Subject of this たら...た construction For full context see here: < The sentence in question (line 6-7): The main issue lies in determining wether Mr. Inoue or the customer is the subject of the verbal complex . First, here's my attempt at translation: "When he (Mr. Inoue) did the favor of making a record matching the pitch and speed of the man, he (???) gave the favor of being pleased much/pleasing much/accepting very gratefully." I think considering the difference between and in terms of courtesy could help here. By context, Mr. Inoue must be the subject of the sentence preceding , so the text assumes that Mr. Inoue positions himself lower than the customer, which makes sense. is neutral as far as I know, so considering the pretext, this would fit the customer. Still, since all this is narrated by an external narrator, I feel pretty unsure about my interpretations. So I think the sentence should mean:"..., the customer gave the favor of being very pleased."

The subject of is , and the subjec of is (or ).

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The contrast of and is enough to determine the implied subjects here. "He (the customer) gave Inoue the favor of being pleased" may not be the most natural sentence, but the gist is that the customer was pleased (""), and that fact in turn pleased Inoue-san ("").

/ can be safely used when the narrator says something from someone else's standpoint. The main character of this essay is Inoue-san, so the narrator is using / from Inoue-san's point of view.