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Theorizing Leisure's Roles in the Pursuit of Ikigai (Life

Worthiness): A Mixed-Methods Approach

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Theorizing Leisure’s Roles in the Pursuit of Ikigai (Life

Worthiness): A Mixed-Methods Approach

Shintaro Kono, Gordon J. Walker, Eiji Ito, and Yumiko Hagi

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Theorizing Leisure’s Roles in the Pursuit of Ikigai (Life Worthiness): A Mixed-Methods

Approach
Shintaro Kono, Gordon J. Walker, Eiji Ito, and Yumiko Hagi
 LEISURE SCIENCES
, VOL. , NO. , –
https://doi.org/./..

Theorizing Leisure’s Roles in the Pursuit of Ikigai (Life

Worthiness): A Mixed-Methods Approach
Shintaro Konoa , Gordon J. Walkera , Eiji Itob , and Yumiko Hagic
a
Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, Canada; b Faculty of Tourism, Wakayama
Q1 University, Japan; c Department of Sport & Leisure Management, Tokai University, Japan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The purpose of this mixed-methods research project is to theorize the Received  December 
linkage between leisure experience and life worthiness, or what the Accepted  June 
Japanese call ikigai. A grounded theory analysis of photo-elicitation
KEYWORDS
interview data from 27 Japanese university students led to the inductive Leisure; eudaimonic
development of a substantive theory. This theory was then tested based well-being; ikigai; life
on online survey data collected from 669 Japanese students using struc- worthiness; mixed methods
tural equation modeling. Results indicate that leisure pursuits enhance
students’ perception of ikigai when they are valued as enjoyable and/or
effortful. Moreover, the balance between overall enjoyment and effort
is found as a key mediator in the relationship between valuable leisure
experience and life worthiness. Ikigaicomprises the subjective percep-
tions that one’s daily life is worth living and that it is full of energy and
motivation. Our findings are discussed in light of relevant leisure and
well-being theories as well as their implications for practice.

Interactions between leisure studies and subjective well-being (SWB) research, or positive
psychology more broadly, are becoming more common(e.g., Mock, Mannell, & Guttentag,
2016; Newman, Tay, & Diener, 2014). SWB has been conceptualized as cognitive evaluation of
one’s life (e.g., life satisfaction) and affective balance (e.g., predominance of positive emotions
5 over negative feelings). For example, Kuykendall, Tay, and Ng’s (2015) meta-analysis found
that leisure affects SWB as strongly as, if not more strongly than, occupational status, income
level, and family relations.
Nevertheless, limitations in this body of knowledge still exist. First, as Iwasaki (2007) cri-
tiqued, the literature remains immature in terms of explaining “how” leisure positively affects
10 SWB. This gap has led to recent attempts to develop more elaborate theories based on the
extant literature (e.g., Newman et al., 2014; Stebbins, 2015). However, these projects have not
“borrowed” nonleisure theories (e.g., self-determination theory; Newman et al., 2014) or the-
ories regarding a specific aspect of leisure experience (e.g., serious leisure; Stebbins, 2015).
Thus, there appears to be a need for inductive theorization so we can fully explore leisure’s
15 potential to impact well-being.

CONTACT Shintaro Kono skono@ualberta.ca - University Hall, Van Vliet Complex, University of Alberta, Edmonton,
AB TG H, Canada.
This paper is based in part on the first author’s doctoral dissertation written at the University of Alberta, Canada. This manuscript
is based on papers presented at the  National Recreation and Park Association Research Sessions and the th Canadian
Congress on Leisure Research.
©  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 2 S. KONO ET AL.

A second limitation resides in the conceptualization of well-being itself. By adopting the

SWB paradigm, the extant literature has focused on a rather limited number of well-being
constructs, such as life satisfaction and positive affect (e.g., Kuykendall et al., 2015). In the
Western literature, so-called eudaimonic research has begun exploring other well-being con-
structs, including meaning in life (MIL; Martela & Steger, 2016) and subjective vitality (Huta 20
& Ryan, 2010). A few studies have suggested that leisure is a life domain where people can
pursue MIL (e.g., Choi, Catapano, & Choi, in press). Another effort to diversify the meaning
of well-being has been seen in cross-cultural and non-Western research. For example,Spiers
and Walker (2009) explored the relationship between leisure satisfaction and peacefulness, a
well-being facet highly valued in East Asia. Yet it remains largely unknown how leisure relates 25
toeudaimonic and non-Western aspects of well-being—or the combination thereof.
One non-Western eudaimonic aspect of well-being is the Japanese concept of ikigai
Q2 (Kamiya, 1964) , or a life worth living. Kumano (2012) held that ikigai is a multifaceted
construct that encompasses life affirmation, existential value, and MIL. In the West, Martela
and Steger (2016) maintained that ikigai pertains to one of the three MIL subdimensions, 30
significance. Moreover, numerous surveys have documented a relationship between ikigai
and leisure (e.g., Cabinet Office, Government of Japan [COGJ], 1994; Central Research Ser-
vices [CRS], 2012). Nonetheless, there has not been a systematic attempt to theorize this
relationship.
The purpose of our study is to theorize the linkage between leisure and ikigai among 35
Japanese university students. Specifically, we ask: (a) what types of leisure experience per-
tain to specific aspects of ikigai, assuming ikigai is multifaced? and (b) how does leisure relate
to ikigai, or what variable mediates the relationship between leisure and ikigai? In so doing,
we also dare to ask: (c) what is leisure’s unique role in pursuing ikigai and why does leisure
matter in this process? 40
It should be noted that our focus on university students goes beyond sampling convenience
as the literature suggests that young adults tend to report a lower level of ikigai than their
middle-age counterparts (e.g., CRS, 2012). Thus, this population focus can lead to practical
implications for enhancing life worthiness among university students.

