Which is a Better Introduction?

Question

If I were to introduce myself, which would be better?

1. はじめまして、あかみです。どうぞよろしく。

2. はじめまして、あかみです。よろしくお願いします。

3. How would you introduce yourself? Any better recommendations instead of 1 & 2 ?!

Thanks :D

Answer 1

Both are fine.

For some reason my first text book taught どうぞよろしく but when I went to Japan the first thing I noticed was how rarely, if ever, I heard it. People always said よろしくお願い（いた）します, so I started to do the same.

どうぞ means "please" and I would say it is used more often to make a request into a polite invitation ("please sit down"/どうぞお掛けください).

Grammatically どうぞ still means please when you say どうぞよろしく (you are effectively dropping お願いします) but when making introductions it is something of set phrase and as you know gets translated as "How do you do", "Pleased to meet you".

Answer 2

While I think the sentiment expressed　in both answers that "both are fine" is generally correct. I think you will hear the します and いたします forms much more frequently, and I recommend using them except in contexts where you are sure the other 「どうぞよろしく。」 construction is preferred.

I'm sure I'll get downvoted if my reasoning is wrong, but my sense is that どうぞよろしく sounds quite informal in a first acquaintance context. Mainly, this is because dropping ending verbs is a feature either of 文語 (which is definitely not normal for meeting people for the first time) or casual speech.

To me どうぞよろしくお願いいたします fits bets when I'm meeting people who are above me or joining a 学会 to which I haven't previously belonged. Used in other contexts where I'm one of the more important people in the room, it might sound overly polite (I think). I use this type when meeting my new coworkers or superiors.

[どうぞ]よろしくお願いします is an all-purpose workhorse greeting sentence. I use it when I meet equals (by status) or when I am meeting a mixed group of people. So for instance, I would use this to the [事務所]{じむしょ} staff. I also hear this when the chair did his greeting to all of the incoming students.

どうぞよろしく。 is more informal (even with the どうぞ). I use then when at a party doing greetings or when meeting friends of friends for fun.

So if I don't know the layout, I will probably opt for どうぞよろしくお願いします. If I know where I am expected to fit, I will go with one of the others.