Mutual Benefit

自他共栄, read jita kyōei: self and others prospering together. The second of the two principles of judo, and in the Kodokan's own words the natural result of the first, 精力善用, the best use of energy: keep that rule, and you and those around you prosper together. Jigorō Kanō, judo's founder, wrote it as the cure for a country wearing itself out in quarrels, and aimed it past the dojo at Japan's neighbors, a nation that in his words had not yet one true friend in the world; a larger claim for a wall than the English lets on. The phrase is in no Japanese dictionary; its definition is the Kodokan's, and the two principles are so often brushed as a pair because the second is what the first produces. The English title is the plain form judo's teaching books use; the Kodokan's own rendering is mutual welfare and benefit, and the literal is mutual welfare and prosperity. The word is together, never for others. The phrase is composed of the words 自他 (read jita) meaning "oneself and others" and 共栄 (read kyōei) meaning "mutual prosperity".