Literature review 45

Theories of leisure and well-being

One framework that explains leisure’s contributions to well-being is need-based theories
(Rodríguez, Látková, & Sun, 2008). This perspective assumes there are certaininnate human
needs, and satisfaction of these needs results in greater well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Some
theorists have argued some needs are better satisfied by leisure activities than by other pur- 50
suits (Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986). In the leisure literature, outcomes of leisure-based need satis-
faction have been studied as benefits (e.g., Tinsley & Eldredge, 1995). Empirically, Rodríguez
et al. (2008)found satisfaction of the needs for socializing, autonomy, family togetherness, and
physical fitness explained 27% of the variance in life satisfaction.
Stebbins (2015) developed the serious leisure perspective(SLP) to study different types of 55
leisure experience. Its focus is on serious leisure, that is, “the systematic pursuit of an amateur,
hobbyist, or volunteer activity sufficiently substantial, interesting, and fulfilling for the partici-
pant to find a [leisure] career there acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills,
knowledge, and experience” (Stebbins, 2015, p. 14). Casual leisure, in contrast, is defined as
“immediately intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasurable activity requiring little 60
 LEISURE SCIENCES 3

or no special training” (p. 28). Stebbins has recently applied the SLP to examine leisure’s effects
on well-being. His central premise isthat: (a) different types of leisure experiences have dis-
tinct rewards, such as self-actualization for serious leisure and rejuvenation for casual leisure,
and (b) pursuing the different leisure experiences and accompanying rewards leads to “an
65 optimal leisure lifestyle” (p. 32) wherein participants achieve a higher level of well-being. It
appears, however, that serious leisure plays a central role in the SLP. Preliminary empirical
evidence supports the positive effect of serious leisure on SWB (e.g., Liu & Yu, 2015).
Another theory of how leisure enhances well-being is Iwasaki and associates’ leisure
meaning-making (LMM) perspective. After reviewing the existing literature, Porter, Iwasaki,
70 and Shank (2010)conceptualized LMM as “a socially and contextually ground[ed] psycho-
logical/emotional experience that holds inner significance for an individual that evolves
from, or within, the context of leisure” (p. 172). They also identified many LMM themes,
including identity, creativity, connectedness, harmony/balance, stress-coping/healing,
growth/transformation, and experiential/existential state (Iwasaki, in press). Among people
75 with mental illness, LMM positively predicted leisure satisfaction and perceived active living
(Iwasaki, Coyle, Shank, Messina, & Porter, 2013). Based on qualitative data from the same
population, Iwasaki, Messina, Shank, and Coyle (2015) argued that LMM promoted joyful,
composed, connected, discovered, and hopeful/empowered lives.
Lastly, Newman et al. (2014), based on their review of the literature, identified five
80 mechanisms through which leisure engagement exerts positive effects on domain SWB: (a)
detachment-recovery from work, (b) autonomy (e.g., free choice and control), (c) mastery (e.g.,
conquest of challenge and skill development), (d) meaning (i.e., a sense of purpose and value),
and (e) affiliation (e.g., belonging to a group and meaningful relationships). Twilley (2017)
found empirical support for the DRAMMA model, except that (a) leisure-based detachment-
85 recovery did not significantly affect leisure satisfaction and (b) leisure-based autonomy neg-
atively impacted leisure satisfaction.

Ikigai: Theory, evidence, and its relationship to leisure

Kamiya (1966) was one of the earliest ikigai theorists. Her theory aligns with needs theories as
it hypothesizes that people perceive their lives to be worthy when they satisfy the psychological
90 needs for life satisfaction, change, bright future (miraisei), resonance (hankyou), freedom, self-
actualization, and meaning/value. In addition to these mechanisms, Kamiya also theorized
what characteristics make something a viable source of ikigai. Two characteristics relevant
to leisure are (a) possessing value beyond instrumentality (thus, intrinsically motivating) and
(b) self-determined, both of which are consistent with traditional conceptualizations of leisure
95 experience (e.g., Neulinger, 1986).
More recently, Kumano (2012) conducted a series of empirical studies on ikigai. She theo-
rized that people perceive life worthiness from their life events—both positive and negative—
through five cognitive, value-laden mechanisms: making sense of the past, setting future goals,
being absorbed into the positive present, accepting negative situations, and coping with nega-
100 tive situations. Drawing upon a principal component analysis of various well-being indicators
including ikigai measures, Kumano (2012)proposed an ikigai model composed offour factors:
life affirmation, meaning in life, life fulfillment, and existential value. Kumano’s (2013) struc-
tural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed the positive relationship between thesefive
mechanisms and the four-factor ikigai perception, albeit with relatively small effects. Within
105 free description data from university students, Kumano (2012)identified two leisure pursuits,
hobbies and student club activity, as primary sources of ikigai.
4 S. KONO ET AL.

