The Art of 'Lifting Your Heavy Hips': When Do the Japanese Finally Get Moving?

Picture this: the pile of year-end paperwork is looming like a mountain 堆, your messy room is screaming for a cleanup 🧹, or that gym membership has been gathering dust for months 😩. You know you have to do it, but for some reason, your body feels glued to the chair, and your mind keeps finding excuses to put it off.

For moments exactly like this, the Japanese have a wonderfully visual and accurate expression: 重い腰を上げる (omoi koshi wo ageru).

As someone who's lived in Japan for over a decade, I can tell you this is one of those phrases you'll hear constantly in real life—from the office to casual chats—but it's rarely explained properly in textbooks. Today, let's dissect this gem!

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🤔 A Weird Literal Meaning, A Perfect Figurative One

If you translate it word-for-word, you get:

• 重い (omoi): Heavy
• 腰 (koshi): Hips, lower back
• 上げる (ageru): To lift, to raise

➡️ "To lift one's heavy hips"

It sounds funny, right? But the imagery perfectly captures our psychological state. When you don't want to do something, your hips feel incredibly heavy, stuck to the seat. The act of "lifting" them is the moment you overcome inertia, laziness, or hesitation to finally START taking action.

It's not just about "starting" (始める - hajimeru); it's about "finally getting around to starting" after a long period of delay.

💡 The Subtle Nuance: It's Not Just "Lazy"

This is the key point that makes the phrase so valuable. Using 重い腰を上げる doesn't mean you're calling someone lazy (怠けている - namakete iru). Its nuance is far more complex:

1. It implies the task is daunting or a hassle: People often procrastinate because the task requires a lot of effort, is complicated, or is just plain bothersome (面倒くさい - mendokusai). Think of cleaning the entire house or preparing for a major exam.
2. It can imply hesitation or careful consideration: In a business context, a department or company that is "slow to lift its heavy hips" might not be lazy, but rather in the process of assessing risks and considering options. The phrase describes a slowness in decision-making and action.
3. It can imply passivity, needing a push: Sometimes, a person only "lifts their heavy hips" when an external factor forces them to, like an impending deadline or a reminder from a boss or family member.

🎬 How It's Used in Real Life

1. At the Workplace 🏢

Your boss complaining about a partner company:

「A社はなかなか重い腰を上げないから、この件はまだ進んでいないんだよ。」 (Company A is taking forever to get moving, so this project still hasn't made any progress.)

A colleague sighing in relief after finishing a tough report:

「やっと重い腰を上げてレポートを書き始めたら、意外と早く終わったよ。」 (Once I finally got around to starting that report, it was finished surprisingly quickly.)

2. In Personal Life 🏠

Talking about cleaning:

「年末だから、そろそろ重い腰を上げて大掃除しないと…」 (It's the end of the year, so I've got to "lift my heavy hips" and start the big cleanup soon...)

Talking about starting a new habit:

「健康のためにジムに通おうと思ってるんだけど、なかなか重い腰が上がらないんだ。」 (I've been meaning to go to the gym for my health, but I just can't seem to get myself to start.)

3. Referring to Large Organizations (Government, Corporations) 🇯🇵

On a news broadcast:

「国民からの批判を受け、政府もようやく重い腰を上げたようだ。」 (Following public criticism, it seems the government has finally decided to take action.)

✅ Key Takeaways

• Use it when you want to say someone "finally got around to doing" something they'd been putting off.
• It emphasizes the act of starting, not the process or the result.
• It can be used for yourself, other people, or even entire organizations.
• It's a very natural, visual way to express frustration or slowness without being overly harsh.

Next time you find yourself or someone else procrastinating on something important, instead of using a simple phrase, try using 重い腰を上げる. You'll sound so much more like a native speaker! 😉