The Susie Zone - The Japanese Concept of Ikigai (June 2019)

The Japanese Concept of Ikigai

by Susie J. Briscoe 

This month I’ve decided to look at the Japanese concept of Ikigai and I’ve taken this information directly from Wikipedia as I feel that the explanation is put so clearly… and it’s a concept that I feel follows on from or is a part of the Kaizen concept, which we have discussed many times. I hope you enjoy it.

Ikigai (Sourced from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia)

Ikigai (生き甲斐, pronounced [ikiɡai]) is a Japanese concept that means "a reason for being." The word "ikigai" is usually used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile. The word translated to English roughly means "thing that you live for" or "the reason for which you wake up in the morning.” Each individual's ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values, and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease. Activities that allow one to feel ikigai are never forced on an individual; they are often spontaneous, and always undertaken willingly, giving the individual satisfaction and a sense of meaning to life.

The term ikigai compounds two Japanese words: iki (生き) meaning "life; alive" and kai (甲斐) meaning "(an) effect; (a) result; (a) fruit; (a) worth; (a) use; (a) benefit; (no, little) avail" (sequentially voiced as gai) to arrive at "a reason for living [being alive]; a meaning for [to] life; what [something that] makes life worth living; a raison d'etre."

In the culture of Okinawa, ikigai is thought of as "a reason to get up in the morning"; that is, a reason to enjoy life. In a TED Talk, National Geographic reporter Dan Buettner suggested ikigai as one of the reasons people in the area had such long lives.

One of the five areas Dan Buettner has examined and presented in his book is Okinawa. He studied ikigai philosophy of the inhabitants and mentioned that the Japanese don’t have the desire to retire; people continue to do their favourite job as long as possible if their health is good. Moai, the close-knit friend group is considered an important reason for the people of Okinawa to live long.

The word ikigai usually is used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile. Secondly, the word is used to refer to mental and spiritual circumstances under which individuals feel that their lives are valuable. It's not linked to one's financial status. Even if a person feels that the present is dark, but they have a goal in mind, they may feel ikigai. Behaviours that make one feel ikigai are not actions one is forced to take; these are natural and spontaneous actions.

In the article named Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei ("Ikigai: the process of allowing the self's possibilities to blossom") Kobayashi Tsukasa says that "people can feel real ikigai only when, on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed toward self-realization."

Don’t forget to share with me what you discovered during this month and let me know if I may share it within this newsletter next month.