The effect of auditory and visual presentation mode on comprehension of Japanese expressions with both literal and figurative meanings was investigated. Semantic variance judgments of adult Japanese speakers (N * 48) for alternate meanings of 35 Japanese idioms were averaged in experiment 1 to isolate 5 far and 5 close idioms. Comprehension and memorization accuracy for these semantically far and close idioms were evaluated in experiment 2 after auditory or visual presentation to adult Japanese speakers (N * 32 and 33, respectively). In experiment 3, Ss (total N = 94) were examined again with literal and figurative contexts added to the previous testing material. The context-free memory and recall trial was repeated with 10 additional close and far idioms in experiment 4, with Ss (total N * 34) evenly divided between visual and auditory presentation conditions. Overall results show better comprehension of visual than auditory isolated presentation, and of semantically far than close idioms. Compatibility of these results with those of previous English-language idiom comprehension studies is discussed. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 3)