“On” is the concept of having received a great favour, feeling grateful, and knowing that you owe somebody a lot.
The way it is used in Japanese makes it seem like less of a subjective feeling, and more of a tangible object, like a thing that you now possess because somebody helped you greatly. In Japanese, ‘I am very indebted’ is literally ‘I have a lot of “on” ‘.
The Ghibli movie “The Cat Returns” is titled “猫の恩返し” (Neko no Ongaeshi) in the original Japanese.
“返し” means to give something back, so “恩返し” means “returning the favour”. The Japanese title makes it clear that the cat isn’t just returning for no reason; he’s returning because he’s an honourable cat and he wants to pay back his “on”.
Calligraphy by Vicky 