Japanese culture assumes that problems yield to sustained effort over time. The rich vocabulary around persistence—ganbaru, gaman, doryoku—encodes the expectation that effort and patience are primary resources for overcoming challenges. Problems that don’t yield to initial attempts aren’t signals to abandon approach; they’re invitations to continued effort.
This shapes expectations about time horizons. Quick fixes are viewed skeptically; solutions requiring sustained implementation are normal. When collaborating with Japanese counterparts, understand that they expect engagement with problems to continue until resolution, that persistence is valued as character virtue, and that giving up too easily is seen as weakness rather than realistic assessment.
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