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.
Best Answer
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:
New colleagues meeting each other in the work place:
People meeting each other for the first time at a social function:
Performer at the end of a concert
And so on.