ABSTRACT
Masculinity is not an easy subject to broach in Japan; if you ask Japanese men ‘what does it mean to be a man?’ you are liable to receive only embarrassed shrugs, or perhaps a joking comment about sex. But there are other, more indirect routes into the meanings of Japanese masculinity. One such route is through ikigai, a Japanese term meaning ‘that which most makes life worth living’ (see Mathews 1996). Ikigai may sound philosophical and abstract to Western readers, but it is an everyday term in Japan, a subject of occasional discussion and dispute in mass media and in daily life. ‘A real man lives for his work!’ some men told me during my research into ikigai. ‘A man should live for his family; that’s what’s most important!’ other men said. ‘A man should find ikigai in following his dream!’ still other men said. These different responses indicate, I argue, different ideas of masculinity in Japan today. In approaching Japanese masculinity through ikigai, I am approaching only one aspect of masculinity; areas such as sexuality are mostly neglected in this chapter. None the less, because so many men I interviewed brought up what it means to be a man during our discussions about ikigai, it seems clear that ikigai may serve as a window into Japanese senses of masculinity.
