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Theorizing the Temporal Aspect of Ikigai or Life Worth Living among Japanese University Students: a Mixed-Methods Approach

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Abstract

Although cross-cultural and non-Western studies have advanced our knowledge on well-being, many studies have adopted English words including ‘happiness’ as their guiding concepts, which may have limited and biased their insight. The current study is part of a larger mixed-methods project that theorizes how Japanese university students pursue ikigai or a life worth living. The first qualitative study, based on 27 photo-elicitation interviews, generated a grounded theory of houkousei, or life directionality. Our qualitative findings suggested that when students formed explicit associations among the past, present, and future, they gained strong ikigai feelings. These associations were developed either cognitively by mentally associating existing present experiences with the past or future, or behaviourally by strategically choosing current experiences more pertinent to the past or future than alternatives. These actions resulted in two subjective states: life legacy and life momentum. Life legacy was the perception that one’s past had meaningfully contributed to his or her present experiences, life, and self. Life momentum meant the belief that one’s present experiences were helping him or her achieve the desired future. Lastly, having defining past experiences and setting clear goals both facilitated the associative actions. To further validate this theory, we collected online survey data from a national sample of 672 Japanese students. Our quantitative results, based on partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), largely supported our theoretical model. Our findings are discussed in light of the ikigai and eudaimonic well-being literatures.

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Notes

  1. We thank one of the reviewers for suggesting this.

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Funding

This study was partially supported by a Sasakawa Sports Research Grant (160A3–011) from the Sasakawa Sports Foundation (Japan).

This manuscript is part of the first author’s dissertation written at the University of Alberta. This manuscript is based on the same dataset from which another paper with a different focus (Kono & Walker, in press; Kono, Walker, Ito, & Hagi, 2019) was published. We would like to thank Drs. Yumiko Hagi and Eiji Ito, who helped with data collection.

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  1. Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, University Hall, Van Vliet Complex, 8840 – 114 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H9, Canada

    Shintaro Kono & Gordon J. Walker

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  1. Shintaro Kono
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  2. Gordon J. Walker
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Correspondence to Shintaro Kono.

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Kono, S., Walker, G.J. Theorizing the Temporal Aspect of Ikigai or Life Worth Living among Japanese University Students: a Mixed-Methods Approach. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 845–873 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09792-3

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