Saeko Fukushima
Biographic Data
| ID | 243453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Saeko Fukushima |
| GIVEN NAMES | Saeko |
| FAMILY NAME | Fukushima |
| SIGNATURE | FUKUSHIMA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tsuru University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1822-6134 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 64 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Evaluation of impoliteness in Japanese: Linguistic and non-linguistic aspects
This study explores what Japanese lay people evaluate as impolite. The data were obtained from a self-report questionnaire completed by 181 Japanese undergraduates, who were asked to describe instances they perceived as impolite. The data were coded into three categories: linguistically manifested impoliteness, non-linguistically manifested impoliteness, and impoliteness manifested through both linguistic and non-linguistic means, each encompassi…
Attentiveness as an Interpersonal Notion: Im/politeness, Culture and Contrastive Pragmatics
The interpersonal concept, attentiveness (analogous to kikubari/kizukai 気配り / 気遣い in Japanese), is clarified and discussed. First, attentiveness is described and explained, focusing on how it works, and what kinds of conditions and motives are needed for it to arise during interaction. Then, attentiveness is discussed in relation to im/politeness. Research on attentiveness has been mostly conducted in Japanese or using Japanese as a springboard i…
Comparison between Chinese and Japanese self-praise on social media
Japanese politeness revisited: From the perspective of attentiveness on Twitter
Previous research has shown that attentiveness ( kikubari ) is a significant aspect of politeness in Japanese. The aim of this paper is to expand on earlier research on attentiveness by using Twitter data and examine how Japanese lay people understand and/or evaluate attentiveness and how attentiveness manifests politeness. The data for this study were 600 Japanese tweets which contain attentiveness. They were coded based on analysis of the conte…
A Morpho-Pragmatic Study of Roman Alphabetic Initialisms (RAI s) on Chinese and Japanese Social Media
The use of Roman alphabetic initialisms ( RAI s) is common on both Chinese and Japanese social media. However, to date, few studies have examined the phenomenon at the morpho-pragmatic interface in adequate detail or depth; nor has any researcher addressed their formational and motivational similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese RAI s. To fill these gaps, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the RAI s collected from We…
Evaluation of politeness: Do the Japanese evaluate attentiveness more positively than the British
This study investigates evaluation of attentiveness by British and Japanese university students. Attentiveness ( kikubari ) (defined as a demonstrator’s preemptive response to a beneficiary’s verbal/non-verbal cues or situations) is demonstrated without being requested and it is one of the important politeness strategies. A questionnaire including six attentiveness situations was distributed to 74 British and 138 Japanese participants, who were a…
A cross-generational and cross-cultural study on demonstration of attentiveness
This paper looks into whether there are any differences in demonstration of attentiveness between different generations and different cultures. By attentiveness I mean a demonstrator’s preemptive response to a beneficiary’s verbal/non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a beneficiary and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. When and how often one would demonstrate attentiveness may vary according to such factors as generation and c…
Evaluation of (im)politeness: A comparative study among Japanese students, Japanese parents and American students on evaluation of attentiveness
This study explores the evaluation of (im)politeness, which is made by a hearer (or a beneficiary). Although discursive researchers advocate the importance of the evaluation of (im)politeness made by a hearer in politeness research, empirical studies on the evaluation of (im)politeness are still limited. The non-linguistic aspect has not been much researched in previous politeness studies. This study tries to fill these gaps in politeness researc…
Perception and evaluation of requests on social media in Chinese and Japanese
Motives of attentiveness and their interactional manifestations
The present study approaches attentiveness (demonstrated by a pre-emptive response in the form of an offer) in a context wherein interpersonal relations have attracted increasing attention in recent (im)politeness research. It aims to delve into what motivates the demonstration of attentiveness and how it impacts the unfolding of interaction. Insights from multiple disciplines such as social psychology, anthropology, and cultural semantics are dr…
Comparison between Chinese and Japanese Social Media Requests
This study investigates Chinese and Japanese requests in social media communication, focusing on the requests made between university students. The data consisted of 300 social media requests made by 30 Chinese university students and 304 social media requests made by 30 Japanese university students, respectively. The findings revealed that the Chinese and Japanese participants displayed more similarities than differences regarding the request st…
‘Your care and concern are my burden!’
