Unveiling Japan’s Pessimism: The Hidden Forces Shaping A Nation

I see what you’re asking.

You want to know why the Japanese are more pessimistic about their lives in comparison to other first-world nations.

I think you will be intrigued today, and for the sake of time, let’s get right into it.

Right then, let’s start with some DATA.

What does the Data show?

The 2024 World Happiness Ranking reported Finland as the “happiest” country in the world. In turn, Japan was ranked 51st — far worse than any of the other G7 countries. I know you aren’t surprised by this since you asked the question. The graphs below we provided by the World Happiness Organization [1].

But take a look at Figure 35 and you will find something unexpected. South Korea and China, both of which are located in the Northeast Asia region near Japan, are similar in ranking. South Korea and China are ranked 52Nd and 60Th respectively.

On the flip-side, the Nordic countries rank way high up there. Finland (1st), Denmark (2Nd), Sweden (4Th) and Norway (7Th).

And for context, the Nordic countries have almost perfectly retained their ranking for years. Finland for 7 years has retained the title “World’s Happiest Country”. A pretty big title if you ask me.

So why does this happen?

How you look at these statistics can really depend on your perspective. Some will say the low-ranking comes from Japan’s weak social-security system. They argue that the Nordic’s general social security is what leads to their happiness. Thus they promote the argument that to achieve greater happiness, requires Japan to change the social-system. In a way they are able to cherry-pick data to achieve their goals.

But, honestly, I don’t believe that Social-Security is the factor that dictates the large-gap in happiness.

To say the truth, I think the rankings are more affected by mentality rather than Social-Security. The deep-rooted mindsets that are ingrained in the people is what dictates decisions and thus happiness.

There is a difference in mentality between the Nordics and North-East-Asian countries that I plan to share with you now.
Hopefully it makes sense.

The North-East Asian countries differ from the Nordics in a few factors:

In North-East Asia, Rice is considered the staple food.
North-East-Asia has been deeply influenced by Chinese Culture and Confucianism.

Moving to the 1st point: Rice being the staple food.

One of the biggest merits of rice, is the large harvesting potential. Even with small pieces of land, we can expect great returns. It sounds so miraculous, but alas, like every good thing in the world, there is a downside. Managing the water-height for the rice-fields throughout the year takes tremendous amounts of work. To the point you question whether it’s worth it or not.

Of course, the large workload couldn’t be handled alone. You need to divide your responsibilities and work in a group to get it done. Thus was born the idea of group collaboration. It’s really interesting. Who would expect rice-cultivation to influence the foundation for the mentality we have today?. And adding on to this, this doesn’t just hold true for Japan, but also for other North-East Asian countries.

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Okay, although it sounds positive to say “I collaborate in a group”, there are some clear negatives. The first of which being an individual being pressured to “have to” work as a group. Even if an individual is capable, they feel pressured to work as a group. And it’s contradictory, since it can even limit performance. If one individual can do better then when compared to working as a group, we should let the individual be.

But unfortunately, this is not how our culture has been created. Our culture emphasizes “working as a group”, giving us the “ick” every time. Why? because we feel forced, and are incapable of sharing our own desires. It’s the same as studying. Studying is easy when you want to, but hard when the teacher tells you to study for a test. The pressure magnifies the dissatisfaction when you feel forced.

Onto the 2nd point: influenced by Confucianism

One of the main ideas of Confucianism [2] is “Moderation”. It’s this concept that has had the greatest impact on North-East-Asia today.

In short, “moderation” means the avoidance of extremes in all areas of life. It includes all categories from lifestyle, attitude and all the way to diet. From work-life-balance, to being respectful at work, these are all factors that have been influenced by “Moderation”.

But why?. Well I believe it’s due to Confucianism providing a framework of rules to deal with public dissatisfaction. It helped the emperors, kings, samurais of the time to make the inequality gap smaller. And in turn, made it easier for them to control the public. And as generations went by, “moderation” became deeply rooted in the minds of society.

So if the majority of the population considers “moderation” important, what would the happiness report say?. Yes exactly as shown, they would rank relatively low. Why? Because even if they are happy, they would rank themselves as “OKAY” as it is their tendency.

If happiness was scaled between 1(worst) and 5(best), these North-East Asia countries would choose 3. Perfectly in the middle. Perfectly modest.

But even between these 3 countries, Japan seems to differ. It feels as if Japan has magnified the situation…
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The analysis?

And here is my explanation. Japan over generations has joined together both “moderation” and “group collaboration”. This hybrid that Japan has created has led to some… let’s say interesting results. If you have ever visited or lived in Japan, I hope this hits home.

You look around and see as people become decreasingly less individualistic and more a group. Train stations as quiet as the library, rows of people structured in lines and so much more. Although inconvenient, these are deeply rooted cultural-norms in Japanese society. It has created a situation where the benefit of the “group” is valued more highly than the individual.

So to wrap things up, Japanese people aren’t entirely pessimistic. It’s the integrated cultural norms that creates the perception of “pessimism”. When they are constantly forced to be “moderate” and collaborate as a group, this perception is born.

As a last little point, it would be interesting to see happiness ranked by geological locations. Only then, do I believe that organizations can take actions to hopefully increase peoples happiness.

I hope this made sense to you. Until next time.

[1] : World Happiness Organization is an organization partnered with (SDSN), Oxford center of Well-being Research and Gallup to produce happiness data. They use 6 different categories (factors) to help identify the difference in happiness levels between varying number of countries.
[2] : A system of social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion itself. Created by Confucius, a philosopher that is believed to have lived during (551 ~ 479 BCE). This period is otherwise known as the “Spring and Autumn period”.