This study examines various workplace scenarios of Japanese apologies to find out why someone apologizes, why they choose certain form of apology and its impacts in the workplace. Participants of the study were recruited online on a voluntary basis to participate in semi-structured phone interviews. Participants recalled and shared occurrences when they had to apologize in the workplace and the effectiveness of the apologies. Then, revision was made to this methodology to also have the participants to comment and react to a few situations created by the researcher to collect more useful data. All the phone interviews were recorded and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results revealed that apology in the workplace and the forms of apology were influenced by a wide range of social, linguistic and cultural factors. The effectiveness of apologies also moderated by the perceived sincerity, interpersonal relationship of the parties involved, severity of the offense, power distance and the existence of preceding offense.