Annotated Bibliography on Apologies in Japanese

Enochs, K. & Yoshitake, S. (1996). Self-assessment and role plays for evaluating appropriateness in speech act realizations. ICU (International Christian University) Language Research Bulletin, 2, 57-76.

This study reports on the reliability, validity, and practicality of the same three measures of cross-cultural pragmatic competence that were developed by Hudson et al. (1992, 1995) and used in the Japanese FL study by Yamashita (1996).  The current study administered these tests to 25 first-year Japanese EFL learners.  There was a self-assessment test with 24 situations, 8 requests, 8 refusals, and 8 apologies, with varying degrees of power, social distance, and imposition.  Respondents rated themselves on a 5-point scale as to how appropriately they would respond.  A role-play self assessment test -- performing 8 scenarios for the speech acts, described in English and Japanese.  After performing the role plays, they had to rate themselves on a 5-point scale.  Role-play test -- with native speakers of English (as in previous), videotaped and rated by three native speakers on a 5-point scale.  All three tests proved to be both reliable and valid in assessing pragmatic competence.  In addition, the TOEFL subtest scores did not correlate with the pragmatic measures.  A limitation was that this was a homogeneous group of students.

Enochs, K. & Yoshitake, S. (1999). Evaluating six measures of EFL learners' pragmatic competence. JALT Journal, 20 (1), 29-50. 

This study reports on the reliability, validity, and practicality of the same six measures of cross-cultural pragmatic competence that were developed by Hudson et al. (1992, 1995) and used in the Japanese FL study by Yamashita (1996).  The current study administered these tests to 25 first-year Japanese EFL learners.  Four of the tests were highly reliable and two less so, and the tests distinguished those with substantial overseas experience from those without any -- a distinction which the TOEFL did not show.    The two less reliable tests were the Open Discourse Completion Test (24 descriptions of speech act situations to provide written response and rated on 5-point scale) and Multiple-Choice Discourse Completion Test (same as OPDCT but MC responses from among 3).  Both were take-home tests. 

Hayashi, A. (1999). Kaiwa tenkainotameno sutorategi: "Kotowari" to "wabi"no syutsugen jokyoto kaiwa tenkaijono kinou [Strategies for conversation: Analysis and functions of "refusals" and "apologies"]. Bulletin of Tokyo Gakugei University Section II Humanities, 50, 175-188.

The author compares German and Japanese refusals (cancellation of an appointment) and apologies but reports only her analyses of Japanese in this study.  Fifty-seven native Japanese-speaking university students completed a written questionnaire (but only 48 were analyzed) creating an imaginary dialogue between themselves and an unacquainted professor.  Their task was to request the professor for a change of an appointment on the telephone and the participants were free to come up with their own reasons.  The paper examines reasons for the cancellation (and the request for the change), and the ways in which the reasons were presented in the discourse.  It was found that private reasons were often presented only once if ever.  The speaker tended to convey the idea of the refusals first, then provide the reasons gradually as the information was requested by the hearer.  Also, the speaker often prepared the hearer for the upcoming special reasons by the use of jitsuwa ‘actually.’  With regard to apologies, the semantic strategies, their frequencies, reasons for their use, and the ways in which the apologies were presented in the discourse were examined.  Apologies often signaled an upcoming request and were used to close the conversation.

Ide, R. (1998). 'Sorry for your kindness': Japanese interactional ritual in public discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 29, 509-529.