Apart from these ikigai theories, there is also some descriptive evidence for the association
between leisure and this construct. For instance, the COGJ (1997) found that 47.1% of 7,293
survey respondents identified committing to both work and leisure was a source of ikigai,
followed by 17.5% who identified enjoying leisure more than work was acontributor. TheCRS 110
(2012) reported that 51.2% of 1,036 survey participants perceived ikigai from their hobbies or
leisure, whereas 34.3% felt life worthiness during their work and studies. Several university-
based studies have discovered similar positive relationships between leisure and ikigai. For
example, Nishizako and Sakagami (2004)found that 22.5% of 369 students felt ikigai when
engaging in sports and hobbies, and13.6% perceived their lives to be worthy when doing what 115
they liked alone. Fujiwara’s (1972) secondary analysis of survey data collected from 5,669 male
students revealed that the most frequently reported source of ikigai was committing to sports
or hobbies (50.8%), and this also held true for 2,562 female students.
In summary, there are several theoretical frameworks available to study the relation-
ship between leisure and well-being, including needs theories (Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986), the 120
SLP (Stebbins, 2015), LMM (Iwasaki, in press), and the DRAMMA model (Newman et al.,
2014).None, however, addresses the question of “how” leisure, if at all, helps make people’s
lives worth living. The same issue also applies to the reviewed ikigai theories (Kamiya, 1966;
Kumano, 2012), none of which considers leisure as an important source of life worthiness
despite abundant evidence that suggests this linkage (e.g., COGJ, 1997). 125
To address this gap, we engaged in a systematic theorization of the relationship between
leisure and ikigai. Specifically, we adopted sequential exploratory mixed-methods research
(MMR) as an overall framework (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). The first, qualitative phase
was guided by grounded theory (GT; Corbin & Strauss, 2015), which generated a substan-
tive theory of leisure’s roles in the pursuit of ikigai. This theory then informed the second, 130
quantitative phase wherein the theoretical model was tested using SEM (Kline, 2016).

Qualitative method
To inductively develop a theory of leisure and ikigai, Corbin and Strauss’s (2015) variant of
GT was adopted as a guiding methodology. This variant of GT was chosen as its philosophical
underpinning, pragmatism, is consistent with our world view (Kono, in press) and the overall 135
MMR design (Biesta, 2010). More practically, this variant appeared to offer a rich set of ana-
lytical techniques, as described below, that results in a well-delineated theory more conducive
to quantitative testing.

Participant recruitment
From June to August 2015, Japanese undergraduate students who owned a smartphone for 140
at least one year were recruited from a private university in Japan. The university had a large
student population (i.e., approximately 25,000 students)who came from different parts of the
country and were spread across nine colleges and dozens of departments. Thus, in addition
to accessibility, this student diversity influenced our choice of sampling site.
In terms of sampling, we first adopted maximum variation sampling (Patton, 2002, p. 243) 145
by targetinga range of students in terms of their gender, academic year, and major. This
ensured a certain level of demographic heterogeneity in the initial sample. Following theo-
retical sampling, the purpose of which is to delineate emerging categories and relationships
among categories (Corbin & Strauss, 2015, p. 134), succeeding participants were recruited as
data from previous students were analyzed. This simultaneous data collection and analysis 150
 LEISURE SCIENCES 5

allowed us to collect more focused data that informed the ongoing development of our the-
ory. At a later stage, we recruited participants who reported either a high or low level of ikigai
based on a preinterview survey and/or who had unique university experiences, such as stu-
dent athletes. We ceased collecting data when new data stopped adding new insights to the
155 emerging theory (i.e., theoretical saturation; Corbin & Strauss, 2015). This was monitored by
creating different NVivo 10 files at different stages of analysis. The final sample was composed
of 27 students (14 women, mean age of 20.26).

Data collection
Our main data collection method was photo-elicitation interview (PEI; Tinkler, 2013) in
160 which interviews are supplemented with a set of photographs as stimuli. PEI was employed
so that students could provide concrete accounts on the rather abstract topic of ikigai. As
per past PEI studies in the leisure literature (e.g., Klitzing, 2004), we chose to use pho-
tographs taken by participants, not researchers, and to consider photographs as support-
ive data, not primary data (i.e., participant-driven talk-focused PEI;Tinkler, 2013). First,
165 potential participants were asked to complete a short survey that included questions about
their demographic background, ikigai level, and leisure participation. Second, those invited
to the main study were given several days to (a) choose a maximum of 10 photographs,
taken by their smartphone, that they thought were related to their ikigai; (b) make a cap-
tion for each picture; and (c) provide brief descriptions (e.g., where and when they were
170 taken). These activities facilitated participants’ reflections on their ikigai. Third, a semi-
structured interview (average length 106 minutes) was conducted in Japanese with each stu-
dent, using the printed photographs and accompanying information. Interviewees were asked,
for example, “Could you tell me about this photograph?” and “What in this photograph
makes you feel ikigai?” Interviewees were not specifically asked about leisure until their ini-
175 tial accounts were exhausted. Additionally, photographs were grouped and ranked by partic-
ipants to help them recognize abstract patterns (e.g., certain types of activities as sources of
ikigai).
Participants received 3,000 Japanese yen (roughly 30 U.S. dollars) in compensation. All
interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by professionals, allowing for prompt anal-
180 ysis and thus more focused subsequent interviews. In total, 243 pictures and 1,293 pages of
transcripts were collected. All data including preinterview surveys, photographs, and tran-
scripts were managed using NVivo 10. The software program was necessary for us to organize
the large amount of data from different sources in an integrated manner and to keep a record
of analysis.

