自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)

じてんしゃそうぎょう
noun
hand-to-mouth operation; running on borrowed money
businessbusinessmoney
1. hand-to-mouth business; keeping afloat by constant borrowing
A business, or a household, that survives only by constantly bringing in new money, often new loans, to pay off earlier debts. Like a bicycle that falls over when it stops, it collapses as soon as the cash flow stops.
うちの会社(かいしゃ)は自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)だ。
Our company is running hand to mouth.
借金(しゃっきん)を借金(しゃっきん)で返(かえ)す自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)が続(つづ)いている。
We keep paying off debts with new debts, just barely staying afloat.
売上(うりあげ)が少(すこ)しでも落(お)ちれば、自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)の小(ちい)さな店(みせ)はすぐに行(ゆ)き詰(づ)まってしまう。
If sales drop even a little, a small shop running hand to mouth soon reaches a dead end.

A metaphor from riding a bicycle: you must keep pedaling or you fall. Used about companies and also, jokingly, about personal finances or any schedule that leaves no slack.

Common collocations

  • 自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)に陥(おちい)る: to fall into hand-to-mouth operation
  • 自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)を続(つづ)ける: to keep scraping by
  • 自転車操業(じてんしゃそうぎょう)の状態(じょうたい): a hand-to-mouth state

Similar words

  • その日暮(ひぐ)らし: living from day to day — about a person's livelihood, not debt
  • 火(ひ)の車(くるま): in dire financial straits — describes the distress, not the borrowing cycle

Related Words

Compare: 火(ひ)の車(くるま) (in dire financial straits)
general
Added 2026.9.23 15:50 · Revised 2026.9.23 15:56
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