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Running head: Ikigai, well-being, depression, anxiety, and stress
English translation and validation of the Ikigai-9 in a UK Sample: A brief report
Dean Fido1*, Yasuhiro Kotera1, & Kenichi Asano2
1 University of Derby Online Learning, University of Derby (UK)
2 Department of Psychological Counseling, Faculty of Human Sciences, Mejiro University,
Tokyo (Japan)
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Dean Fido, University of
Derby Online Learning, University of Derby, Enterprise Centre, Bridge Street, Derby, DE1
3LD, UK.
Tel.: +44 (1332) 597861. Email: deanfido.psych@gmail.com
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Abstract
In Japanese culture, the psychological construct of ‘ikigai’ reflects the sense of having a
‘reason for living’ and has been associated with positive health-related outcomes such as
increased mortality. This study presents an English translation of the Ikigai-9, and for the first
time, empirically explores the manifestation of ikigai in a Western population as well as its
associations with facets of well-being. Three hundred and forty-nine participants from the
United Kingdom self-reported levels of ikigai as well as state measures of mental well-being,
depression, anxiety, and stress. Confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original
three-factor model, favouring instead a single-factor solution. Results indicated that when
controlling for effects of sex and age, ikigai predicted greater scores of mental well-being and
lower scores of depression, but not anxiety or stress. The Ikigai-9 has high internal reliability
and presents a logistically-convenient measure of ikigai for English-speaking populations.
However, further validation (e.g., test-retest reliability) as well as a better understanding of
the potential protective role of ikigai in mental health is required. Data, transparency files,
and supplementary materials are available here: [shorturl.at/kIP27], and a pre-print is
available here: [to be inserted].
Key words: ikigai; scale development; well-being; depression; anxiety, stress
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English translation and validation of the Ikigai-9 in a UK Sample: A brief report
1. Introduction
In Japanese culture, the term ‘ikigai’ refers to having ‘purpose in life’ or a ‘reason for living’
(Mathews, 1996; Mori et al., 2017; Park, 2015). Although other translations exist, such as
those pertaining to the processes of ‘realising’ or ‘gaining joy from’ such purpose (Toshirō,
Skrzypczak, & Snowden, 2003), scholars maintain that ikigai should be considered a
composite construct; encompassing meaning, motivations, and values in life (Kumano, 2012;
Weiss, Bass, Heimovitz, & Oka, 2005).
Recently, there has been a significant increase in the exploration of ikigai across areas of
positive-psychology and preventative-medicine (Buettner, 2017; García & Miralles, 2017),
with ikigai being considered a key predictor of physical and psychological well-being (Mori
et al., 2017; Weiss et al., 2005). At a cross-sectional level, having ikigai has been positively
associated with self-reported physical health in the elderly (Murata, Kondo, Tamakoshi,
Yatsuya, & Toyoshima, 2006) and negatively associated with psychological burden in their
carers (Okamoto & Harasawa, 2009). Moreover, the presence of ikigai has been consistently
shown to benefit facets of well-being and mortality across multiple, large-scale longitudinal
studies. Specifically, the presence of ikigai has been significantly associated with reduced
incidence of cardiovascular disease and stroke (Koizumi, Ito, Kaneko, & Motohashi, 2008
[13.3-year follow-up]; Tanno et al., 2009 [5-year follow-up]; Sone et al., 2008 [7-year follow-
up]), functional disability after controlling for symptoms of depression (Mori et al., 2017 [12-
year follow-up]), and other causes of mortality such as injury, lesions, and suicide (Tanno et
al., 2009). Regarding mortality as a consequence of cancer, converging evidence suggests an
absence of any association with ikigai after long-term follow-up (Sone et al., 2008; Tanno et
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al., 2009), however one study did identify an inverse relationship between ikigai and breast
cancer, more specifically, elsewhere (Wakai et al., 2007). Importantly, the precise mechanism
underpinning the benefit of ikigai on well-being remains unknown.