185 Data analysis

The first author conducted initial detailed coding in English, which allowed him to use
gerund coding to capture (inter)active processes (Saldana, 2013). This coding was supple-
mented with in-vivo coding through which analysts use a word or phrase in qualitative
data verbatim as codes(Saldana, 2013).This helped us maintain the nuances of the original
190 Japanese accounts. Detailed codes (i.e., a total of 496 codes) facilitated inspection of simi-
larities and differences across pieces of data, that is, constant comparison (Corbin & Strauss,
2015). Similar codes were grouped into more abstract categories, which were further related
to each other following Corbin and Strauss’s (2015) analytical technique called “paradigm.”
This method encourages analysts to focus on actions and interactions people of interest make
6 S. KONO ET AL.

and to identify conditions for and consequences of such (inter)actions. Altogether, categories 195
linked in this manner consist of a theory with a clear causal explanation, which we believed
would help answer the question of how leisure relates to ikigai.
Three analytic techniques were exploited to accelerate our theorization process: memo
writing, asking reflexive questions, and diagramming (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). A total of
136 memos were written about the codes or categories, their relationships with one another, 200
potential core categories, and delineation of an emerging theory. In these memos, it was often
asked what a certain category meant for the students. Visualizing the relationship among cat-
egories and a substantive theory helped identify gaps and core categories, which prompted
the first author to revisit existing data or collect new data. Each week, a few memos were ran-
domly audited by the second author who monitored the quality of data interpretation and 205
analysis. A resultant theory was shared with all participants approximately one year later, and
12 of them member-checked it by answering, for instance, how worthy their lives would feel if
they engage in theoretically ikigai-inducing actions. In the following results section, all names
are pseudonyms to ensure anonymity.

Qualitative results 210

Leisure for keiken, or valued experiences

Without specifically being asked, the participants provided many ikigai photographs that cap-
tured leisurely activities, such as visiting a theme park, hanging out with friends, engaging in a
hobby (e.g., photography, playing a piano), and competing in a sport with varsity teammates.
The interviewees often called these pursuits “keiken”—the core category that signified valued 215
experiences. Many leisure experiences were associated with two types of value, or subcate-
gories: enjoyment and effort.

Leisure for enjoyment

Not surprisingly, the interviewees mentioned their leisure experiences were a primary source
of enjoyment (or tanoshimi in Japanese). For example, Kanon was a photography enthusiast 220
and an airplane fanatic; she described her ikigai picture in terms of both hobbies:
I love airplanes. I enjoy visiting an airport without particular purpose and taking photos of air-
crafts. (Laughter) … When I go to see airplanes, time flies sometimes because it’s so much fun. I
thought it might be one of my ikigai, so I chose this picture.

As such, enjoyable leisure experiences helped the students become absorbed into the 225
present moment. Sayaka, a rock band fan, articulated how rare such intense experiences were,
and thus how valuable they were in her life:
[At the live concert] I was jumping three hours straight. (Laughter) … When I came to myself,
I wished that this moment would have lasted forever. … I don’t think we have so many times in
our lives when we wish that this moment wouldn’t come to an end. 230

This immersion into the present moment also helped take students’ minds off their every-
dayconcerns. For instance, Remi associated bread-making, a hobby she had recently started,
with how she copedwith stressful job-hunting:
I really like making breads. I got into it. … I mix [dough] without thinking of anything else and
that helps relieving stress. … I go [making breads] on days when I don’t have to do anything for 235
job-hunting, do it, and come home without stress.
 LEISURE SCIENCES 7

Lastly, the reason why enjoyable pursuits induced intense concentration on the moment
was because of its primary property of intrinsic attractiveness. Many interviewees chose food-
related ikigai pictures and described how it was simply enjoyable to eat something delicious.
240 For Hiroshi, it was Japanese barbeque: “[When I eat quality meat] I can’t help saying, like ‘I
am so happy I am alive!’ … It’s the best moment.” Violet considered hanging out with her
friends as intrinsically valuable: “I think ikigai is basically about feeling vital and feeling like,
‘this is so much fun!’ And hanging out is so fun, isn’t it?” Hence, many leisure pursuits had
intrinsic attractiveness to the students, which often allowed them to purely enjoy and focus
245 on the present moment. As a byproduct, these experiences also helped them take their minds
off other concerns.