The study examines the social and metapragmatic functions of sumimasen (lit., 'there is no end' or 'it is not enough'), a conventional expression of apology in Japanese that is also used to express the feeling of thanks.  Using Goffman’s (1971) notion of ‘remedial’ and ‘supportive’ interchanges as the conceptual framework, the paper first describes seven pragmatic functions of sumimasen based on 51 instances of sumimasen recorded through ethnographic participant/non-participant observations of discourse in an ophthalmology clinic in Tokyo.  The professionals were two female doctors, a female nurse, and a female receptionist.  58 patients participated, males and females of many ages.  The seven functions: 1) sincere apology; 2) quasi-thanks and apology; 3) request marker; 4) attention-getter; 5) leave-taking devise; 6) affirmative and confirmational response; 7) reciprocal exchange of acknowledgment (as a ritualized formulas to facilitate public face-to-face communication).  These seven functions are presented not as mutual exclusive but rather overlapping concepts, ranging from remedial, remedial and supportive, to supportive in discourse.  The author also cites Kumagai, Kumatoridani, Coulmas, and others to account for the concept of indebtedness that emerges from the shift of point of view from the speaker (the benefactor) to the listener (the provider of the benefit) (‘debt-sensitive’ society).  The paper also demonstrates the exchange of sumimasen as a metapragmatic ritual activity, an anticipated and habitual behavior in public discourse in Japanese society.  The author also reframes the multiple functions of sumimasen in accordance with the folk notion of aisatsu, which constitutes the ground rules of appropriate and smooth Japanese public interaction.  The author notes that historically arigato 'thank you' was a form of excuse, derived from ari  'exist, have' plus gatashi 'difficult,' literally meaning, 'it is hard to accept/have.'  Shitsurei shimasu  'I intrude' is a similar expression when leaving or entering one's space in public.

Kumatoridani, T. (1993). Hatsuwa koui taisyo kenkyuuno tameno tougouteki apurouchi: Nichieigono "wabi" wo reini [An integrative approach to contrastive speech-act analysis: A case of apologies in Japanese and English]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 79, 26-40.

The author poses 4 questions to be answered in pragmatics research: 1) for what purpose a speech act is performed; 2) in what situations the speech act is performed; 3) how the repertoire of strategies and linguistic forms are related; 4) what discourse functions the speech act serves. Taking English and Japanese apologies as an interpersonal repair strategy, the author argues that there are differences in speech act realization between the two languages in terms of the situations that require an apology, linguistic forms/strategies used, and responses to apologies.  No mention of the data source is given.

Kumatoridani, T. (1999). Alternation and co-occurrence in Japanese thanks. Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 623-642.

This article deals with how thanks and apologies are not as distinctly different as might be though.  Thanks in Japanese can be conveyed by apologizing:  Shooyu o toote moraemasen ka. 'Please pass me the soy sauce.' Hai dozoo. 'Here you go.'  Doomo sumimasen. '(lit.) I'm very sorry.'  The apology form is in empathy to the hearer (such as when this person is of higher status).  Sumimasen can be used for local management of an event and then arigato for closing the gratitude exchange.

The paper compares usages and functions of two Japanese apologizing and thanking expressions, sumimasen and arigatou, based on: 1) 140 collected interchanges including naturally occurring gratitude and apology exchanges; 2) findings from the questionnaire give to 189 native speakers of Japanese; and 3) his own native speaker intuition.  Although sumimasen can replace the gratitude expression arigatou, the two are not completely interchangeable.  The author first accounts for the applicability of alternation, and discusses the more formal and thus polite nature of sumimasen as an expression of gratitude.  The use of sumimasen as a gratitude expression occurs as a result of a shift in the focus (‘empathy operation’) from the speaker’s to the hearer’s perspective.  This shift is considered a conventionalized strategic device to repair the politeness imbalance between the interlocutors.  However, the use of sumimasen tends to be appropriate only in expressing acceptance of the offer combined with gratitude and not refusal, whereas arigatou can be used for both acceptance and refusal of the offer.  Use of sumimasen is also inappropriate in response to ‘affective’ speech acts such as congratulations, condolences, compliments, and encouragement.  Finally, the author explains the sequential preference in using the two expressions in a single event (sumimasen first, and then arigatou).  While sumimasen functions to repair imbalance locally, arigatou has dual functions both to repair imbalance and to close a conversation.

Miyake, K. (1994). "Wabi" igaide tsukawareru wabi hyogen: Sono tayoukatno jittaito uchi, soto, yosono kankei [Formulaic apologies in non-apologetic situations: A data analysis and its relation with the concept of uchi-soto-yoso]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 82, 134-146.