One key limitation of this literature, however, is the categorical nature by which ikigai is
measured (Okamoto & Harasawa, 2009; Murata et al., 2006; Sone et al., 2008; Tanno et al.,
2009). If we are to believe the complex and multifaceted conceptualisation of ikigai
(Mathews, 1996), then simply confirming or rejecting a static state of ikigai neither seems
appropriate nor useful in terms of exploring ikigai as a psychological construct. The Ikigai-9
(Imai, Osada, & Nishi, 2012) is a psychometric tool published and validated only in Japanese,
that has been proposed as a means of measuring ikigai across the dimensions of [1] optimistic
and positive emotions toward life, [2] active and positive attitudes towards one's future, and
[3] acknowledgment of the meaning of one's existence. Although other measures of ikigai
exist, these are either limited in terms of their narrow response options, leading to reduced
variance in data (Kondo & Kamada, 2003), or are heavily orientated towards the enjoyment
of leisure pursuits and free time, and so not fully encapsulating the most common definitions
of the experience of ikigai (Kono, Walker, Ito, & Hagi, 2019).
Although the potential importance of ikigai appears to be pervasive across core health and
well-being outcomes, current empirical literature is restricted to middle-aged or elderly
Japanese samples, with no indication as to the manifestations or correlates of ikigai in
Western populations. Commentaries of the potential importance of ikigai have begun to reach
the United Kingdom (UK) through conceptual books (García, Miralles, & Cleary, 2017;
Matthews, 1996) and written media (Barr, 2018; Ough, 2017), however there currently exists
no published empirical research exploring the presence of ikigai in Western populations. In
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part, this is likely a result of the absence of an English-language tool enabling such research.
As such, the aim of this study was to translate the Ikigai-9 into English and subsequently
validate it within a population derived from the UK. Further, we sought to delineate baseline
associations between ikigai and aspects of mental health; hypothesising a positive association
with well-being, and negative associations with measures of depression, anxiety, and stress.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants and procedure
In line with guidelines for individual differences researchers (Gignac, & Szodoraim
2016), an a priori power analysis (f2 = .03, α = .05) determined around 368 participants were
required to have 80% power in the planned analyses (G*Power, v3.1). Three hundred and
forty-nine participants (Mage = 34.68 years, SD = 12.01 years; RNGage = 18-72 years; 50.7%
female), all originating from the UK, completed an online questionnaire advertised through
Prolific; a crowdsourcing website whose data quality is considered comparable to that
obtained via face-to-face means (Peer, Brandimarte, Samat, & Acquisti, 2017). On average,
the study took around 10 minutes to complete, and participants provided written informed
consent in accordance with approved central university research protocols by ticking a box on
both the first and last pages of the survey. All completers were reimbursed with £0.85 for
their participation.
2.2. Materials
The Ikigai-9 (Imai et al., 2012) consists of nine items measuring one’s reason for
being through dimensions of emotions towards one’s life, attitudes towards one’s future, and
the acknowledgement of one’s existence. The Ikigai-9 was translated from Japanese into
English by KA, before being back-translated by YK. Both KA and YK are bilingual, and any
discrepancies in translation were resolved through discussion. Participants are asked to rate
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whether each statement applies to them on a five-point scale (1 = Does not apply to me, 5 =
Applies to me a lot).
The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS; Stewart-
Brown et al., 2009) consists of seven items measuring recent (i.e., past two weeks)
psychological functioning and emotional and mental wellbeing. Participants are asked to rate
their experience of each statement on a five-point scale (1 = None of the time, 5 = All of the
time).
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995)
consists of 21 items reflecting recent (i.e., past week) tendency to feel depression, anxiety,
and stress. Participants are asked to rate their experience of each statement on a four-point
scale (0 = Never, 3 = Almost Always).
3. Results
3.1. Construct validity of the Ikigai-9
A confirmatory factor analysis of the three-factor solution of the Ikigai-9 showed that
the data did not fit the model outlined in Imai et al. (2012): χ²(24) = 186.73, p < .001,
RMSEA = .14, CFI = .91, TLI = .87 (cut off values provided by Hu & Bentler, 1999; see
Supplementary Data). As such, we computed a principal axis factor analysis with varimax
rotation on all nine items. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant, p < .001, and the
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure verified the sampling adequacy for the analysis, KMO = .88,
with all KMO values for individual items greater than .80; well above the acceptable limit of .
50. Convergence of the scree plot and eigenvalues over Kaiser’s criterion of 1, suggested a
single factor structure explaining 56.10% of the variance. This single factor model was used
for subsequent analyses. Table 1 shows the factor loadings after rotation.
