Life's value

Hasegawa points out that in English, the word life means both lifetime and everyday life. So, ikigai translated as life's purpose sounds very grand. "But in Japan we have jinsei, which means lifetime and seikatsu, which means everyday life," he says. The concept of ikigai aligns more to seikatsu and, through his research, Hasegawa discovered that Japanese people believe that the sum of small joys in everyday life results in more fulfilling life as a whole.

"Older people are celebrated, they feel obligated to pass on their wisdom to younger generations," he says. This gives them a purpose in life outside of themselves, in service to their communities.

According to Buettner, the concept of ikigai is not exclusive to Okinawans: "there might not...