Leisure for effort

Another important value the students pursued during leisure or freetime was effort (or
ganbari in Japanese). For example, in her first year on a varsity team, Hinata faced the
250 challenge of having to do a great deal of errand-type work in addition to competitive sport
training. However, she valued her efforts to have overcome it, in relation to her future life:
We had to wake up so early and come to school to prepare [for practice]. I was so tired of it.
But, that [staff member] told me over dinner: “You will appreciate what you are doing when you
become a second year. It’s great because this team experience teaches you how it would be difficult
255 outside of school. Other students don’t get that.” And I was like “Okay, I see” and kept playing.

This quotation illustrated that it was the property of challenge in these experiences that
induced the students’ efforts. A varsity staff member, Mizuki, elaborated on the importance
of challenges that were related to strict rules and age-graded hierarchical relationships on
her team. In her words: “If [the team] wasn’t this strict … and easy-going like a club team, I
260 wouldn’t feel ikigai in it and would have probably quit it.” Another noteworthy characteristic of
effortful experiences was that, unlike enjoyable experiences, they did not necessarily possess
intrinsic attractiveness and often generated immediate negative outcomes (e.g., frustration).
However, sustained efforts led to two major long-term valuable outcomes, accomplishments
and self-enrichment, with the direction of efforts being a key dimension. The former was
265 derived when the students directed their efforts to external goals. Yoku described how orga-
nizing campus-wide events for thousands of attendees provided him with a strong sense of
accomplishment:
[Our student group] hosts events for all students on campus, inviting some celebrities. That’s
important. And we can get feedback from many people, which makes me feel accomplished. It
270 reminds me that we are doing something on a large scale.

Self-enrichment entailed efforts aimed at the inner self. Naomi, who played on a women’s
soccer team, included varsity pictures despite her not excelling at the sport. This was because
she perceived growth as a team member, student, and human being: “[I learned] the never-
give-up spirit and … the importance of not comparing myself to others. … I became more
275 empathetic. [Being a varsity athlete] feels like enhancing myself.” Thus, the discretionary
aspect of students’ lives allowed them to engage in challenging experiences wherein they made
efforts to accomplish their goals and/or enrich themselves.

The balance between experience values as a mediator

Our participants not only associated leisure-related enjoyment and effort with ikigai but also
280 emphasized the importance of finding a balance between overall enjoyment and effort to
8 S. KONO ET AL.

achieve a worthy life. Probing into what they would do to make their future lives full of ikigai
solicited this account. For example, Daisuke’s answer was “to study hard and play hard”—the
advice his mentor professor gave him. Rich accounts of the enjoyment-effort balance were
also elicited when we asked students to imagine dropping either type of experience. Virtually
all agreed that it would be impossible to do so while maintaining a high level of ikigai. For 285
instance, Bunta, another student athlete, was confident that without his varsity commitment
as the major source of effort, his life would not be worth living:
If I were to have some work, like part-time job, instead of [the varsity], it would be probably
fine. But, with only these [fun] things, I would be no good. It would be easy, but I would become
dissatisfied with such a life eventually. 290

Kanon shared a story in which an enjoyable leisure experience—spontaneously playing

tennis with her friends—helped her retain a sense of balance when she felt overwhelmed by
the demands of a highly competitive extracurricular event:
I have been pretty busy because of [the extracurricular program]. Even over weekends, we have
study trips. Now, I can’t really have time to have fun. But, a class was cancelled … And my class- 295
mates and I were like, ‘Let’s play tennis!” and just did it. I realized that such [enjoyable] time is very
important to me. … [The extracurricular program] is also a good time. … Both are necessary.
The balance is the key.

In summary, students’ accounts converged on the point that it was not only the amount of
enjoyable and effortful experiences but also the balance between the two that influenced their 300
ikigai. Moreover, our analysis indicated that leisure played a key role in finding this balance
because it offered the type of value the students lacked in their other life domains.

The consequences of valued experiences

When the students engaged in enjoyable and/or effortful experiences, and found a good
enjoyment-effort balance, they described two main types of positive perception about their 305
lives—hereafter called life affirmation and life vibrancy.

Life affirmation
One of the consequences was the students’ subjective perception that their daily lives were
worth living. The value of experiences carried over to the significance of their lives. For exam-
ple, in the photo-ranking activity, Sayaka rated a group of keiken-related pictures as second 310
most important for her ikigai:
I was in the varsity volleyball, worked as an instructor at a private tutor school, traveled a lot, and
studied abroad. I think there wouldn’t be many people like that in the world. I feel that they are
my original experiences. … [The study abroad program] costed me [5,000 dollars], but I think
it was worth it. 315

Bunta believed that effortful and often patience-requiring experiences associated with his
varsity team made his university life valuable:
I feel that I don’t lag behind others who are coming to school just as student, and that I learned
a lot from [the varsity experience]. Well, I can’t study much because of that, but it’s taught me
something very important other than studies. 320

For Tidus, such a sense of life worthiness stemmed from his passion for photography, both
as his hobby and part-time job as a bridal photographer. Tidus recounted how this experience
made him feel proud of himself: “Photography was the first hobby of mine that I could tell
 LEISURE SCIENCES 9

anyone. Well, my parents praised it. I finally found something that I didn’t feel embarrassed
325 sharing with others.”

