Choosing a non-committal reply: 検討する・善処する・いたしかねる
鈴木さん works in the 購買部 of a 製造会社. On Tuesday a supplier emails to ask for a 5% price increase from next month and requests a reply by Friday. 鈴木さん has no authority to agree: any change needs his 部長's approval and then 本部's. The 部長 is away until Thursday afternoon and cannot be reached. 鈴木さん must send something today that is neither a promise nor a refusal, and that will not embarrass the company if the final answer turns out to be no. Three colleagues suggest phrases: 「前向きに検討いたします」「善処いたします」「社内で検討いたします」. A fourth says, 「値上げはいたしかねます、でいいんじゃない？」
1. Evaluate the three suggested phrases in terms of what each commits the company to, and choose the one to send.
Read the worked answer
- 「前向きに検討いたします」 - 前向きに signals likely acceptance. Saying it before the 部長 or 本部 has seen the request creates an expectation; if the answer is later no, the supplier has a written record of optimism. Too strong.
- 「善処いたします」 - commits to nothing at all and is widely read as evasive boilerplate. It is "safe" only in the sense that it says nothing; the supplier will simply call again, and it damages trust.
- 「社内で検討いたします」 - accurate. It states the real process (社内 = 部長 + 本部), implies a later answer, and promises nothing about the outcome.
- Choose 「社内で検討のうえ、金曜日までに改めてご連絡いたします」. The date is the part that makes it usable - and it is only safe because the 部長 returns Thursday afternoon. If 本部 approval might slip past Friday, add 「社内の手続きに少々お時間をいただく場合がございます」 rather than silently missing the deadline.
2. What does 「値上げはいたしかねます」 actually communicate, and why is it the wrong message for today?
Read the worked answer
- 〜かねる attaches to a ます-stem and means "it is difficult to do X". In business use it functions as a refusal, not as hesitation: the reader hears no.
- Sending it today would (a) refuse before the 部長 and 本部 have seen the request - 鈴木さん has no authority to do that either way, and (b) be very hard to walk back if the company later decides to accept. A written no is as binding as a written yes.
- It is also slightly abrupt for a first reply to a long-standing supplier; the softened version belongs to the final answer: 「ご希望に沿いかねる結果となり、誠に申し訳ございません」.
- The exam-level point: 〜かねる looks like polite vagueness and is actually a firm negative - learners who read it as "we'll consider" misjudge the whole email.
3. Internally, 鈴木さん needs 部長's time when he returns. Which of these is correct, and what is wrong with the others: 「部長にご相談したいことがあります」／「部長にご相談ください」／「部長にご確認いただけますでしょうか」.
Read the worked answer
- Correct: 「お時間をいただき、ご相談させていただけますでしょうか」 (or 「部長にご相談したいことがあります」 if the direction is clearly 自分→部長). ご＋漢語＋する is 謙譲, so it lowers 鈴木さん - the right direction toward a superior.
- 「部長にご相談ください」 reverses the direction: ご…ください is 尊敬, so it now tells the 部長 to consult 鈴木さん. Wrong person honoured.
- 「ご確認いただけますでしょうか」 is grammatically fine (尊敬: the 部長 does the confirming), and is right if 鈴木さん wants the 部長 to check something. It is wrong if what he wants is to explain the price request - then use 「ご説明させていただけますでしょうか」.
- Check direction before checking politeness level: ご/お＋する = I act (謙譲); ご/お＋になる・いただく・ください = the other person acts (尊敬).