Happiness in Japanese Culture: Psychological and Social Requirements for Reconstruction in Japan

Abstract

The Happiness Index is now being utilized in Japan and other countries as a way to measure subjective well-being. Current nationwide research uses the index to understand how citizens experience happiness within a given social circumstance. This paper argues that cultural psychological research shows sizable cultural variations in quality of life as well as subjective well-being. In Japan, where interdependence and relationship-orientation is more dominant than independence or individualism, happiness tends to be defined by interpersonal connectedness or balance between self and others, even though Japanese people experience the shift to individualism as a result of globalization. In addition, a longitudinal survey conducted before and after the Great East Japan earthquake suggested that about half of the Japanese youth changed their life values after the earthquake, especially in terms of valuing social connectedness and ordinary life. People who were thinking about the earthquake when they completed the second survey became happier after the earthquake, showing that reflection on the earthquake prompted them to reevaluate their definition of global happiness. In the face of such immense disaster, social bonds and networks have helped those throughout Japanese society to rediscover their resilience.