A review by isabelle_laing
The Little Book of Ikigai: The secret Japanese way to live a happy and long life by Ken Mogi

informative reflective fast-paced

2.0

I could really get into it if I wanted to but long story short: as a self-help book it doesn’t try to educate you on how to EMPLOY its advice. It comes across more as an informative introspective into Japanese culture, however it skips over anything that wouldn’t support his arguments. The author does not account at all for younger generations and he has the audacity to use the resilience of the Japanese people following the Kanto earthquake in 1923 without even bringing up the governments ethnic cleansing that followed suite? A poor fetishisation of a culture with too many generalisations using an ideal world to make you think your unhappiness is your own fault despite basing happiness on a nonexistent people.