The purpose of this study is to clarify how, amid the deliberate misuse today of the terms “service” and “hospitality,”hospitality should be interpreted in the context of services and what types of hospitality service are possible. The term hospitality is used as a brand-like label particularly in the tourism industry and is clearly different from services. However, the Japanese translation of hospitality as “motenashi ” means having something and taking action, whereby the flow of that action is the way the service is offered. Under an interpretation that focuses on the foundation (context) of communication, hospitality is interpreted as a method of communicating or supplying a service that feels somewhat special in that particular context. Also, if referred to “as a service,” a new type of service called hospitable service (motenashi service) is possible. In that regard, various conditions that define nine items of service type have been identified: implicit, interpersonal, transformational, indirect or turning, proximate, polychronic, conversational, restricted or qualitative, and calibrated or creative.

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