What Makes Life Worth Living?: How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds

by Gordon Mathews

Here is an original and provocative anthropological approach to the fundamental philosophical question of what makes life worth living. Gordon Mathews considers this perennial issue by examining nine pairs of similarly situated individuals in the United States and Japan. In the course of exploring how people from these two cultures find meaning in their daily lives, he illuminates a vast and intriguing range of ideas about work and love, religion, creativity, and self-realization.

Mathews explores these topics by means of the Japanese term ikigai, "that which most makes one's life seem worth living." American English has no equivalent, but ikigai applies not only to Japanese lives but to American lives as well. Ikigai is what, day after day and year after year, each of us most essentially lives for.

Through the life stories of those he interviews, Mathews analyzes the ways Japanese and American lives have been affected by social roles and cultural vocabularies. As we approach the end of the century, the author's investigation into how the inhabitants of the world's two largest economic superpowers make sense of their lives brings a vital new understanding to our skeptical age.

Genres: Psychology, Japanese Literature, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Japan, Social Science

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 1996

Reviews

[Irma Valantinaite · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I liked about the book was the stories people told. Everything else was painful to read and I could not wait to finish the book... it is good research paper but I did not like it as a book itself.

[Sivananthi T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this simply because of quotes I had read on 'ikigai' - loosely translated to purpose in life, or what gives life meaning. I often meet many who are searching for meaning and rarely finding it, and of course there are different meanings we make in life, and out of life? Is there a real meaning opposed to 'not-so-real' meanings? The author talks to, recounts in full stories of men and women across two cultures on this. The stories themselves are a mine of information, sometimes even beyond what the author analyses them as.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm interested in how different people/cultures view topics such as the meaning of life, and this book tells the stories of several Americans and Japanese. In addition to some differences between the two cultures, but it's striking how people within the same culture have different ideas on the meaning of life.

[Amy Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reinforcing

This was an interesting book. It reinforced my own collection of observations, experiences, and beliefs regarding meaning in life and of life. I think it's important to have a solid belief system to maintain both stability and sanity. I hope that we are helping our children develop their own foundation of beliefs on which to build meaningful lives.

[Kini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read for my anthropolgy class. Interesting how Americans and Japanese, although very different in cultures and tradition, we are similar in what we believe is a reason for living. For some this may put certain things into perspective with regards to what your life is now and what it should be in the end.

[Georg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I am reading this for class, however it is a very interesting Japanese concept of ikaigi and it's interpretation in America.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhh, I had to for school.