When Japanese people meet for the first time, they say yoroshiku onegaishimasu (よろしくお願いします). It is usually translated as 'Nice to meet you' or 'Please treat me well,' but neither captures what the phrase actually means. Yoroshiku is a request and an offering simultaneously — 'I am placing myself in your care, and I will take care of you in return.' It establishes, in a single phrase, the mutual obligation and mutual warmth that will define the relationship going forward. There is no English equivalent because English does not have a word for the beginning of mutual care.

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