Huh as someone who has lived in the US all my life, I have never heard of this expression. I wonder how regional/generation based it is. For context I am a zillenial (on the cusp of millennial and gen Z) who has lived in both in various places in rural New England and also in LA.
I’ve always heard it as “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” although I guess that’s a minor difference.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia article for it phrases it the way you said, and mentions the Japanese contrast too.
I’ve heard it a lot but usually in the context of accommodation. Like, if people don’t know certain tasks/building layouts are difficult, then it’s difficult to get the issue fixed. Military veterans’ benefits as well. If the government doesn’t know you’ve got problems, why would they pay you disability?
Fascinating. I suspect it’s more of a generational than regional thing, though. I’m a navy brat, so it’s possible its a military thing but it was an extremely common expression everywhere I’ve worked, including non-military environments.
I think Leebo’s wording is probably more common (“The squeaky wheel gets the grease”) but the sentiment is the same.
I never knew that Wikipedia pointed out the same 180-degree opposite connotation between the English and Japanese expressions. Cool!
The charitable interpretation is that nothing will improve without calling attention to a problem, but in my experience, it is more commonly used with a snide/irritated “geez, why is it that complainers are always the ones rewarded?” connotation.
Either way, it couldn’t be more different from the Japanese expresion
One thing worth noting though is that it isn’t uncommon to even have the same language have conflicting expressions like:
The early bird gets the worm
vs:
Slow and steady win the race
Hasts makes waste
A penny saved is a dollar earned
vs:
A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush
And so on