“Sorry we apologize so much”: Linguistic Factors Affecting Japanese and U.S. American Styles of Apology

In an attempt to account for cultural differences in Japanese and U.S. American apology styles, this paper turns to several possible linguistic factors which may contribute to the widely held perception that Japanese are more apologetic than are U.S. Americans. The possible factors include: (a) the elusive sumimasen in Japanese, (b) cultural perceptions of language, (c) different degrees of tolerance toward repetition of the same words, (d) interference in L2 conversation, and (e) accounts in U.S. American apology. Many observers of Japan-U.S. communication point out that Japanese ar