The purpose of this study is to examine a speech act of refusals by Korean and Japanese speakers in terms of cross-cultural pragmatics. Given that language and culture is closely intertwined each other, the teaching of speech acts, which reflects characteristics of a certain culture, is very important. In this regard, this study focuses on revealing similarities and differences between two groups of Korean and Japanese speakers in use of the speech act of refusals. A discourse completion test (DCT) was used as a data collection instrument for the speech act of refusals. Each situation in the DCT consists of the three parameters (i.e., degree of imposition in performing the speech act of refusals, relative power and social distance). The result of this study shows that both groups used much of ‘statement of regret’ and ‘grounder’ throughout all the situations, but that they revealed linguistic and cultural differences upon close examination. Especially, in terms of a situation related with money transaction or a situation in which a speaker has to refuse, e.g., a suggestion by people in higher positions, the two groups employed different strategies. The study calls for follow-up studies on the speech act of refusals, considering, e.g., diverse situations (i.e., non-academic situations), age of participants or adjacency pairs.