The surprising truth about Ikigai: The Japanese philosophy for a life well lived — not a purpose-finding blueprint

Ikigai is often touted as the Japanese philosophy for finding your purpose, expressed through a colorful Venn diagram that helps you explore the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

But what if I told you this was a lie?

The first lie: Ikigai isn’t a deep philosophy about purpose, it’s a simple word that’s rarely used in Japan in casual conversation.

The second lie: Ikigai has nothing to do with finding a lofty life purpose or figuring out what you can be paid for.

Instead, the true meaning of Ikigai is a feeling — a sense that life is worth living, rooted in the small daily joys and experiences that make you think, “Damn! It’s good to be alive.”

Rethinking Ikigai: The real Japanese meaning behind the word

I used to struggle with the concept, trying to puzzle out what my Ikigai could be, but failing to come up with a satisfactory answer, I pushed all thought of it out of my mind. That is, until a few months ago, when I came across an article that led me down a rabbit hole to look for the real meaning of Ikigai, not the Western, capitalist, co-opted meaning of the word.

My search led me to Mieko Kamiya, a Japanese psychiatrist and academic, who is widely considered the “mother of Ikigai” for her pioneering research on the subject. Unfortunately, her 1966 book, On the Meaning of Life, hasn’t been translated to English.

Further research led me to Japanologist Nicholas Kemp, whose work focuses on correcting the misunderstood and misappropriated concept of Ikigia, and sharing the what Ikigai really means in Japanese culture.

His book, Ikigai Kan: Feel a Life Worth Living, is an illuminating insight into both the concept of Ikigai and Japanese culture. In it, he explores how Ikigai came to be co-opted as a career blueprint, and goes on to explain the true meaning of Ikigai in Japan — as a way to experience the everyday value of life.

Ikigai-Kan: Experiencing the true feeling of Ikigai

The key to ikigai is it’s what makes life really seem worth it. It’s when you feel ‘Damn! It’s good to be alive!’ And that’s an extraordinary feeling to have. It’s wonderful that as human beings, we have an ikigai enabling us to experience that. – Professor Gordon Mathews, Professor and Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and author of What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds

Rather than a template for finding your purpose and making money, Ikigai is a feeling state, specifically, the feeling that life is worth living. It’s an emotional response to the life experiences that make life feel good — a hot mug of coffee on the porch while watching the sun come up, meeting up with good friends over lunch, spending time with the people you love, a warm hug, a hobby that you enjoy. All of these are the small things that make up your felt sense of Ikigai.

This makes sense, especially when you consider that Ikigai is a combination of two words: iki, meaning ‘living’, and gai, meaning ‘the value of’ or ‘worth’.

According to Professor Akihiro Hasegawa of Toyo Eiwa University, it is crucial to understand what the Japanese mean by ‘life’ when considering the concept of Ikigai.

“In Japanese, there are two words that can be translated in this way: jinsei, which means ‘lifetime’, and seikatsu, which means ‘everyday life.’ Hasegawa states that ‘The concept of ikigai aligns more to seikatsu, so the word relates to finding meaning in your day-to-day living.” – Professor Akihiro Hasegawa

Yutori and Micro-Ikigai: Finding small joys in everyday life

This casts a completely different light on Ikigai. Rather than being the culmination of a life goal or something to achieve, Ikigai is found in the everyday things. For many Japanese, their Ikigai is their hobby, the things they enjoy doing in their leisure time. That probably explains their well-known obsession with beautifully designed planners and stationery — more than a tool of productivity, it’s a source of contentment and joy, or Ikigai!

Another Japanese concept that supports the feeling of Ikigai is yutori, which translates to the space to have peace of mind. According to Kemp, in the context of Ikigai, it could be defined as a psychological state in which one feels a sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction.

When you have yutori, you experience a sense of mental space and a freedom from overwhelming thoughts or worries; you have room to think about life and room to consider others.

