On the evening of October 5, 2015, Ōmura Satoshi spoke to the press after being named for the Nobel Prize. He said: Watashi no shigoto wa biseibutsu no chikara o karite iru dake. “My work only borrows the power of microorganisms.”
A Fist Pump in the Ring
In July 2021, the yokozuna Hakuhō won the Nagoya tournament, his 45th tournament victory and his first in seven tournaments. He celebrated with repeated fist pumps.
At its meeting on July 19, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council criticized him. Its chairman, Yano Hironori, said: Budō ni sogowanai gattsu pōzu. Dō mite mo migurushii. “A fist pump that does not suit a martial art. However one looks at it, it is unsightly.”
I Have Lost
A game of shogi ends when one player admits defeat. The player who judges the game lost says Makemashita, “I have lost,” and bows. This is called tōryō, resigning. The opponent answers Arigatō gozaimashita, “Thank you.” A guide to Japanese culture notes that the winner does not celebrate.
Big Mouth
In 2010, the football player Honda Keisuke said openly that he was aiming to win the World Cup. He explained why he said it in public: Kōgen shinai to, yowai jibun ga dondon ōkiku natte shimau. “If I do not declare it, the weak me grows bigger and bigger.” The sports magazine Number put the words biggu mausu, big mouth, in its headline.
In June 2014, during the World Cup in Brazil, the newspaper Nikkan Gendai quoted him: Oretachi wa W-hai de yūshō dekiru. “We can win the World Cup.” It wrote that his big talk had led the team to overrate itself. In May 2014, another player, Ōkubo, said that Honda was taking on the role of the villain.
The Stake That Sticks Out
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. An article on the dictionary site JapanKnowledge explains it: a person with talent who stands out, or a person who acts presumptuously, tends to be resented or criticized by others.
The proverb appears in the Hōjō godaiki of 1641, in older spelling. A later form, deru kugi wa utareru, uses kugi, nail, in place of kui, stake.
A Nobel Prize Without a Doctorate
In 2002, Tanaka Kōichi, an engineer at the instrument maker Shimadzu, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He held neither a master’s degree nor a doctorate. He was the first chemistry laureate with only a bachelor’s degree.
At the time, his company rank was shunin, chief. He has said: “I myself did not think that I had been doing work worthy of a Nobel Prize.”
Declining the People’s Honor Award
Suzuki Ichirō has declined the People’s Honor Award three times, in 2001, in 2004 and in 2019. In 2001, he said he hoped to receive it once his baseball career was over.
In 2019, after he retired, the government offered it again. He replied: Jinsei no maku o oroshita toki ni itadakeru yō hagemimasu. “I will work hard so that I may receive it when the curtain falls on my life.”
A Prize for Japan
On October 8, 2012, Yamanaka Shin’ya of Kyoto University was named for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He said: Masa ni Nihon to iu kuni ga jushō shita shō da to kanjite imasu. “I feel that this is truly a prize that the country of Japan has won.”
Project X
From 2000 to 2005, NHK broadcast the documentary series Purojekuto X: Chōsenshatachi (Project X: The Challengers). Its main characters were unknown Japanese people. It told the hidden stories behind new products, social incidents and giant projects, as “a story of organizations and groups.”
In April 2024, NHK began a new series, Shin Purojekuto X.
The Vocabulary of Modesty
Nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu (能ある鷹は爪を隠す): the able hawk hides its claws. A truly capable person does not needlessly show off that ability.
Minoru hodo kōbe o tareru inaho kana (実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな): the more the rice ripens, the lower the ear bows its head. The deeper a person’s learning and virtue, the more modest that person should be.
Tsumaranai mono desu ga (つまらないものですが): it is a trifling thing, but. Said when giving a gift. A dictionary editor notes that tsumaranai here means “nothing special” and expresses humility, so the phrase is not rude.