今いまでこそ

adverb

now (unlike then); now (but it wasn't always so)

Used to contrast the present with the past, often in the pattern 今でこそ...だが... (now it's like this, but back then...). Implies that the current situation is different from before.

• 今いまでこそ笑わらい話ばなしだが、当とう時じは本ほん当とうに大たい変へんだった。

  Now it's a funny story, but at the time it was really tough.

• 今いまでこそスマホは当あたり前まえだが、昔むかしはなかった。

  Nowadays smartphones are a given, but in the past they didn't exist.