Forms of address have represented one aspect of politeness among the human relationships in society. This study aims to investigate the influence of politeness on the use of address forms in Japanese over the past forty years. The focus was placed on the use of address forms among the male and female students at school and colleagues in office in informal and formal contexts. For this purpose, data were collected from three types of sources: questionnaires, interviews and Japanese movies.

The questionnaires were completed by 40 Japanese college students from one Japanese university and by 40 Japanese office workers of three age groups (30s, 40s, 50s). Interviews were also conducted with a third of the questionnaire respondents. Furthermore, to observe the change of address forms in Japanese schools and offices, an analysis of 4 Japanese movies was carried out among those dealing with school and office situations, two each created in 1960s and 2010s.

The results showed that before the late 1980s, first name use was mostly limited to the same gender at school and in offices as it could imply an intimate relationship. However, according to the respondents, at school first names started being used across genders to show familiarity around the turn of the century.

By contrast, in office a different change seems to have happened. That is, there has been a movement to call everybody with the same address form, “family name + san” in office instead of the use of the job title. The change at school was to do with familiarity, while it was to do with equality among the staff members in office. Thus although the change is different, both intend to express solidarity rather than deference in human relationship in Japanese society.