This is a questionnaire study reporting the occasions on which apologies like sumimasen are likely to be used (as well as non-apologetic occasions on which apologies are used) and the effects of social variables on such occasions.  English and Japanese questionnaires were given to 101 British and 122 Japanese participants respectively.  The questionnaire presented 36 situations that elicited expressions of gratitude and/or apologies.  Closeness and status of the interlocutors, and severity of the offense/indebtedness (benefits and losses) were manipulated in those situations.  The participants first wrote down the responses they were likely to give (perhaps orally---not specified in the article) and indicated on a 5-point scale what their feelings would be (strong gratitude/slight gratitude/neutral feeling neither gratitude nor apology/slight apology/strong apology/others).  The paper reports only the idiomatic expressions found in the data, excluding additional expressions.  Major findings: 1) the language forms for apology expressions (e.g., sumimasen)  in Japanese are used not just to express apology but also gratitude; the Japanese form for apology can co-occur with the form for thanking (arigato) where both are intended as part of an apology (thanking apologetically), and as a way of phatic communication (like greetings); 2) Japanese speakers tend to feel apologetic in more situations than British English speakers; 3) Japanese speakers tend to feel the more apologetic when their feeling of indebtedness is the greater.  However, apologies are often employed when the hearer is relatively older in age and in a soto ‘outside’ relationship (e.g., an academic advisor), as opposed to uchi ‘inside’ and yoso ‘somewhere else.’ 

Moriyama, T. (1999). Oreito owabi: Kankei syufukuno sisutemu toshite [Gratutude and apologies: A system of repair]. Kokubungaku: Kaishakuto kyouzaino kenkyu, 44(6), 78-82.

This article is an essay on gratitude and apology expressions in Japanese as a repair strategy in interpersonal communication. The motive for both gratitude and apologies is a psychological imbalance (or a sense of indebtedness) between the speaker and the hearer.  Expressions of gratitude and apologies both attempt to adjust that imbalance.  An expression of gratitude repairs the sense of imbalance accompanied by a certain benefit on the part of the speaker offered by the hearer.  Apologies also repair the offense caused by the speaker.  Section 1: conceptual understanding of gratitude and apologies.  Section 2: analysis of various expressions of gratitude and apologies. Section 3: sumimasen as an expression of gratitude.  Section 4: responses to expressions of gratitude and apologies.  Section 5: phatic greeting expressions including gokuro sama, otsukare sama, omedetou.

Nakai, H. (1999). Universal and cross-cultural features of apologies. Tenri University Journal for Linguistics, Literature, the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences, 192, 119-139.
The first part of this literature review discusses the semantic strategies in an apology speech act set.  The author asserts that in Japanese apologies, the apology realization is centered around the expression of apology and the explanation or excuse, and why Westerners have difficulty understanding this focus by Japanese on apologetic expressions in situations perceived as inappropriate by the Westerners.  The last part of the article is on what to teach about apologies and how to teach it.  He gives the results of a questionnaire filled out by 43 female Japanese HS students (ages 17-18) with speech act situations and tasks to perform.  He demonstrates that although the students were familiar with three expressions in English, "I'm sorry," "excuse me," and "thank you," they were not in agreement over when to use them in the situations provided.  He suggests starting by heightening the awareness of the learners such as by administering a questionnaire to elicit data and to get the learners to think about different realization patterns in the L1 and L2.  Then he would explain the universal and language-specific aspects of apologies.  Then he would stage role plays among learners and then with native speakers providing the model -- going from less severe to more severe apology situations.  Finally he would have learners take a look at the pragmalinguistic side -- the language options such as "I'm sorry" and "excuse me."

Nakamura, H. (1997). Socio-pragmatic anatomy of Japanese apology. Kinki Daigaku Kyouyoubu Kiyou [Kinki University General Education Department Bulletin], 29(1), 23-30.

General article on apologizing in Japanese.  It notes that sumimasen is used for both apology and gratitude.  The author notes that Japanese prefer intuition and harmony, enjoy emotional dependency and group solidarity, while avoiding direct confrontation for the sake of the group.  Ambiguous, indirect, suggestive, euphemistic, and understated discourse is preferred.  Brevity is a virtue; silence is preferred to eloquence.  Exactness and directed logical exposition is considered impertinent and arrogant.

Nakata, T. (1989). Hatsuwa kouitoshiteno chinshato kansha: Nichiei hikaku [Apology and Thanks in Japanese and English]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 68, 191-203.

This study compares English and Japanese apologies and thanks collected in movie and TV drama scenarios (400 apologies and 400 thanks in English and Japanese each).  Major differences between the two languages: 1) Japanese were more likely to thank for voluntary assistance offered by the hearer; 2) Japanese more often apologized for someone close to themselves than English speakers; 3) Japanese thanking expressions included versatile expressions like sumimasen that can be used both for apologies and thanks.