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3.2. Sex differences in questionnaire measures
Independent t-tests were used to delineate sex differences within our sample; means
and standard deviations for questionnaire data are reported in Table 2. On average, males
were older, t(347) = 2.83, p = .01, d = .30, and reported greater levels of depression t(347) =
4.66, p < .001, d = .50, than female participants. There were no significant differences in
scores on measures of ikigai, well-being, anxiety, or stress.
Table 2. Descriptive statistics for questionnaire scores with between sex comparisons.
α Total
M (SD)
Males (n = 172)
M (SD)
Females (n = 177)
M (SD)
p
Age - 34.68 (12.01) 36.51 (12.01) 32.90 (11.70) .01
Ikigai .90 32.87 (7.91) 32.38 (7.40) 33.33 (8.37) .26
Well-being .88 22.79 (5.12) 22.24 (5.45) 23.32 (4.73) .05
Depression .93 25.72 (11.19) 28.02 (11.51) 22.60 (10.21) < .001
Anxiety .86 22.10 (9.11) 23.07 (8.59) 21.16 (9.51) .05
Stress .88 27.49 (9.67) 27.65 (9.39) 27.33 (10.00) .76
Note. Significant differences highlighted in bold.
3.3. Concurrent validity: prediction of well-being, depression, anxiety, and stress
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Table 1. Exploratory factor analysis of the Ikigai-9 (n = 349)
Factor 1
9. I believe that I have some impact on someone. .84
7. My life is mentally rich and fulfilled. .78
5. I am interested in many things. .76
3. I feel that I am contributing to someone or the society. .75
8. I would like to develop myself. .73
1. I often feel that I am happy. .73
6. I think that my existence is needed by something or someone. .71
2. I would like to learn something new or start something. .69
4. I have room in my mind. .46
Eigenvalues 5.05
% of variance 56.10
α .90
Although not correlated with measures of anxiety or stress, scores on ikigai correlated
positively with well-being and negatively with depression. Scores on depression, anxiety, and
stress were all positively correlated with one another and negatively correlated with well-
being (see Table 3). Next, we conducted four hierarchical multiple regression analyses. In
each analysis, age and sex (0 = male, 1 = female) were entered at step one, and ikigai was
entered at step two. The dependant variables were scores on well-being, depression, anxiety,
and stress. All models met the assumptions required for hierarchical multiple regression
analysis.
In step 1, sex and age positively contributed to the prediction of well-being, and
negatively contributed to the prediction of depression and anxiety. Only age significantly
(negatively) contributed to the prediction of stress. In addition to these findings holding at
step 2, introducing scores on ikigai explained an additional 15% of variation in well-being
(positive association) and 2% of variation in depression (negative association). There were no
significant increases in the explained variances of anxiety or stress (see Table 3).
[Table 3 around here – currently at the end of document]
4. Discussion
The notion of having ikigai – a “reason for living” (Mathews, 1996) – has been associated
with a series of health-related outcomes including the absence of psychological burden and
decreased mortality rates. Findings are consistent and often derived from large-scale
longitudinal research; however, current literature is restricted to Japanese samples with no
psychometric tools available to empirically test or understand ikigai in English-speaking
cohorts. For that reason, this study aimed to translate, and subsequently validate, the Ikigai-9
in an English-speaking sample derived from the UK.
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Confirmatory factor analysis of the English version of the Ikigai-9 did not support the three-
dimensional structure originally proposed in Imai et al. (2012). Instead of comprising the
facets of optimistic and positive emotions toward life, positive attitudes towards one's future,
and acknowledgment of the meaning of one's existence, data reported in this study favoured a
single factor solution of ikigai, which explained 56.10% of the variance with high internal
consistency (α = .90). As such, it appears that although ikigai might be described through
overlapping notions of motivations and values pertaining to life (Kumano, 2012; Weiss, Bass,
Heimovitz, & Oka, 2005), such facets cannot be teased apart in a meaningful way, at least in
this first cohort to complete the English version of the Ikigai-9.
Analyses of concurrent validity in this study outlined associations between self-reported
ikigai and indices of psychological health including greater mental well-being and lower state
depression. Such findings, in addition to the strong psychometric properties of the English
version of the Ikigai-9, lend support for the usefulness of this measure in subsequent
exploration of the potential protective benefits of ikigai; unrestricted to the Japanese
population. This is important due to the global prevalence of depression thought to impact the
lives of more than 300 million people worldwide; contributing to higher incidence of suicide
as well as wider financial and resource implications for health care professionals (World
Health Organization, 2018). Japanese suicide prevention policies aim to enhance ikigai in
people to reduce the number of suicides (Ministry of Health and Labour Welfare, 2017).