Life vibrancy
The second consequence was the students’ subjective perception that their daily lives were full
of energy and motivation. This was because the interviewees were strongly driven to pursue
experiences they valued, and this motivation toward specific experiences had spillover effects
330 on their lives in general. For example, Kaze defined ikigai as “the state in which I am looking
forward to the future and feeling fired up like, ‘let’s do this!”’ She felt this way when her dream
of becoming a dancer at the Tokyo Disney Resort had recently resurfaced. Since then, she
had started to practice at a dance studio and become involved in a dance-related extracur-
ricular program. Fuyumi included a picture taken from a spontaneous night out with her
335 best friends. This enjoyable experience provided positive perspectives on her stressful school
life:
[Spur-of-the-moment hanging out with friends] makes a difference in my motivation, or it makes
me optimistic, I guess? … It made me refreshed. Now, I have a lot of assignments and have to
do many things for the study abroad program. I was stressed out. … Spontaneously hanging out
340 after a while was so fun. It helped me think, ‘Ok, let’s work hard!’

Makoto perceived such motivation toward a life in general after he finished a series of
effortful experiences:
Right after the study abroad and internship programs, my motivation was so high. I was often
talking to others [about what I experienced]. I was involving them like “Let’s do this!” or “Let’s
345 do that!” I think I was very vital.

In summary, when students valued their experiences, there were implications for how they
perceived their lives in general. On the one hand, the perceived value of experiences, whether
enjoyable or effortful, carried over to the students’ valuation of life itself. On the other hand,
the students’ strong motivation toward their valued experiences was generalized to their per-
350 ceived vibrancy in daily life. Based on our qualitative study’s findings, a grounded theory of
leisure and ikigai among Japanese university students can now be put forward (see Figure 1).

Quantitative method
To quantitatively test the above grounded theory, we increased and broadened our sample,
collected data using an online survey, and analyzed them using SEM.

Figure . Grounded theoretical model of leisure and ikigai among university students.
10 S. KONO ET AL.

Sampling and sample 355

A survey company was contracted to compile a sample of Japanese undergraduate students.

Of 172,086 possible student panelists, 4,830 were randomly selected. Panelists responded to a
series of screening questions to ensure they (a) held Japanese nationality and spoke Japanese
as their native language and (b) attended a four-year university in Japan, excluding junior
college and graduate school. Of 4,328 panelists who satisfied these criteria, 2,921 were ran- 360
domly selected. These individuals received a research invitation email, with the 674 students
who completed our survey within the first 24 hours comprising our quantitative sample (i.e.,
a response rate of 23.1%). As compensation, the company gave participants electronic credit
points worth a few dollars that they could later use toward a gift.
The sample size was predetermined based ona power assessment (MacCallum, Browne, & 365
Sugawara, 1996)of a larger model in which the current model was embedded. Data clean-
ing was conducted on the 13 leisure and ikigai items required for the main model (see
below).Following Tabachnick and Fidell’s (2013) recommendations, five cases were excluded
as potential multivariate outliers. Thus, the final sample size was 669.

Instruments 370

Our survey instruments were developed to precisely test ourGT of leisure and ikigai
(Figure 1). Scale development was necessary given the uniqueness of leisure valuation as an
ikigai predictor and validity issues with existing ikigai scales. In terms of the latter, Kondo
and Kamata’s (1998) scale was found to have low factor loadings (i.e., convergent validity),
whereas Kumano’s (2013)scalecorrelated with a life satisfaction scale more strongly than with 375
a single-item ikigai measure (i.e., criterion-related validity). Initial items were constructed
based on our qualitative findings. Leisure-related items were reviewed by 13 experts in the
area of leisure and well-being and/or Japanese leisure, whereas ikigai items were reviewed by
eight experts in ikigai or Japanese well-being research. Experts’ quantitative assessment scores
were statistically analyzed following Dunn, Bouffard, and Rogers’s (1999) recommendations 380
that scale developers examine both the match between items and the targeted construct def-
inition and the distinction between items and untargeted construct definitions. Items that
had potential issues with convergent and/or discriminant validity were revised with help of
experts’ qualitative comments and pilot-tested (n = 14).

Life worthiness 385

Perceived life worthiness comprised the two subconstructs of life affirmation and life vibrancy.
The former was defined as the perception that one’s daily life is worth living, and the latter
referred to the perception that one’s daily life is full of energy and motivation. Both were
measured by three items each rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (does not apply to me
at all) to 5 (applies very much to me)(see Appendix A for the items). 390

Experience balance
The balance between overall enjoyment and effort was assessed by a singleitem rated on the
same 5-point scale (Appendix A).

Leisure valuation
This study focused on two major leisure experience values, enjoyment and effort. Each sub- 395
construct was measured by three items using the same 5-point scale (Appendix A). The
 LEISURE SCIENCES 11

Japanese word for “free-time” was used instead of other leisure-like words because other terms
such asrejā and yoka were found to emphasize particular aspects of leisure (Ito & Walker,
2014).

