Indirectness in request refusals: Differences between Americans and Japanese

This study investigates the differences in verbal indirectness used in request refusals between Americans and Japanese. How the social status of the requester and the politeness level of the request affect people's indirectness in refusing requests are compared between the two cultures by eliciting the written data. The request responses in open-ended data are analyzed based on the classifications of refusals developed by Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz (1990) and the refusal tactics of Bresnahan, Cai, and Rivers (1994). The analysis shows that the use of strategies and their frequencies are similar between Americans and Japanese, but the number of strategies and the degree of indirectness and face threat in responses differ. Americans are more likely to accept or move towards the cooperation of the other's request while Japanese tend to mitigate their refusals by using more strategies. This study suggests that the cultural preferences in direct and indirect communication styles do not always apply to the use of language in face-threatening situations. The indirectness in the use of language is not different between Americans and Japanese. The differences in indirectness in the request responses between the two cultures are in the clearness of the speaker's standpoints between the compliance and the refusal of the request.