Everything about Ikigai

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: IkigaiA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: Can Ikigai Predict Anxiety, Depression, and Well-being?Influential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: IkigaiThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki StudyCited 169 times
5. Go sideways: Mieko KamiyaA closely related topic
6. Go sideways: Viktor FranklA closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study

  Toshimasa Sone, Naoki Nakaya, Kaori Ohmori · 2008 · Psychosomatic Medicine · 169 citations

• Associations of ikigai as a positive psychological factor with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged and elderly Japanese people: Findings from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study

  Kozo Tanno, Kiyomi Sakata, Masaki Ohsawa · 2009 · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · 107 citations

• On the Concept of Well-Being in Japan: Feeling Shiawase as Hedonic Well-Being and Feeling Ikigai as Eudaimonic Well-Being

  Michiko Kumano · 2017 · Applied Research in Quality of Life · 67 citations

• Ikigai and subsequent health and wellbeing among Japanese older adults: Longitudinal outcome-wide analysis

  Sakurako S. Okuzono, Koichiro Shiba, Eric S. Kim · 2022 · The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific · 61 citations

• 'Ikigai' in older Japanese people

  N Nakanishi · 1999 · Age and Ageing · 55 citations

• The Stuff of Dreams, Fading: Ikigai and “the Japanese Self”

  GORDON MATHEWS · 1996 · Ethos · 54 citations

• Pursuit of Psychological Well-Being (Ikigai) and the Evolution of Self-Understanding in the Context of Caregiving in Japan

  Noriko Yamamoto-Mitani, Margaret I. Wallhagen · 2002 · Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry · 52 citations

• English Translation and Validation of the Ikigai-9 in a UK Sample

  Dean Fido, Yasuhiro Kotera, Kenichi Asano · 2019 · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · 51 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• Can Ikigai Predict Anxiety, Depression, and Well-being?

  Juliet Wilkes, Gulcan Garip, Yasuhiro Kotera · 2022 · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · 31 citations

• Finding ikigai: How robots can support meaning in later life

  Natasha Randall, Swapna Joshi, Waki Kamino · 2022 · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · 28 citations

• Understanding the Connection Among Ikigai, Well-Being, and Home Robot Acceptance in Japanese Older Adults: Mixed Methods Study

  Natasha Randall, Waki Kamino, Swapna Joshi · 2023 · JMIR Aging · 22 citations

• Making Meaning Together: Co-designing a Social Robot for Older Adults with Ikigai Experts

  Waki Kamino, Long-Jing Hsu, Swapna Joshi · 2023 · International Journal of Social Robotics · 21 citations

• Social Support and Participation as Factors Relating to Ikigai and Life Satisfaction in Lonely Older Japanese

  Ai Fukuzawa, Ikuko Sugawara · 2022 · Ageing International · 20 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• IkigaiHéctor García, Francesc Miralles · 2016
• Awakening Your IkigaiKen Mogi · 2017
• The Ikigai JourneyHéctor García, Francesc Miralles · 2020
• Finding Your IkigaiEiver Stevens · 2017
• 📕The "Ikigai of India" · 2024
• Ikigai Les secrets des japonais pour une vie longue et heureuseHéctor García, Francesc Miralles · 2018
• IKIGAI-KAN · 2022

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Mieko Kamiya Mieko Kamiya (神谷 美恵子, Kamiya Mieko; January 12, 1914 – October 22, 1979) was a Japanese psychiatrist who treated leprosy patients at Nagashima Aiseien…
• Viktor Frankl Viktor Emil Frankl (Austrian German: [ˈfraŋkl̩]; 26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust…
• Terror management theory Terror management theory (TMT) is a theory in social and evolutionary psychology which proposes a basic psychological conflict stemming from two competing…
• Meaning (existential) Meaning in existentialism concerns how people make sense of and give meaning to their existence. Existentialists conceive of the self not as a substance…
• Okinawa Centenarian Study The Okinawa Centenarian Study is a study of the elderly people of Okinawa, Japan. The study, funded by Japan's ministry of health, is the largest of its…
• Meaningful life In positive psychology, a meaningful life is a construct having to do with the purpose, significance, fulfillment, and satisfaction of life. While specific…
• Logotherapy Logotherapy is a form of existential therapy developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. It is founded on the premise that the primary motivational…
• Death anxiety Death anxiety is anxiety caused by thoughts of one's own death, and is also known as thanatophobia (fear of death). This anxiety can significantly impact…