While the enactment of gendered identities has been a key focus in the field of sociolinguistics and im/politeness (e.g. Holmes, 1995; Lakoff, 1975; Mills, 2003), research specifically investigating females’ emic understanding in relation to im/politeness has not been paid much attention. Building on prior work on ‘attentiveness’ (Fukushima, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015; Fukushima & Haugh, 2014), this article aims to further examine the emic unde…
Conceptualizing politeness in Japanese and Greek
The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Japanese and Greek female students conceptualize politeness and then compare the findings in order to tease out any cross-cultural similarities and differences. The data is drawn from a questionnaire filled in by two hundred female undergraduates (one hundred from each group). The results show that there are significant similarities as well as some differences. Although research on im/politeness ha…
Emic understandings of attentiveness and its related concepts among Japanese
Emic understandings of politeness and interpersonal relations are important in current im/politeness research, and there is a need to explore intra-cultural politeness practices. This study investigates the emic understandings of Japanese people with two generations on an interpersonal notion through metapragmatic interview data. The interpersonal notion investigated here is attentiveness. Its related concepts, namely, empathy and anticipatory in…
In search of another understanding of politeness: From the perspective of attentiveness
While politeness has been researched mainly from the perspectives of face and identity, this conceptual paper explores another understanding of politeness through the consideration of attentiveness, namely, a demonstrator’s pre-emptive responses to a recipient’s verbal or non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. In this paper, it is suggested that politeness can be construed in re…
The role of emic understandings in theorizing im/politeness: The metapragmatics of attentiveness, empathy and anticipatory inference in Japanese and Chinese
Evaluation of politeness: The case of attentiveness
This paper attempts to fill a gap in politeness research by introducing the concept of behavioural politeness and including the hearer as a significant component in the proposed analytical framework, which is set in the context of a cross-cultural study. Research into politeness has predominantly focused on linguistic features and on the speaker. Little attention has been paid to politeness as a whole unit of behaviour, and to the perspective of …
Request strategies in British English and Japanese
Offers and requests: Performance by Japanese learners of English
This paper investigates how Japanese university students performed in English, when offering something to someone and when making requests, in situations where the addresser and the addressee are equal in status, and the degrees of closeness between them are different. The performances by the Japanese subjects were compared with those of native English-speaking people. The major findings of this study include: (1) the Japanese subjects could not …
The role of emic understandings in theorizing im/politeness: The metapragmatics of attentiveness, empathy and anticipatory inference in Japanese and Chinese
Request strategies in British English and Japanese
Conceptualizing politeness in Japanese and Greek
The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Japanese and Greek female students conceptualize politeness and then compare the findings in order to tease out any cross-cultural similarities and differences. The data is drawn from a questionnaire filled in by two hundred female undergraduates (one hundred from each group). The results show that there are significant similarities as well as some differences. Although research on im/politeness ha…
Offers and requests: Performance by Japanese learners of English
This paper investigates how Japanese university students performed in English, when offering something to someone and when making requests, in situations where the addresser and the addressee are equal in status, and the degrees of closeness between them are different. The performances by the Japanese subjects were compared with those of native English-speaking people. The major findings of this study include: (1) the Japanese subjects could not …
In search of another understanding of politeness: From the perspective of attentiveness
While politeness has been researched mainly from the perspectives of face and identity, this conceptual paper explores another understanding of politeness through the consideration of attentiveness, namely, a demonstrator’s pre-emptive responses to a recipient’s verbal or non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. In this paper, it is suggested that politeness can be construed in re…
Evaluation of politeness: The case of attentiveness
This paper attempts to fill a gap in politeness research by introducing the concept of behavioural politeness and including the hearer as a significant component in the proposed analytical framework, which is set in the context of a cross-cultural study. Research into politeness has predominantly focused on linguistic features and on the speaker. Little attention has been paid to politeness as a whole unit of behaviour, and to the perspective of …
Offers and requests: Performance by Japanese learners of English
This paper investigates how Japanese university students performed in English, when offering something to someone and when making requests, in situations where the addresser and the addressee are equal in status, and the degrees of closeness between them are different. The performances by the Japanese subjects were compared with those of native English-speaking people. The major findings of this study include: (1) the Japanese subjects could not …
Request strategies in British English and Japanese
Evaluation of politeness: The case of attentiveness
This paper attempts to fill a gap in politeness research by introducing the concept of behavioural politeness and including the hearer as a significant component in the proposed analytical framework, which is set in the context of a cross-cultural study. Research into politeness has predominantly focused on linguistic features and on the speaker. Little attention has been paid to politeness as a whole unit of behaviour, and to the perspective of …
The role of emic understandings in theorizing im/politeness: The metapragmatics of attentiveness, empathy and anticipatory inference in Japanese and Chinese
In search of another understanding of politeness: From the perspective of attentiveness
While politeness has been researched mainly from the perspectives of face and identity, this conceptual paper explores another understanding of politeness through the consideration of attentiveness, namely, a demonstrator’s pre-emptive responses to a recipient’s verbal or non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. In this paper, it is suggested that politeness can be construed in re…
Emic understandings of attentiveness and its related concepts among Japanese
Emic understandings of politeness and interpersonal relations are important in current im/politeness research, and there is a need to explore intra-cultural politeness practices. This study investigates the emic understandings of Japanese people with two generations on an interpersonal notion through metapragmatic interview data. The interpersonal notion investigated here is attentiveness. Its related concepts, namely, empathy and anticipatory in…
‘Your care and concern are my burden!’
