Japanese Proverbs About Conflict and Harmony

Choosing to respond to harm or ill-treatment with kindness and favors instead of seeking revenge.

To seize on someone's minor slip of the tongue or mistake to criticize or tease them.

A person who intervenes to settle a conflict or dispute is a precious and helpful presence.

Hurling a variety of insults and verbal abuse at someone without restraint.

Adversity or conflict leads to a more stable and stronger foundation than before.

To be in a complete stalemate or at a total loss for how to proceed.

Responding to violence with further violence, or engaging in a brutal struggle between those closely related.

To be caught up in an unexpected disaster or trouble through no fault of one's own.

A person who intervenes in a quarrel is as helpful and welcome as a guardian deity appearing at just the right time.

Making decisions and taking action on one's own without consulting others.

To be in the same position or working together while having different thoughts or hidden goals.

People in the same difficult situation should help one another.

A strategic policy of forming alliances with distant parties while taking aggressive action against immediate neighbors.

Outsiders should not interfere in marital disputes because the couple will likely reconcile on their own.

A deep, irreconcilable hatred or enmity that makes coexistence impossible.

Enemies or rivals being in the same place or cooperating for a shared goal.

To make a bad or intense situation even worse by taking an action that fans the flames.

A person who makes loud threats or boasts lacks the courage or ability to take actual action.

To be filled with uncontrollable, intense rage.

When two or more people's feelings, thoughts, or attitudes perfectly align.

To be at loggerheads like dogs and monkeys; a relationship of mutual hostility and incompatibility.

Two or more people acting in perfect harmony as if they were a single person.

A highly volatile or tense situation where the slightest trigger could lead to a major conflict or disaster.

A desperate or spiteful final act committed to cause trouble when someone is cornered or leaving.

To be completely unbothered by criticism or attacks.

To be suspected of wrongdoing despite being completely innocent.

A dilemma where every available option leads to some inconvenience or problem.

When two parties engage in a pointless conflict, a third party steps in and takes the profits.

To scrutinize trivial details and nitpick over unimportant matters.

Yielding a trivial argument or short-term loss can lead to a long-term victory or benefit.