400 Data analysis

Data analysis consisted of three stages. First, descriptive statistics and zero-order correlation
coefficients among the main variables were computed. These statistics included reliability and
validity scores for the new scales. Second, an omnibus SEM was performed with the maximum
likelihood estimation method using Amos version 23. Global model fit was evaluated based
405 on the following five indices: (a) a model chi-square, (b) a goodness-of-fit index (GFI) of .95
or greater, (c) a comparative fit index (CFI) of .95 or greater, (d) RMSEA of .06 or less with 90%
CI, and (e) a standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) of .08 or less (Hu & Bentler,
1999). Consistent with recent critiques of these indices (see Kline, 2016), our model was also
locally assessed, especially the inspection ofthe residual covariance matrix. Third, a bootstrap
410 procedure was conducted to test significance of indirect effects.

Quantitative results
Characteristics of the final survey sample (N = 669) are summarized in Table 1. Our partic-
ipants represented almost equally both sexes (i.e., 336 females; 50.2%) and the four academic
years. In terms of academic major, 149 students were inthe arts or humanities (22.3%),
415 followed by 129 students in economics or management (19.3%). Of the 134 students (20.0%)
who reported “Other” as their major, 53 studied in medical areas (e.g., medicine, nursing).
The most frequently reported employment status was part-time job for fewer than 20 hours
per week (n = 295; 44.1%), followed by no employment (n = 248; 37.1%). The majority of
participants either did not know or did not want to answer the question concerning their

Table . A Summary of demographic characteristics of the final quantitative sample.

n %

Sex . Male  .

. Female  .
Academic year . First year  .
. Second year  .
. Third year  .
. Fourth year  .
Academic major . Arts or humanities  .
. Management or economics  .
. Social sciences  .
. Engineering  .
. Math or natural sciences  .
. Other  .
Employment status . No employment  .
. Part-time (< hours per week)  .
. Part-time (ࣙ and < hours per week)  .
. ࣙ hours per week  .
Parental income (JPY) . <,,  .
. ࣙ,, and <,,  .
. ࣙ,, and <,,  .
. ࣙ,, and <,,  .
. ࣙ,,  .
. Don’t know or don’t want to answer  .

Note. N = .
12 S. KONO ET AL.

Table . A Summary of means (M), standard deviations (SD), and zero-order correlation coefficients among
the main and control variables.
M SD        

. Sex
. Age . . -.
. Employmentstatus . . . .
. Leisureenjoyment . . .∗∗ . -. (.)
. Leisureeffort . . .∗ . . .∗∗ (.)
. Enjoyment-Effort balance . . .∗ . .∗ .∗∗ .∗∗
. Lifeaffirmation . . .∗∗ . . .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ (.)
. Life vibrancy . . . .∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ (.)

Note. N = . Sex is coded as  = female. The values in the parentheses are α coefficients.
∗ p < ., ∗∗ p <..

parents’ annual income level (n = 342; 51.1%). Although not shown in Table 1, the final 420
sample represented 44 out of 47 prefectures in Japan.
Table 2 displays the means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlation coefficients
among the leisure variables, ikigai variables, and three potential control variables (i.e., sex,
age, and employment status). Among the control variables, sex had small-size correlations
with leisure enjoyment (r = .20) and life affirmation (r = .15), whereas employment status 425
was positively correlated with life vibrancy (r = .13) (Cohen, 1992). Thus, female students
were more likely to find enjoyment in their free-time experiences and to perceive their daily
lives as being more significant than their male counterparts. The longer students worked, the
more vibrant they perceived their daily lives. Both leisure enjoyment and effort had moderate
to large positive correlations with the ikigai variables (Cohen, 1992). The enjoyment-effort 430
balance was positively and strongly correlated with life affirmation and vibrancy (r = .62).
The largest correlation was observed between the two types of ikigai perception (r = .71). All
newly constructed scales exhibited an α level of .78 or greater.
Another zero-order correlation matrix was requested to assess the criterion-related valid-
ity of the new ikigai indicators in reference to established well-being measures. These existing 435
scales were, in the order of expected stronger correlations with our ikigai scales: the single-
item ikigai scale (Kondo, 2003), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons,
Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS; Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999),
and Tsai’s (2007) affect inventory. This expectation was based on our hypothesis that life affir-
mation and vibrancy would correlate more strongly with cognitive constructs than with affec- 440
tive ones. The results in Table 3 exactly followed this pattern, supporting the criterion-related
validity of our new ikigai scales.
The model shown in Figure 1 was submitted to SEM.Based on the bivariate correlation
results, sex and employment status were included as potential control variables that ini-
tially had structural paths to all endogenous variables and correlation links with all exoge- 445
nous variables. Nonsignificant parameters associated with the control variables were dropped
from the model shown in Figure 2, although the same pattern of results was found even

Table . A zero-order correlation between the perceived life worthiness and SWB indicators.
Ikigai (single-item) Life satisfaction Happiness Positive affect Negative affect

