This article describes phonological and semantic characteristics associated with the surface structure of some Japanese sentence intonations. The aim of the long-term study is to show the place of intonation in the total system of Japanese grammar. This particular part of the study is limited to the group of intonations which are characterized by the "the terminal pitch rising." The prosodic features which are possible correlates of certain grammatical functions were isolated and quantified, using a spectrograph. The samples were provided by four speakers of standard Japanese, with every informant making five recordings of each sample item. A total of eight different intonations were identified in the terminal rising group. Direct questions in Japanese, of which there are two types, both terminating with a rising intonation, were used to demonstrate the role of this stype of intonation. The conclusion is that the question in Japanese is a response-eliciting function, specified by a terminal rising intonation. The unique logical order between question and answer is attributed to the basic function of intonation. Intonation is primarily tied in with the concurrent statement, and the response which is signaled by the rising intonation refers strictly to the affirmation or negation of that statement. (Author/TL)