Health Benefits of Ikigai: A Review of Literature

Recently, the concept of ikigai has attracted international scholarly attention. Originally, researchers have focused on its impact on longevity; however, contemporary approaches to ikigai include career guidance, wellbeing training and clinical practice. That said, much of the existing literature on ikigai has relied on anecdotal episodes, without a clear focus on scientific or clinical literature. In this chapter, we (a) define ikigai, (b) explore the health benefits of ikigai regarding its impact on both physical health and mental health, and (c) discuss how to enhance ikigai and future research, based on scientific findings. Ikigai— originally identified in difficult life experiences among leprosy patients—is defined as an experiential, everyday life phenomena that relates to a reason for your being. Based on a number of meta-analyses and longitudinal studies, evidence suggests a protective benefit and positive correlation between ikigai and better physical health, and an inverse relationship with all-cause mortality. Psychologically, ikigai may be important in developing one's sense of self-understanding, goal attainability, and problem-solving skills. Interventions such as life crafting are deemed helpful to enhance ikigai, although further research (e.g., cross-culture, longitudinal) needs to be conducted to further support the utility of this construct. Our findings can help healthcare workers and researchers to further advance the science of this experiential wellbeing construct.