In 2001, researchers Miyako Yamashita, Ryuichiro Yagi, and Hideo Furukawa published a scale to measure yutori. It included eight factors: economic wealth, free time, environmental amenities, competence, contentment, enjoyment, challenge, and behavioral freedom.

What they found through their research was that yutori was related not only to objective, material measures, such as time and economic sufficiency, but also to very subjective psychological concepts — particularly contentment: the higher contentment people obtained, the more psychological factors, such as enjoyment, behavioral freedom, and challenge, were promoted.

It’s important to note that yutori is not about creating space to do more things. It’s about slowing things down, which helps create a sense of spaciousness in your days. I think yutori loosely aligns with slow living, a lifestyle that encourages you to curate a more meaningful and mindful approach to life, prioritizing well-being over constant productivity and consumption.

How leisure activities lead to Ikigai and a life worth living

Which brings me to another important factor that leads to Ikigai-kan — leisure. Dr. Shintaro Kono of the University of Alberta has studied the relationship between leisure and ikigai quite extensively. One of the key concepts that he has explored is keiken, or experience — specifically, the different kinds of leisure experiences that lead to a feeling of Ikigai. In his studies, Kono identified four main keiken: tanoshimi, gambari, shigeki, and iyashi.

Tanoshimi, which means enjoyment, refers to experiences that are intrinsically attractive, such as connecting with nature, socializing with friends, or enjoying sensory experiences like listening to music or eating.

Gambari translates to experiences that require some, but not too much, effort, which can, due to their challenging nature, give you a sense of purpose. Though these experiences can often result in frustration, setbacks, and stress in the short run, persevering and continuing to experiment and learn leads to two positive long-term outcomes: self-enhancement and a sense of accomplishment, both of which enhance your feeling of Ikigai.

Shigeki, which means stimulation, simply means exposing yourself to new activities, places, people, and ideas. This newness makes life feel fresh and exciting.

Iyashi, or comfort, involves normal daily activities that take place in familiar surroundings among friends and family. For the less socially inclined, it could include more solitary pursuits, like spending time with a beloved pet, pursuing crafts and hobbies, or reading.

According to Kono, the simplest thing we can do to achieve a feeling of Ikigai is to participate in activities that provide one or more of these four values (effort, enjoyment, stimulation, and comfort).

Cultivating Ikigai: Using the Ikigai-9 to increase life satisfaction

So how do we cultivate more Ikigai in our life?

It really is quite simple — intentional living, creating a sense of spaciousness, enjoying the small moments in your daily life, doing things that you love, making time for your hobbies, trying new things, and exploring new ideas and concepts.

But if you want to sink your teeth into something more, try the Ikigai-9. It is a psychometric tool that was originally published and validated in 2012 by psychology researchers Tadanori Imai, Hisao Osada, and Yoshitsugu from Tokyo’s Mejiro University. In Ikigai Kan: Feel a Life Worth Living, Nicholas Kemp writes:

Participants are presented with nine statements (items) and asked to use a five-point scale (where 1 = does not apply to me and 5 = applies to me a lot) to rate the extent to which each statement reflects their current status. The statements are as follows:

I believe that I have some impact on someone.

My life is mentally rich and fulfilled.

I’m interested in many things.

I feel that I’m contributing to someone or to society.

I would like to develop myself.

I often feel that I’m happy.

I think that my existence is needed by something or someone.

I would like to learn something new or start something.

I have room in my mind.

By adding up scores across the entire list, participants can see how close they are to the ideal ikigai tally of 45 — giving them a sense of the level of ikigai currently present in their life. However, perhaps more useful than the quantitative outcome is the qualitative information this tool can provide: By looking at which statements are lower than the possible 5/5, and, in particular, focusing on those that are especially low, people can identify which aspects of their lives to tackle in order to increase ikigai-kan.

Finding the answers to these questions can help you identify your Ikigai sources and increase your feeling of Ikigai. A much deeper and more meaningful approach than the one proposed by the famous, and incorrect, Ikigai Venn diagram, wouldn’t you agree?