ABSTRACT
This chapter provides glimpses of Japanese happiness and its lack in an era in which Japanese structural differences from many Western societies are diminishing due to the global wave of neoliberalism. It discusses how Japanese society is less happy in statistical measurements than it should be, given Japan's comparatively high level of global well-being in terms of objective indicators such as education levels and life expectancy. In Japan in the 2010s, social and institutional strictures on individuals are lessening, and Japan is beginning to accept a broader range of life choices than was the case in the last four decades of the 20th century, when the middle-class corporate employee husband/full-time housewife model was the societal ideal if not the reality. Japan seems to be following the neoliberal wave sweeping the globe, rendering well-being and happiness not a societal but rather an individual responsibility.
