, which is why you will see combined titles like 取締役部長: a board director who also runs a department. 代表取締役 (daihyō torishimariyaku, Representative Director) is the registered officer empowered to bind the company. 執行役員 (shikkō yakuin, executive officer) looks similar but is not a board seat — it is an operating title borrowed from the US model.

部長 and 課長 are the working middle. 部長 runs a 部 (department or division); 課長 runs a 課 (section) inside it. In a large Japanese firm these are the people with budget and delivery responsibility. Japanese colleagues address them by title rather than name — 部長, not Mr. Tanaka — which is a useful tell in a meeting: listen for who gets called what.

Chinese company forms and titles

Company forms are written identically in Simplified and Traditional script:

Native	Pinyin	Meaning
有限公司	yǒuxiàn gōngsī	Limited liability company — “Co., Ltd.”
股份有限公司	gǔfèn yǒuxiàn gōngsī	Company limited by shares / joint-stock company

Titles do differ between scripts — Traditional on Hong Kong and Taiwan cards, Simplified on mainland and Singapore ones:

Simplified	Traditional	Pinyin	Rough English equivalent	Rank
董事长	董事長	dǒngshìzhǎng	Chairman of the board	1
总裁	總裁	zǒngcái	President (usually group level)	2
总经理	總經理	zǒngjīnglǐ	General Manager — top operating executive	3
副总经理	副總經理	fù zǒngjīnglǐ	Deputy General Manager	4
总监	總監	zǒngjiān	Director (function head)	5
经理	經理	jīnglǐ	Manager	6
主管	主管	zhǔguǎn	Supervisor / line manager	7
主任	主任	zhǔrèn	Head of an office or unit — see caution below	varies
工程师	工程師	gōngchéngshī	Engineer — a professional title, not a rank	n/a

董事 (dǒngshì) alone is a board director, the counterpart of Japanese 取締役. Unlike Japan and Korea, Chinese companies do not share one standardized ladder: 经理 at a 60-person trading company can outrank 总监 at a 5,000-person group. Read the title alongside the company, not on its own.

Korean company forms and titles

주식회사 (jusik hoesa) is the joint-stock company — the direct counterpart of 株式会社, and likewise printed either before or after the company name, often abbreviated to (주). 유한회사 (yuhan hoesa) is the limited company.

Native	Revised Romanization	Rough English equivalent	Rank
회장	hoejang	Chairman	1
부회장	buhoejang	Vice Chairman	2
사장	sajang	President / CEO	3
부사장	busajang	Executive Vice President	4
전무	jeonmu	Senior Managing Director	5
상무	sangmu	Managing Director	6
이사	isa	Director	7
부장	bujang	Department head / General Manager	8
차장	chajang	Deputy department head	9
과장	gwajang	Section manager	10
대리	daeri	Assistant manager	11
주임	juim	Supervisor / senior staff	12
사원	sawon	Staff	13

The Korean ladder is the closest thing to a one-to-one translation of the Japanese one, because it uses the same Sino-Japanese rank words: 부장 is 部長, 차장 is 次長, 과장 is 課長, 상무 is 常務, 전무 is 專務, 주임 is 主任. The one rung without a clean Japanese equivalent is 대리 (代理), which sits between 주임 and 과장. 대표이사 (daepyo isa, Representative Director) is the Korean equivalent of 代表取締役: the legally registered officer. Korean speakers, like Japanese ones, address people by rank — 김 부장님 rather than the given name.

Cross-market seniority at a glance

Japanese	Chinese (Traditional)	Korean	Rough English
会長	董事長	회장	Chairman
社長	總經理 / 總裁	사장	President / CEO
副社長	副總經理	부사장	Executive Vice President
専務	—	전무	Senior Managing Director
常務	—	상무	Managing Director
取締役	董事	이사	Board director
部長	經理 / 總監	부장	Department head / General Manager
次長	副經理	차장	Deputy department head
課長	主管	과장	Section manager
係長	組長	대리	Team leader / assistant manager
主任	主任	주임	Supervisor / senior staff
社員	職員	사원	Staff

The Japanese and Korean columns align tightly. The Chinese column is the closest analogue rather than an equivalent, for the reason given above.

Five cautions before you act on a title

1. Title inflation scales inversely with company size. A 社長 of a four-person consultancy and a 部長 at a trading house with 20,000 employees are not comparable, and the 部長 usually commands the larger budget. Rank locates someone inside their organization; the organization is the multiplier.
2. 代表 is not 社長. 代表 (daihyō, representative) and 代表取締役 describe legal signing authority. 社長 describes internal standing. On a small-company card, 代表 alone often means owner-operator; on a large one, look for 代表取締役 to identify who can actually sign.
3. 主任 is ambiguous across markets. In Japan and Korea it is a junior supervisory rung. In Chinese institutional settings — hospitals, universities, government offices — 主任 can denote the head of a whole department. Context decides.
4. 部长 in a mainland Chinese context can mean minister. On a corporate card it is a department head; in government or party organizations the same characters denote a minister-level official.
5. The English side is a translation for effect, not a definition. Bilingual CJK cards routinely render 課長 as “Manager” or “Director” and 部長 as “Vice President”, because Western titles are less granular and companies choose the flattering option. The native side is the record. When the two disagree, believe the characters.

Keeping the title intact after the card is digitized

Most of this reference is wasted if the title never survives the scan. BizCardPro.AI keeps the native script exactly as printed — 株式会社サクラ商事, 部長 — and puts a romanized reading beside it rather than replacing it, so the rank you just read is still there next month. It also splits family and given names correctly for surname-first CJK names, including compound surnames like 歐陽 and 司馬, and treats Traditional and Simplified as distinct scripts. The practical effect: the title and company form arrive in your archive as information, not as a flattened “Manager”.

For the capture workflow itself, see the guides on scanning Japanese meishi, Chinese 名片 etiquette and Korean myeongham.

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Read the native side, place the rank, and address the person accordingly. In markets where the card is the introduction, knowing that the quiet person handed you a 常務 card — and the talkative one a 課長 card — changes how the rest of the meeting goes.