Shikata ga nai (仕方がない): there is no way to do it. Nothing can be done, and there is no better way. Another dictionary adds: it is not satisfying, but there is nothing to do but give up.
Gaman (我慢): enduring, holding out, patience. As a Buddhist term, it means one of the seven kinds of pride: a self-centered mind that clings to itself and looks down on others.
At noon on August 15, 1945, Japanese radio broadcast the emperor’s recorded reading of the rescript ending the war. It contains the words taegataki o tae, shinobigataki o shinobi, enduring what is hard to endure and bearing what is hard to bear, so as to open the way to peace for all generations to come.
Miyazawa Kenji wrote the poem Ame ni mo makezu (Unbeaten by Rain) in a notebook in November 1931, while he lay ill. It was found after his death.
The poem begins with a wish not to be beaten by rain or wind, by snow or summer heat. It describes a person who is never angry and always smiles quietly.
Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut), completed by Kamo no Chōmei in 1212, opens: Yuku kawa no nagare wa taezu shite, shikamo moto no mizu ni arazu. “The flow of the river never ceases, and yet it is never the same water.”
The book goes on to record the disasters of its time: the great fire of Angen, the famine of Yōwa and the great earthquake of Genryaku.
Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike) opens: Gion shōja no kane no koe, shogyō mujō no hibiki ari. “The sound of the bell of Gion Shōja echoes the impermanence of all things.” The opening ends: hitoe ni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji, “they are just like dust before the wind.”
In Tokushima Prefecture, for example, pupils read the opening aloud in the fifth grade and study the tale again in the first year of junior high school.
An employee of Tōa Paint refused a transfer to Nagoya for family reasons. He lived with his mother, aged 71, his wife, aged 28, and his daughter, aged 2. The company dismissed him as a disciplinary measure.
On July 14, 1986, the Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the transfer order was not an abuse of rights.
In April 2020, the government declared a state of emergency over COVID-19 for seven prefectures, among them Tokyo, Osaka and Hyogo. Residents were asked to refrain from going out. For these requests there were basically no penalties. Facilities asked to close could be named publicly.
On December 1, 2020, the grand prize of the New Words and Buzzwords Awards went to san-mitsu, the three Cs: closed spaces, crowded places and close contact.
In July 1966, the cabinet formally decided to build a new international airport around Sanrizuka in Narita. An opposition league formed, and the protests grew. The airport opened in May 1978 with a single runway.
In November 1991, the national government, the airport authority, Chiba Prefecture and the opposition league met together for the first time. Their talks lasted three years.
NHK’s morning drama Oshin ran for one year from April 1983. Its heroine is born into a poor farming family in 1901 and sent away to work as a servant at the age of seven. She endures harsh treatment and loses a son in the war. In the end, she builds a successful business.
The series averaged a rating of 52.6 percent and peaked at 62.9 percent. No Japanese drama has matched that peak.