The Secret of Japanese to a Long and Happy Life: Ikigai
The book does a good job of relating Ikigai's concept to modern-day psychology (Frankel's logotherapy with meaning for man's quest, among others) and some scientific contexts in a simple way. It talks about how purpose plays an important role in a man's life and how it manifests itself in different ways. It also tackles some of the ways to 'find your flow' and makes sure that what you do gets 100% of your attention and that you enjoy making it.
The book Secret of Japanese to a Long and Happy Life: Ikigai also discusses some other Japanese concepts such as Takeumi (special worker) and Mooi (relationship with community or friends-circle). The brief discussion points have the advantage of being simple, but there is also the risk of trivializing them in regular self-help advice. The book also sparks in the Japanese view on living life and works convincingly without getting caught in the artificially created urgency. But then, perhaps the authors wished for the readers to pay more attention to the material, looking at more research or its brief treatment.
This book first came into being on a rainy night in Tokyo, when its authors sat down together for the first time in one of the city’s tiny bars.
We had read each other’s work but had never met, thanks to the thousands of miles that separate Barcelona from the capital of Japan. Then a mutual acquaintance put us in touch, launching a friendship that led to this project and seems destined to last a lifetime.
The next time we got together, a year later, we strolled through a park in downtown Tokyo and ended up talking about trends in Western psychology, specifically logotherapy, which helps people find their purpose in life.
We remarked that Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy had gone out of fashion among practicing therapists, who favored other schools of psychology, though people still search for meaning in what they do and how they live.
We ask ourselves things like:What is the meaning of my life?
Is the point just to live longer, or should I seek a higher purpose?
Why do some people know what they want and have a passion for life, while others languish in confusion?At some point in our conversation, the mysterious word ikigai came up.
This Japanese concept, which translates roughly as “the happiness of always being busy,” is like logotherapy, but it goes a step beyond. It also seems to be one way of explaining the extraordinary longevity of the Japanese, especially on the island of Okinawa, where there are 24.55 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 inhabitants—far more than the global average.
Those who study why the inhabitants of this island in the south of Japan live longer than people anywhere else in the world believe that one of the keys—in addition to a healthful diet, a simple life in the outdoors, green tea, and the subtropical climate (its average temperature is like that of Hawaii)—is the ikigai that shapes their lives.
While researching this concept, we discovered that not a single book in the fields of psychology or personal development is dedicated to bringing this philosophy to the West.
Is ikigai the reason there are more centenarians in Okinawa than anywhere else? How does it inspire people to stay active until the very end? What is the secret to a long and happy life?
As we explored the matter further, we discovered that one place in particular, Ogimi, a rural town on the north end of the island with a population of three thousand, boasts the highest life expectancy in the world—a fact that has earned it the nickname the Village of Longevity.
Okinawa is where most of Japan’s shikuwasa—a limelike fruit that packs an extraordinary antioxidant punch—comes from. Could that be Ogimi’s secret to long life? Or is it the purity of the water used to brew its Moringa tea?
We decided to go study the secrets of the Japanese centenarians in person. After a year of preliminary research we arrived in the village—where residents speak an ancient dialect and practice an animist religion that features long-haired forest sprites called bunagaya—with our cameras and recording devices in hand. As soon as we arrived we could sense the incredible friendliness of its residents, who laughed and joked incessantly amid lush green hills fed by crystalline waters.
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