Is there a “universal use” English equivalent of the Japanese ubiquitous greeting, “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu”?

I think some of you might have heard of the Japanese word, “Yoroshiku onegaishimas” - literally translated as “Please be nice to me” and its shortened form, “Yoroshiku.”

“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” or “Yoroshiku” is used ubiquitously in Japan as a form of greeting.

When we meet somebody for the first time, when we exchange a name card with a new business client, when we meet our doctor for diagnosis, when we have a job interview, when we ask a shop clerk / home delivery boy / hotel front staff for a service, we never fail to add “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” at the end of our conversation. Even an idol singer, actor / actress closes his or her ending messages from the stage to audience with “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

“Yoroshiku” is really a convenient word with which we can dispense with any other thinkable greeting / thank-you messages.

Even though it may sound a bit exaggerated, you can do well with four basic words, “Douzo – Please,” “Arigato – Thank you,” “Yoroshiku” and "Sayonara - Good bye" in social interaction in Japan.

Though I think this is a special parlance unique to Japanese, I heard Chinese, 請多関照-qing duo guanzhao-has a similar meaning.

I wonder if there are common or universally used English greeting words that can be compared to “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” or, “Yoroshiku”, whose main intention is none other than to give a good impression.

No there isn't.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu is a phatic expression — i.e. an expression that is used only to perform a social function. If you consider all the social functions that yoroshiku onegaishimasu performs, and the English phatic phrases used in the same way, you'll find that there's nothing that comes even close to matching all the uses of yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Teacher greeting students at the start of a lesson:

English: Good morning class.

Japanese: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

New colleagues meeting each other in the work place:

English: I look forward to working with you.

Japanese: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

People meeting each other for the first time at a social function:

English: It's a pleasure to meet you.

Japanese: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Performer at the end of a concert

English: You've been a lovely audience.

Japanese: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

And so on.

Japanese politeness and honorific speech is very different and detailed than Western politeness. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is very unique to Japanese culture and is totally untranslatable into a single English phrase and there is no equivalent in English. There are literal translations but they wouldn't make much sense in English and they wouldn't cover all the situations that the phrase is used in.

This phrase covers a range of meanings from various social interactions including greetings, farewells, gratitude, requests, depending on the context. So, it is a key phrase in social relations in Japanese culture. It usually expresses a deference to the addressee.

Having said that, simply "Thank you" or "Thanks" can be compared to this Japanese phrase in English and Western culture. Because you can use it in most of the situations as a politeness. So, it can be considered as a universal phrase in Western politeness.

More formally, "Regards" can be considered along with "I appreciate" and "Much appreciated". "Thanks/Thank you in advance" is also used if we expect any help.

The English phrases that I mentioned do not cover all the meanings of "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu". Again, it is not a matter of equivalency, it is more of a comparison between cultures.

I also mentioned these phrases because "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is a request in nature. It has the speech act verb of request, negai, which means "wish". The prefix "o" is an honorific, shows respect to the addressee. "Shimasu" is a verb meaning "to do", so "o-negai shimasu" means to wish for something. "Yoroshiku" means "well" and it comes from the polite adjective "yoroshii", meaning good.

When you use this expression, you humbly put yourself in a lower position by requesting a favorable action. In Japanese culture, acknowledgement of interdependence is encouraged so it is honorable for seniors to have the responsibility to take care of the juniors. Although people in lower ranking often use this expression to people in higher ranking, higher ranking people use it also.

This expression is often used when you request something but as I mentioned earlier it covers much more meaning and used in various situations.

Note: "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" even covers the sense of "Nice to meet you" when you meet someone so we can emphasize one more time that there can't be a single equivalent in English.

Although, in basic lessons, it is translated as "Nice to meet you" and there are several levels of formality: