The key ideas

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Héctor García, Francesc Miralles, 2016

Why is a hundred an ordinary age in one Japanese village, where old people sing karaoke and beat visitors at gateball? Héctor García and Francesc Miralles held more than a hundred interviews with the oldest people of Ogimi and found what they shared: each of them had an ikigai. You will learn what it is, how to look for yours and what helps you keep it: friends for life, gentle movement, flow and a calm view of imperfection.

Who it is for

For anyone living in a rush who keeps asking what it is all for. And for anyone who wants to grow old without losing interest in life, and is looking not for a diet but for something that gets them up in the morning.

Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.

A rainy night in Tokyo and a village of centenarians

On a rainy night in Tokyo, two men met: Héctor García, a Spaniard who had lived in Japan for many years, and Francesc Miralles, a writer from Barcelona. They talked about why some people fade as they grow old, while others are still curious about life at ninety. In that conversation a mysterious Japanese word came up: ikigai. It later grew into a book that sold more than three million copies.

To understand the word, the authors travelled to Ogimi, a village in the north of Okinawa known as the village of longevity. There they held more than a hundred interviews with the oldest residents. They asked how they lived, what they believed in and what got them out of bed each morning.

Those conversations became a book in 2016. Its main idea is simple: everyone has an ikigai, something that makes life worth living. Whoever finds it, the authors argue, lives not only longer but more joyfully. Food, movement and friends all matter, but the authors see ikigai as the heart of Japanese longevity.

You will walk through Ogimi with the authors. You will go to a party where every guest is over eighty, learn why old people keep a circle of friends for life, and find out what to do with anxiety that will not go away. You will also see how Okinawans eat and move to stay lively at ninety. And you will see where to look for your own ikigai, even if right now it feels like you have none.

Ikigai is the happiness of always being busy

The word is made of two Japanese words: "iki" means life, and "kai" means worth or value. Together they mean what makes life worth living. García and Miralles put it even more briefly: the happiness of always being busy. Simpler still, they say, your ikigai is your reason to get up in the morning.

Being busy here has nothing to do with racing around or working overtime. It means something you truly care about: a garden, grandchildren, a craft, helping your neighbours. The authors point out that Japanese has no word for retirement in the Western sense, when a person stops doing anything at all for good. You can leave your job, but not your ikigai.

To make the search easier, the book offers a diagram of four circles: what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for and what the world needs. Your ikigai lies where the circles overlap. One important caveat, and this one is not from the book: the diagram itself was drawn in the West, not in Japan. For the people of Ogimi, an ikigai can be very modest and may never earn a penny.

That points to a mistake the book warns against: waiting for a grand purpose to appear. More often, your ikigai hides in an ordinary day. The authors advise you to follow your curiosity and do what fills you with meaning and joy, rather than wait for the answer to arrive in a single flash of insight.

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About the author

Héctor García is a Spanish author who has lived in Japan for many years. Francesc Miralles is a writer and journalist from Barcelona. Their book on ikigai has been translated into dozens of languages.

All books by this author: Héctor García, Francesc Miralles

Terms from the book

  • Ikigai
  • Okinawa
  • Frankl
  • Flow
  • Multitasking
  • Csikszentmihalyi
  • Qigong
  • Tai chi
  • Stoicism
  • hara hachi bu
  • logotherapy
  • Taleb
  • antifragility
  • Ogimi: A village in the north of Okinawa's main island, home to about three thousand people. It is called the village of longevity, because so many people there are over a hundred.
  • Yuki: An 89-year-old woman from Ogimi who met the authors and, together with her 99-year-old friend, drove them to lunch.
  • ichariba chode: An Okinawan saying: treat everyone like a brother, even someone you have just met.
  • yuimaru: The Okinawan custom of mutual help: neighbours take on shared work together and help each other out.
  • moai: An informal group in Okinawa whose members support each other for years, often for life.
  • sanpin-cha: Jasmine tea, a favourite drink in Okinawa.
  • shikuwasa: A small, sour citrus fruit that looks like a lime. Most of Japan's crop is grown in Okinawa.
  • antioxidant: A substance that protects the body's cells from damage by free radicals.
  • gateball: A Japanese team game played with mallets and balls, similar to croquet. Popular with older people.
  • radio taiso: Japanese morning exercises set to music, broadcast by the public broadcaster NHK. Japan has done them since 1928, with a break after the war.
  • yoga: An Indian system of exercise that brings together body postures, breathing and focus.
  • takumi: The Japanese word for a master craftsman who spends many years perfecting a single craft.
  • Ghibli: A Japanese animation studio founded in 1985. Known for the hand-drawn films of Hayao Miyazaki.
  • Morita: Shoma Morita (1874–1938), a Japanese psychiatrist. He created a method that teaches you to accept your feelings and act without waiting for them to change.
  • Naikan: A Japanese practice of self-reflection: thinking about someone close to you through three questions, about what you have received, what you have given and what trouble you have caused.
  • negative visualization: A Stoic technique: from time to time, imagine losing what you have, so you value it more and fear less.
  • wabi-sabi: A Japanese idea of beauty: the beauty of what is imperfect, fleeting and unfinished.

All terms

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