The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change — of social change and of linguistic change.

年轻日本女性使用越来越少的敬语毫无疑问是社会变化和语言变化的标志。

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In all poor countries, city-dwellers are better informed, and less deferential, than peasants.

ECONOMIST: Press freedom

Executives, meanwhile, admit that the boot-camp approach that serves so well in China may not suit less deferential workers elsewhere.

ECONOMIST: China and the chaebol

Gradually, and with little help from Rome, the American church is becoming better attuned to a flock that has become less deferential and less inclined to take things on trust.

ECONOMIST: The pain of the sex-abuse scandal may be helping the church