Ganbaru (頑張る): to keep at something with steady, patient effort, especially in a hard time. Ganbatte (頑張って): keep at it. Ganbarimasu (頑張ります): I will keep at it.
In 2020, the psychiatrist and industrial physician Inoue Tomosuke wrote in President Woman Online that it has become widely known that encouraging a patient with depression with Ganbatte ne is considered wrong.
On January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck Kobe. In the season that followed, the baseball team Orix BlueWave wore a patch on the right sleeve that read Ganbarō KOBE. Let us keep at it, Kobe.
That year, the team won its first Pacific League title since moving to Kobe. In November 1995, the players, among them Ichirō, held a victory parade in uniforms that carried the same words.
In 1870 and 1871, the scholar Nakamura Masanao published Saigoku risshi hen, his translation of Self-Help by Samuel Smiles. The book is linked with the line Ten wa mizukara tasukuru mono o tasuku. Heaven helps those who help themselves.
A Japanese encyclopedia puts the total number of copies printed at more than one million.
One of the viewpoints under which Japanese schools assess pupils is shutaiteki ni gakushū ni torikumu taido, the attitude of tackling learning on one’s own initiative.
A document of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government explains how it is judged. Teachers look at the pupil’s nebarizuyoi torikumi, persistent effort, in gaining knowledge and skills, and ask whether the pupil tries to adjust his or her own learning along the way.
Inamori Kazuo, the founder of Kyocera, described it with a formula: way of thinking times enthusiasm times ability. Ability and enthusiasm each run from 0 to 100 points. Way of thinking runs from minus 100 to plus 100.
A book of his sayings, quoted in President, draws the conclusion: Sainō wa netsui de kabā dekiru. Talent can be made up for with enthusiasm.
Every year on April 29 and November 3, the Japanese state awards the ōju hōshō, the Medal with Yellow Ribbon. The Cabinet Office describes it as a medal for people in agriculture, commerce, industry and similar fields who have been diligent in their work and whose skills or achievements are a model for others.
An older Cabinet Office document states the criterion in fewer words: a person recognized as diligent in work and a model for the people.
In the Edo period, a merchant house could reward a servant who had worked for it for many years with noren-wake, dividing the shop curtain. The master gave him a share of capital and customers and had him open his own shop. The new shop was allowed to use the same shop name and sign.
The newspaper publisher Nikkei runs a contest for shaka, company songs. Companies and organizations send in videos of their songs, and a public vote and a panel of judges choose the finalists. In 2020, TV Tokyo reported that 174 companies had entered the national contest.
Nakama (仲間): people who do something together. The Daijisen dictionary also gives people of the same position or occupation, and things of the same kind. Nakama-hazure (仲間外れ): being left out of the group.
In December 2011, the Kanji of the Year, chosen by public vote, was 絆, kizuna, bonds. It received 61,453 votes, 12.36 percent of a record 496,997 entries. The head priest of Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto writes the winning character at the temple.
The year had brought the Great East Japan Earthquake, typhoon damage and floods in Thailand. Among the reasons given was that people had learned again how much ties to family, friends and their community mattered.