来週
らいしゅう
raishuu
= next week
来週 lets Japanese speakers anchor plans to a shared, unspoken calendar — drop it into any sentence and both parties instantly know you mean the seven-day block that starts next Monday, no date required.
来週 functions as both a noun and a time adverb, referring to the week immediately following the current one. As a noun it takes the particle の to connect to a specific day: 来週の水曜日 (next Wednesday). As an adverb it stands alone before a verb to set the time frame: 来週会いましょう (Let’s meet next week). The phrase 来週中に (sometime within next week / by the end of next week) is common in scheduling and email sign-offs. In formal written Japanese — reports, contracts, official notices — 翌週 is preferred over 来週; both mean “the following week,” but 翌週 signals a reference point in the past or a reported sequence of events rather than the speaker’s present. In everyday speech and business email, 来週 is always the natural choice.
A common learner slip is adding の週 after 来週 — saying 来週の週 is redundant because 週 is already embedded in 来週. Another pitfall is dropping the particle に when a deadline is involved: 来週までに (by next week) and 来週中に (within next week / no later than next week) both require に, but 来週会う (meeting next week) omits に entirely because it marks a point-in-time rather than a deadline. Finally, avoid mixing up 来週 with 翌週 in spoken conversation — 翌週 sounds stiff and reportorial out loud, the way English speakers might notice someone saying “the subsequent week” in casual chat.
来週 combines two kanji: 来 (らい / く) meaning “coming” or “next” — as in something approaching from the future — and 週 (しゅう) meaning “week,” itself built from 週 which historically depicted a full circuit of days. Together they literally read as “the coming week,” making the word transparently logical once you know 来 also appears in 来年 (next year) and 来月 (next month).
Everyday use
来週の月曜日に歯医者の予約があります。
Raishuu no getsuyoubi ni haisha no yoyaku ga arimasu.
I have a dentist appointment next Monday.
Casual / Social Media
来週ライブ行くの？絶対楽しいよ！
Raishuu raibu iku no? Zettai tanoshii yo!
Are you going to the concert next week? It’s going to be so fun!
Formal / Cultural context
来週中にご確認いただけますと幸いです。
Raishuu-juu ni go-kakunin itadakemasu to saiwai desu.
We would appreciate your confirmation sometime next week.
Japanese scheduling culture places high value on collective time awareness, and 来週 is one of its most practical anchors. Because the Japanese work and school week reliably begins on Monday, saying 来週 carries an implicit shared reference point that both speakers understand without negotiation. This makes the word especially useful in a culture where plans are often made with lead time rather than spontaneously — agreeing on 来週 signals consideration and respect for the other person’s schedule, even before a specific day is named.
In Japanese business communication, 来週中にご連絡します (I will be in touch sometime next week) is a standard phrase in emails and meeting wrap-ups. The word signals professional reliability: committing to a named week, rather than the vaguer そのうち (sometime soon), demonstrates accountability. Because Japan’s business culture historically prizes punctuality and clear timelines, 来週 appears constantly in project handoffs, progress reports, and follow-up correspondence as a low-friction, broadly understood deadline unit.