A cross cultural apology episode of a diplomatic repair: A study into Japan’s former Prime Minister Koizumi’s official apology in April 2005

Against the political backdrop of what was arguably the lowest point in the China-Japan relationship in modern times, China had called for Japan to take “concrete actions to face up with … its history of invasion”. In response, Japan’s then Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, issued a public apology at the Asian-African Summit on 22nd April 2005. His choice of words, “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology”, did little to assuage the Chinese. What did these words really mean in the context of speech acts of apology? Was the apology considered to be an apology? How does this episode of apology fall into the current discussion of apology strategies? Was there lexical avoidance? Was there any discourse difference compared to previous apologies? This paper will attempt to answer these questions.