Research on student questions in L2 classrooms has shown conflicting results. Some studies report that foreign language teachers use direct answers and others express concern about ESL teachers' overuse of ineffective display counter-questions. Here, student questions and their resolutions were analyzed in more than thirty hours of first through third-year college-level Japanese classes. In groupwork, students worked to solve problems before asking the teacher. Questions to peers overwhelmingly received correct answers. Questions to teachers were resolved using direct answers. When questions were more complex, teachers used display counter-questions to obtain information needed to build a response, show alignment, or promote intersubjectivity; subsequently, teachers provided direct answers. Findings suggest that crosscultural differences may influence how teachers address student questions, that direct answers are effective in both ESL and FL classes, and that counter-questions are useful as an intermediate step prior to a direct answer. (Contains 6 tables and 1 note.)