Nishimura, F. (1998). Cyukyu nihongo gakushushaga kaku wabino tegamini okeru goyou bunseki: Bunno tekisetsuseino kanten kara [An error analysis of letters of apology written by intermediate-level students: From the viewpoint of appropriateness]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 99, 72-83.

This study examines written apologies produced by 31 intermediate American learners of Japanese in comparison with 20 Japanese apologies by native speakers of Japanese and 15 English apologies by native speakers of American English.  Major findings with learners’ apologies: 1) inaccurate modest verb forms; 2) inappropriate use of ...kara in presenting excuses; 3) lack of regret expressions (...te shimau) ; 4) choice of face-threatening excuses without mitigating strategies. 

Nonaka, K. (2000). Apology is not necessary: An in-depth analysis of my own intercultural and intracultural miscommunication. Journal of Hokkaido University of Education at Kushiro, 32, 155-186.
In the paper, the author focuses on some cases of Japanese and American cross-cultural differences based on Hall's Beyond culture (high vs. low-context situations: especially the explicit vs. the implicit, overt vs. covert in the culture ).  She does a context analysis of some of the typical and atypical interactional situations in both cultures, connecting them with her own experience.  She gives an example of how she as a high-context person expected low-context Americans to sense what was bothering her without having to spell it out -- without having to be specific.  She points out that Americans rank logic high and feelings low and Japanese vice versa which can explain why Japanese say "I'm sorry" as a way of showing consideration to the interlocutor's feelings even if the speaker is not logically at fault for the problematic situation.  Americans, she maintains, do not tend to apologize merely to show consideration for others if the problem is not their fault.  In fact, Americans will say, "Don't be so apologetic," "Why did you say 'sorry'?  It's not your fault."

Nonoyama, F. (1993). Apologies: Toward communicative competence. The Bulletin of  Nihon Fukushi Daigaku. Nihon Fukushi University. 88 (2), 195-217.

Politeness rules in Japanese.  Be polite to persons of a higher social position, persons with power, older persons, to men if a woman, in formal settings, and to someone with whom you do not have a close relationship.  The author generalizes that older Japanese and those who have not lived in the U.S. tend to transfer their own sociocultural rules when they apologize in English.  A study was conducted with 70 native English speakers in the US and 234 Japanese speakers, 70 responding in Japanese and 164 in English.   Age, gender, position of power, and social distance were varied in four versions of a questionnaire.  The research appears to find that his Japanese respondents do not make excuses to a person with higher status, yet the findings here ran counter to that.  On bumping into a female, the E1 group expressed an apology, while both the J1 and E2 groups did not, but rather confirmed damage ("Are you OK?" "Are you hurt?")  Not a gender difference here -- females likely to express an apology (89%) tan males (52%).   So E2 was more like J1 than E1.  An exception: a difficult job to do, J1 utilized expression of apology, while E2 hedged as did E1.

Okamoto, S., & Tamon, Y. (2000). "Shitsurei" no syoyouhou: Youhouno sougo kanrenseini cyakumokushite [Use of shitsurei: How are they related?]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 104, 30-39.

Use of the variants of shitsurei (e.g., Shitrurei shimasu, shitsurei shimashita, shitrurei desuga) was analyzed based on the data from scenarios, novels, conversations and narration on the radio and television, and observations of naturally occurring discourse.  Section 1: brief overview of the past research and dictionary definitions of shitsurei.  Section 2: 3 forms of shitsurei- 1) shitsurei shimasu type in reference to a future event; 2) shitsurei shimashita type in reference to a past event; 3) shitsurei desuga type acting as a note/disclaimer for an accompanying action.  Section 3: semantic categories and use of shitsurei – shitsurei used for recognition of: the speaker’s invasion, discrepancy of action between the speaker and the hearer, an inappropriate communication style, an inappropriate content of conversation, an inappropriate action.  Section 4: interrelationships among these categories.  Section 5: differential degree of rudeness among the 3 forms of shitsurei.

Sameshima, S. (1998). Communication task ni okeru nihongo gakusyusha no tenkei hyougen/bunmatsu hyougen no syuutokukatei: Chuugokugo washa no "ira" "kotowari" "shazai" no baai [The acquisition of fixed expressions and sentence-ending expressions by learners of Japanese]. Nihongo Kyouiku [Journal of Japanese Language Teaching], 98, 73-84.

