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.
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.
In a study published in 2001, the psychologist Steven Heine and colleagues told Japanese participants that they had done well or poorly on a task. On a second task, those who had been told they failed persisted longer than those who had been told they succeeded.
The authors described this as a self-improving pattern.
Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru (塵も積もれば山となる): even dust, piled up, becomes a mountain. Very small things, when many of them pile up, become something large.
Ishi no ue ni mo sannen (石の上にも三年): three years even on a stone. A cold stone grows warm when a person sits on it for three years. Patient endurance always brings success.
Isogaba maware (急がば回れ): if in a hurry, go around. A safe, sure way reaches the goal sooner than a dangerous shortcut.
Meshitaki sannen, nigiri hachinen: three years cooking the rice, eight years shaping the nigiri. The saying describes the long apprenticeship of a sushi chef.
On October 29, 2015, the entrepreneur Horie Takafumi attacked it on Twitter: “Sushi restaurants that are any good today don’t do such leisurely training. Sense matters more.” The news site J-CAST reported on the dispute that followed.
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.
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.