Ganbaru (頑張る, Japanese): to persevere, to give it everything, to hang in there no matter what. You hear it constantly as ganbatte!, the thing you say to a friend before an exam, a race or a bad day at work.
The cheerful version is “you’ve got this”. The heavy version is “don’t complain, keep going”, and that one is the unofficial motto of the Salaryman: the office worker who stays late because everyone stays late, and who sometimes ends up asleep in a suit on the pavement.
Same word, two faces. Encouragement and pressure fit in one verb.
Related: Karoshi, where too much ganbaru ends, and Kodokushi, another word Japan needed because the thing needed naming.