This paper examines speech act performance of request, refusal, and apology by Chinese speakers of Japanese in Taiwan.  Three levels of learners, high-beginners, low-intermediate, and high-intermediate, took a discourse completion test that included 3 situations eliciting the three speech act performance.  The results were analyzed in terms of the linguistic form of each core speech act and the language use in the opening and closing of the dialogue.  The author also compares the learners’ performance with the expressions included in their textbooks.  Generally learners’ linguistic performance approximates that of native speakers as their levels became more advanced, although all level learners tended to oversimplify opening and closing statements.

Sumita, I. (1992). Nihongno wabino aisatsukotoba:Jyoshi gakuseino gengo seikatsuniokeru danwa shiryouwo motonishite [Apologies in Japanese: Data analysis of discourse by female university students]. Nihon Bungaku Kenkyu [Studies in Japanese Literature], 28, 235-243.

This paper discusses different functions of apology expressions by drawing examples from naturally occurring discourse between female university students.  Multiple functions of apology expressions (e.g., sumimasen, gomen(nasai), moushiwake arimasen, shitsurei shimasu) includes: signaling an inquiry, signaling a refusal, thanking, getting attention, apologizing, signaling a request, recognizing the hearer’s favor/the speaker’s troubling the hearer (disclaimer?), opening, closing conversation, and interrupting.

Uehara, E. (1993). The role of uptake in speech acts. The Journal of the Tokyo International University, 47, 73-83.

Austin (1962) defined uptake as the understanding of the meaning and the force of the locution.  So while perlocutionary force is whether or not the speech act achieved its purpose, uptake is not just understanding the meaning but also understanding the intent of the speaker.  The hearer may understand the message (uptake) but reject it, misunderstand the message (unsuccessful uptake), or not understand it at all (no uptake).

Yanagiya, K. (1992). Investigating communication competence: Contrasting speech acts across cultures -- the case of "apologies."  Bulletin of the English Literature Department, Teikyo University, Tokyo, 105-128.

The author raises the question of whether routine (not "heartfelt") apologies really express regret.  When might they be considered insincere, infelicitous?  Or are they not apologies at all but simply share the forms?  This is considered exacerbated with Japanese where apologies are not so much an expression of regret as an expression of sumanasa, mooshiwakenasa and oime -- the feelings of inexcusableness and indebtedness.  Her point is that speech acts are not clear-cut entities but rather overlap or fade into each other.  The features of the core, prototypical cases may be said to be universal.  Even though it may seem like dominance, social distance, and severity of offense are universal in defining the character of a situation, the formality of the occasion in Japanese may change the forms of the utterances even when other factors are kept constant (119).  The author also points out that in Japanese apologies are frequently nonverbal -- just hanging down one's head without saying a word, possibly with tears in the eyes.   The author reminds us of the Hymes grid and would apply it to analyzing the speech act (setting, participants, goals, act sequence (form of the message), tone, language variety, norms of interaction, and genre.  She then makes the case that Japanese society which is group oriented, genuinely values apologizing to show that one is indeed indebted,  "By showing that one subscribes to the same conventional norms which presupposes role and rank relationship, and thereby proving that one shares the same sense of values and is content with it, one can alleviate the threat towards the other's (weighted) face" (p. 123).  Hence, in Japan apologizing generally isn't done so as a strategy for recovering balance  among status-equals.  She points out that "apologies" and "thanks" overlap in a continuum: yorokobi 'pleasure,' arigatasa 'gratitude,' oime 'indebtedness,' kyooshuku 'embarrassment,' mooshiwakenasa 'inexusableness,' jiseki 'guilt,' and ikan 'regret.'  Kinodokuna koto-o shita and variants can be used for both "apology" and "sympathy" (the hearer's misfortune) or consideration (omoiyari).  She notes that not everyone can say sumimasen. It is not used towards a child nor from a child to others.  To a child we say arigatou and gomenne. With elders, arigatou gozaimashita and moushiwake gozaimasendeshita are appropriate.  So with children, persons of higher status, and intimate friends, expressions of gratitude and regret are used.  With non-intimate persons of same rank, expressions of indebtedness are used.  So the paper is essentially non-empirical, and rather based on native speaker intuitions.

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