since 1945, and admonishing people to put aside comfort and entitlement, and to pick up the burdens of privation and hard work. “This is a country that has endured for centuries,” he reminds us, and its citizens must prepare for hardship in the coming days, because “This is Japan. We are Japanese. We will endure.”

Later, the national government urges its citizens to carry on and not to allow the tragedy to paralyze the nation: everyone must do his part, even if that part means going back to the daily routine.

Now, with these fresh edicts having been proclaimed, the somewhat tenuous normalcy that we’ve felt the last few days becomes more earnest: life, on this side of the country at least, is forced into its familiar rhythm.