Suicide has previously been negatively associated with the presence of ikigai (Tanno et al.,
2009), however it remains unknown whether this association might be mediated in part
through depression. Important to note, is the admittedly small but significant effect size of the
contribution of ikigai to the depression model. Moreover, although not explicitly explored
here, ikigai is consistently associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in Japanese
samples (Koizumi et al., 2008; Tanno et al., 2009; Sone et al., 2008). Owing to the UK’s
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National Health Service (2019) identifying cardiovascular disease as a clinical priority over
the next 10 years of health care provisions – with the aim of preventing 150,000 heart attacks
- the ability to test the prospective protective effect of ikigai in the UK is a timely resource.
Interestingly, what were not identified were any associations between ikigai and self-report
measures of anxiety or stress. Such associations have not previously been explored (or at
least, published) in Japanese cohorts, which might indicate that ikigai plays little-to-no roll in
anxiety or stress. However, as psychometric measures reported in this investigation were state
measures, it is possible that ikigai might play a protective role whereby feelings of anxiety,
stress, and indeed depression are attenuated when individuals are faced with situations that
would normally evoke such states. In addition to experimental research being required to test
these hypotheses, understanding is needed as to the mechanism by which ikigai might
underpin health-related benefits. For example, Tanno et al. (2009) hypothesised that ikigai
may be associated with positive health-related behaviours (e.g., reduced smoking and
drinking) and psychosocial factors (e.g., living with a spouse and having a fulfilling job).
Results are discussed in light of some limitations. First, this is a cross-sectional study of a UK
general population and so we can neither make any direct comparisons between the
experience of ikigai in Eastern or Western civilisations, nor infer causation from the
correlations presented, while noting that our scores were similar to 428 Japanese people
(33.1±5.4 years for 128 males, 33.4±5.4 years for 300 females, and 33.3±5.3 years in total;
Imai et al., 2012). Second, this is the first time the English version of the Ikigai-9 has been
tested, and so to compound and further validate our understanding of associations outlined
above, further pre-registered replications are essential. Third, the ikigai measure was only
administered at a single time-point, and so we are not able to state that this measure is stable
across time.
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In conclusion, the translation and validation of the Ikigai-9 reported here provides an initial
step in aiding our understanding of the manifestation and associated mental health-related
correlates throughout the West. Importantly, future research should seek to replicate this data
inside and outside of the UK, as well as establish both the mechanisms by which ikigai might
bring about – or protect – mental and physical well-being, and also whether ikigai is
malleable to change. If one can obtain or develop ikigai, then it would be possible to develop
interventions aimed at increasing ikigai as a means of supporting established health-care
measures.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by departmental funding awarded to DF and YK by the University of
Derby.
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Table 3. Correlations and standardized regression coefficients between ikigai, well-being, depression, anxiety, and stress.
Well-being Depression Anxiety Stress
Correlations
Ikigai
Well-being
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
.40***
-
-.14**
-.59***
-
.04
-.35***
.68***
-
.04
-.43***
.71***
.77***
-
Standardized regression coefficients
Step 1 Sex .14** [.33, 2.46] -.26*** [-8.14, -3.54] -.14** [-4.41, -.63] -.04 [-2.76, 1.34]
Age .21*** [.04, .13] -.12* [-.21, -.02] -.22*** [-.25, -.09] -.14* [-.20, -.02]
Model F(2,346) = 9.64, p < .001 F(2,346) = 13.81, p < .001 F(2,346) = 11.09, p < .001 F(2,346) = 3.22, p = .04
R2.05 .07 .06 .02
Step 2 Sex .11* [.16, 2.12] -.25*** [-7.95, -3.31] -.14** [-4.47, -.70] -.04 [-2.82, 1.29]
Age .20*** [.04, .12] -.12* [-.21, -.02] -.23*** [-.25, -.09] -.14* [-.20, -03]
Ikigai .39*** [.19, .31] -.13* [-.32, -.03] .06 [-.06, .18] .04 [-.08, .18]
Model F(1,345) = 64.53, p < .001 F(1,345) = 5.95, p = .02 F(1,345) = 1.12, p = .29 F(1,345) = .65, p = .42
R2.20 .09 .06 .02