While the enactment of gendered identities has been a key focus in the field of sociolinguistics and im/politeness (e.g. Holmes, 1995; Lakoff, 1975; Mills, 2003), research specifically investigating females’ emic understanding in relation to im/politeness has not been paid much attention. Building on prior work on ‘attentiveness’ (Fukushima, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015; Fukushima & Haugh, 2014), this article aims to further examine the emic unde…
Conceptualizing politeness in Japanese and Greek
The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Japanese and Greek female students conceptualize politeness and then compare the findings in order to tease out any cross-cultural similarities and differences. The data is drawn from a questionnaire filled in by two hundred female undergraduates (one hundred from each group). The results show that there are significant similarities as well as some differences. Although research on im/politeness ha…
Motives of attentiveness and their interactional manifestations
The present study approaches attentiveness (demonstrated by a pre-emptive response in the form of an offer) in a context wherein interpersonal relations have attracted increasing attention in recent (im)politeness research. It aims to delve into what motivates the demonstration of attentiveness and how it impacts the unfolding of interaction. Insights from multiple disciplines such as social psychology, anthropology, and cultural semantics are dr…
Comparison between Chinese and Japanese Social Media Requests
This study investigates Chinese and Japanese requests in social media communication, focusing on the requests made between university students. The data consisted of 300 social media requests made by 30 Chinese university students and 304 social media requests made by 30 Japanese university students, respectively. The findings revealed that the Chinese and Japanese participants displayed more similarities than differences regarding the request st…
Evaluation of politeness: Do the Japanese evaluate attentiveness more positively than the British
This study investigates evaluation of attentiveness by British and Japanese university students. Attentiveness ( kikubari ) (defined as a demonstrator’s preemptive response to a beneficiary’s verbal/non-verbal cues or situations) is demonstrated without being requested and it is one of the important politeness strategies. A questionnaire including six attentiveness situations was distributed to 74 British and 138 Japanese participants, who were a…
A cross-generational and cross-cultural study on demonstration of attentiveness
This paper looks into whether there are any differences in demonstration of attentiveness between different generations and different cultures. By attentiveness I mean a demonstrator’s preemptive response to a beneficiary’s verbal/non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a beneficiary and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. When and how often one would demonstrate attentiveness may vary according to such factors as generation and c…
Evaluation of (im)politeness: A comparative study among Japanese students, Japanese parents and American students on evaluation of attentiveness
This study explores the evaluation of (im)politeness, which is made by a hearer (or a beneficiary). Although discursive researchers advocate the importance of the evaluation of (im)politeness made by a hearer in politeness research, empirical studies on the evaluation of (im)politeness are still limited. The non-linguistic aspect has not been much researched in previous politeness studies. This study tries to fill these gaps in politeness researc…
Perception and evaluation of requests on social media in Chinese and Japanese
A Morpho-Pragmatic Study of Roman Alphabetic Initialisms (RAI s) on Chinese and Japanese Social Media
The use of Roman alphabetic initialisms ( RAI s) is common on both Chinese and Japanese social media. However, to date, few studies have examined the phenomenon at the morpho-pragmatic interface in adequate detail or depth; nor has any researcher addressed their formational and motivational similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese RAI s. To fill these gaps, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the RAI s collected from We…
Japanese politeness revisited: From the perspective of attentiveness on Twitter
Previous research has shown that attentiveness ( kikubari ) is a significant aspect of politeness in Japanese. The aim of this paper is to expand on earlier research on attentiveness by using Twitter data and examine how Japanese lay people understand and/or evaluate attentiveness and how attentiveness manifests politeness. The data for this study were 600 Japanese tweets which contain attentiveness. They were coded based on analysis of the conte…
Attentiveness as an Interpersonal Notion: Im/politeness, Culture and Contrastive Pragmatics
The interpersonal concept, attentiveness (analogous to kikubari/kizukai 気配り / 気遣い in Japanese), is clarified and discussed. First, attentiveness is described and explained, focusing on how it works, and what kinds of conditions and motives are needed for it to arise during interaction. Then, attentiveness is discussed in relation to im/politeness. Research on attentiveness has been mostly conducted in Japanese or using Japanese as a springboard i…
Comparison between Chinese and Japanese self-praise on social media
Evaluation of impoliteness in Japanese: Linguistic and non-linguistic aspects
This study explores what Japanese lay people evaluate as impolite. The data were obtained from a self-report questionnaire completed by 181 Japanese undergraduates, who were asked to describe instances they perceived as impolite. The data were coded into three categories: linguistically manifested impoliteness, non-linguistically manifested impoliteness, and impoliteness manifested through both linguistic and non-linguistic means, each encompassi…
Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (19 works) · Psychology (17 works) · Linguistics (14 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Politeness (12 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (7 works)