Ikigai

Perhaps more rules than I had imagined!

The Japanese philosophical concept of ikigai has its roots in Buddhist philosophy and traditional Japanese values. If we translate ikigai literally, it means ‘a reason to live’ and to the average Japanese person it is a commonplace that signifies, ‘seeking joy in little things.’ It is a concept that encourages people to discover what truly matters to them and to live a life filled with purpose and joy based on that. I seem, in these latest two or three blogs, to have seriously discovered the Japanese! It was in my reading about Tsundoku that I chanced across the concept of ikigai which implies that the meaning of life can be found through purpose and that purpose is found by starting small.

Until I read Young & Meaningful in Philosophy Now of June/July 2025, I would have accepted the Western interpretation of ikigai as an uncomplicated way for an individual to find happiness and purpose in life covering a whole range of needs, aesthetics, emotional resonance, tenacity, employment, etc.  But the author, Elise Beal, of Young and Meaningful, labels this view as ‘a grievous misinterpretation’ and she suggests that there is a deep difference which lies within the two societies' basic ideas of community, with a fundamental difference between Japan, a collectivist society, and the West, a society of individuals.  So, Japan’s highest societal value is placed within and upon the community while the highest Western societal value is placed upon the individual. This difference influences the meaning of ikigai which the West sees as an endpoint; an overarching goal of finding everyday truth that, once reached, will endow the person with a definite sense of purpose. Thus, the Western ikigai is a destination, to be found. The original, Japanese, meaning of finding small joys; the many, many little moments within a life,within a community, that makes a person appreciate his life, is founded on the idea that it is from this appreciation of one’s life that the purpose is born. Thus Japanese ikigai is woven into the texture of everyday life.

I am receptive to this Japanese interpretation of ikigai because I have felt, again and again, how incredibly lucky I am to have reached old age with the love of family, my community, around me. I have felt the warmth in earlier times almost without noticing it but latterly, with more leisure perhaps and certainly with a greater tendency to analyse the everyday, I notice it and give thanks! In addition, the philosophy of ikigai helps any individual to cheerfully face or tolerate the less-than-cheerful texture of international news which negatively saturates the Internet and media. I think I have always been an optimistic person and the Western understanding of ikigai tends to enable, or at least, encourage, the individual to embrace and enliven and encompass the daily round of encounters and environs!

 

Ikigai is finding happiness in small things.

Elise Mayumi Beal is a high school student in San Jose, California. And a highly gifted individual too!