How one refuses an offer or invitation differs depending on specific cultures and one’s personal view towards interlocutors. This paper will focus on 4 Japanese immigrants and compare their refusal strategies to those of 5 Croats, while looking for indications of pragmatic transfer and considering the power-relationship between interlocutors. 4 Japanese immigrants and 5 Croatian informants answered a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) that consisted of 14 situations. The results displayed that omission of the segment of "gratitude" was the most frequent indication of pragmatic transfer; therefore, only 2 situations that involve refusing from equal status interlocutors have been discussed. Although both groups of informants view close friends and acquaintances as equal status interlocutors, the Japanese informants did not express "gratitude" when refusing offers and invitations, while the Croatian informants did. The Croatian informants consider expressing gratitude is polite and necessary when refusing an offer; furthermore, there is an indication that the Croatian informants are more focused on the degree of familiarity, rather than on the interlocutor’s status; while the Japanese informants are more concerned with the power-relationship between interlocutors.