ABSTRACT
The study of happiness as a scientific field first emerged in the most highly developed countries of the Western world which share many cultural traditions and closely related languages. Comparing attitudes, sensations and feelings across cultures is always empirically messy, the greater the distance between cultures, the messier. Japan is a highly developed country characterized, however, by markedly different cultural traditions and a language that is unrelated to the Indo-European languages dominant in the West. Japan is, therefore, of particular interest with regard to questions of comparability and universality of happiness. This essay retraces the advent of happiness studies in Japan, shows where it converges with Western models and points out some features that set it apart. By looking at some specific cases, such as Arakawa Ward in Tokyo which has established an office of the ward administration dedicated to the investigation of citizens’ happiness, it contributes to a better understanding of the interaction of culture and capitalism.
