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It is amazing that no one yet has posted about the Japanese language. Yes, "technically" there is a term for "no" (いいえ). In practice, outside of official documentation, almost no one uses it in daily life. (When you fill official docs, はい==yes, and いいえ==no.) There are so many stupid Japanese language training books that teach you about "いいえ", but you will never hear it in the Real World, except during language trailing dialogs! Most Japanese people will say "違います" (chiigamasu / "it is different") to avoid saying "no" directly.


YouTuber That Japanese Man Yuta recently posted a good video explanation/exploration of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9JdP6pA5LY


Why do you say that? What’s your experience? I’ve spent years in Japan and live with 2 native Japanese and hear はい and いいえ all the time…

When you give a Japanese person a compliment the most comment response IME is いいえ (nooo I’m not)

And はい is said all the time


In verbal communication, you use the negative form of the verb in question instead.

In computer dialogues you see いいえ, also if im not mistaken people say いいえ when they are flattered.


What are the Japanese words in your comment?


はい = "hai" = yes いいえ = "iie" = no


The casual equivalent of いいえ, to my knowledge, is ううん.




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