And as another note, it's also sort of a meme that a lot of westerners who don't really know much about Japan will take some noun from the language and make a big deal about it, like you did with 鍛錬 and 見立て, as if the concept doesn't exist in other languages, or twisting the usage into something bigger than it really is, or even just making it up. It tends to have the effect that the writer is taken less seriously. 生きがい is the most popular misused one, I think. Less misused but still kind of questionable in a lot of places is かんばん, which is quite popular with software developers who took it from Toyota's practices. A made-up nonsense example could be: "瓶 (bin), or bottle, is more than just a bottle, it also refers to the Japanese art of bottling up your feelings, and how this leads to a more harmonious society."