# Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept, loosely translated as a sense of purpose or a reason for being. It covers everyday sources of meaning, like your relationships, your routines, and small pleasures, as described by Japanese scholars such as Mieko Kamiya. The popular four-circle Venn diagram (what you love / are good at / can be paid for / what the world needs) is not Japanese in origin. Blogger Marc Winn created it in 2014, by relabeling Andrés Zuzunaga's unrelated 2011 Spanish 'purpose' diagram. It has no documented connection to Okinawa. But the underlying idea of life purpose has been linked, in observational studies (like Sone et al. 2008, the Ohsaki Study), to lower cardiovascular death.

## Sources

- Sone T, Nakaya N, Ohmori K, Shimazu T, Higashiguchi M, Kakizaki M, Kikuchi N, Kuriyama S, Tsuji I. (2008). Sense of life worth living (Ikigai) and mortality in Japan: Ohsaki study. Psychosomatic Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31817e7e64

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_Canonical: https://longevity-austria.com/en/glossary/ikigai · Part of Longevity Cities · Updated 2026-06-22_