This study attempted to examine the relationship between pragmatic transfer and the proficiency level. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the developmental pragmatic competence of Korean learners of Japanese as compared with Japanese native speakers (JNs) and Korean native speakers (KNs). Written complaints were collected from 160 people, composed of 40 JNs, 40 KNs, and 80 Korean learners of Japanese (40 intermediate level and 40 advanced level), and their pragmatic competence was analyzed quantitatively in terms of complaining strategies and the length of their complaints. We found that pragmatic transfer exists at the lower and the higher proficiency levels. But the advanced learners reflect more transfer than the intermediate learners. The results imply that increasing proficiency in the target language can apparently facilitate negative pragmatic transfer.