How do I reply to a job offer email?

I got an email for a potential job offer in Japanese. They mentioned that they couldn't reach me by phone, and that they will be sending me an employment contract soon. They wanted to know if I am still interested in working. Is there a specific format on how to reply?

This is what I have so far:

[company]
[recruiter name]

こんにちは。[myname]です。メールをありがとうございました。

お世話になっております。

ご迷惑をおかけし申し訳ございません。今日本にいないので、多分お電話がおそらく機能していません。[date]から日本に着くので電話を受けられるはずです。

お申し出に感謝いたします。採用活動を続けて[company]に参加したいです。雇用契約書の詳細を受け取るのを待ちます。この機会をどうもありがとうございます。

よろしくお願いいたします。

[myname]

If someone could help me check this, I'd be really grateful.

I would change 多分お電話がおそらく機能していません to 多分電話が機能していません.
Because:
多分 and おそらく are redundant;
お電話 to 電話 due to the phone being yours, and there is no need to be polite about your own phone.

If you can write as much Japanese as you did, you should get hold of one of those how-to books on writing Japanese business emails. Of course, there are lots of how-to websites too.

That said, you don't write こんにちは on a first-time basis business email. Instead, you put the お世話になっております there.

Also, I didn't understand what you meant by 採用活動を続けて[company]に参加したいです, because, grammatically, the one who does 採用活動 in this sentence would be you, but it's strange that you'd be doing that when it's supposed to be the company's job to do it. If I were to try to interpret the sentence, I would interpret it as you being wanting to continue looking for other offers from other companies while perhaps taking a peek at the company in issue. But then, that doesn't seem to suit the context.

You should also be asking these questions at more closed forums specific to your career. If your employer sees this, they may want to question your professionalism and/or your language ability.

I hope it helps.

My suggestion:

お世話になっております。[name]です。メールをありがとうございました。

お電話をいただいたのに出られず申し訳ございませんでした。今一時的に日本を離れているので、電話が通じなかったと思われます。Date日には日本に戻ります。

採用のお申し出に感謝いたします。雇用契約書をお待ち致します。

どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。


- About “konnnichiwa,” I agree with Uco.
- I’d phrase the second paragraph (about the phone call) to say: “sorry that I could not take your call. I am temporarily away from Japan, so that is why the phone didn’t get through. I will be back in Japan on (date).” The intention here is to emphasize it is just “temporary” you are away from Japan.
- 採用活動を続けてdoesn’t make sense. Better to say thank you for the offer and that you’d wait for the contract.

Please make sure (particularly if written Japanese language is required/expected in your work) that you fully understand the text you are sending… and best wishes.