Life affirmation .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ -.∗∗

Life vibrancy .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ .∗∗ -.∗∗

Note. N = .
∗∗ p <..
 LEISURE SCIENCES 13

Figure . The final SEM results for the grounded theoretical model of leisure and ikigai among university
students (N = ). Coefficients are all standardized. Sex had significant correlations with leisure enjoyment
(r = .) and leisure effort (r = .). Employment status had a significant path to the balance of experience
∗
values (b = .). ∗ p<., ∗∗ p <., ∗∗∗ p<..

when these parameters were retained. Global model fit was good based on Hu and Bentler’s
(1999) criteria: χ 2 (80) = 193.582, p = .000; GFI = .962; CFI = .974; RMSEA = .046,90%
450 CI [.038; .054]; and SRMR = .034. However, the significant χ 2 led to “local model fit-
ting” (Kline, 2016) by inspecting the residual covariance matrix. This process did not iden-
tify any substantial discrepancy between the theoretical and actual associations among the
variables.
The omnibus SEM results suggested that leisure enjoyment had a significant direct effect
∗
455 on life affirmation (b = .32), and leisure effort had a larger direct impact on life vibrancy
∗
(b = .42). However, it was surprising that leisure enjoyment’s direct influence on life vibrancy
∗
was nonsignificant, and leisure effort’s direct impact on life affirmation was rather weak (b =
∗
.16). Although leisure effort had a significant effect on the enjoyment-effort balance (b = .37),
∗
the influence of leisure enjoyment on this mediator was weak (b = .12), with the latter being
460 another unexpected finding. With the enjoyment-effort balance having substantial effects on
life affirmation and life vibrancy, the entire model explained the majority of the variance in
these outcome variables(R2 = .62 and .57, respectively).
Finally, the bootstrap procedure was performed to examine the significance of the indi-
rect effects of leisure enjoyment and effort on each ikigai perception via the balance indicator.
465 Following existing recommendations (Zhao, Lynch, & Chen, 2010), 5,000 bootstrap samples
were computed with 95% CI in the bias-corrected percentile method. The results are summa-
rized in Table 4. Leisure efforts’ indirect effects were significant, whereas leisure enjoyment’s
indirect effects approached the .05 level. Overall, leisure effort had significant total effects on
∗ ∗
life vibrancy (b = .60) and life affirmation (b = .34). Leisure enjoyment had a significant
∗
470 total effect on life affirmation (b = .38), and yet its total effect on life vibrancy was negligible.
14 S. KONO ET AL.

Table . A summary of the bootstrap analysis of the indirect effects through the overall enjoyment-effort
balance.
Exogenous and target Indirect effect Total effect Point estimate Bootstrap Lower Upper
variables (standardized) (standardized) (unstandardized) SE boundary boundary p value

Leisure enjoyment to life . . . . − . . .
affirmation
Leisure enjoyment to life . − . . . − . . .
vibrancy
Leisure effort tolife . . . . . . .
affirmation
Leisure effort to life . . . . . . .
vibrancy

Note. , bootstrap samples were computed with % CI in the bias-corrected percentile method.

Follow-Up analysis
The null-finding of leisure enjoyment’s effects on life vibrancy contradicted the qualitative
findings that clearly supported this linkage. In the spirit of the sequential exploratory MMR
design (Creswell & PlanoClark, 2011), we revisited the qualitative data. A common pattern
was identified—our participants described their feeling of being overwhelmed by overall 475
(nonleisure) effortful experiences when valuing enjoyment through leisure (see quotations
from Remi, Kanon, and Fuyumi). To test if this held true in our quantitative data, we split our
sample into two subgroups: students who reported a higher level of overall effort (n = 360; see
Appendix A for the overall effort items) and those who reported a lower level of overall effort
(n = 309). Two separate SEM were conducted for the respective groups, with these results 480
being summarized in Figure 3.
In both subsamples, the model showed acceptable model fit: for the high-effort group,
χ 2 (80) = 115.296, p = .006; GFI = .959; CFI = .983; RMSEA = .035, 90% CI [.019; .049];
SRMR = .033; and for the low-effort group,χ 2 (80) = 156.824, p = .000; GFI = .935; CFI =
.957; RMSEA = .056, 90% CI[.043; .069]; SRMR = .050.Although some discrepancies between 485
the groups existed across the model, the two most conspicuous differences were found in the
paths from leisure enjoyment and effort to the enjoyment-effort balance. Leisure enjoyment
∗
had a significant positive effect on the balance variable among high-effort students (b = .26),
although this effect was non-significant (and negative) among their low-effort counterparts
∗
(b = -.06). The substantial effect of leisure effort on the balance indicator within the low- 490
∗ ∗
effort group (b = .40) was attenuated within the high-effort group (b = .18). The subsequent
bootstrap procedure identified the indirect effects of leisure enjoyment on life affirmation and
vibrancy as positive and significant among high-effort students (see Appendix B).

Discussion
The purpose of our study was to theorize the linkage between leisure and ikigai among 495
Japanese university students. To achieve this objective, we adopted the sequential exploratory
MMR design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). In the first, grounded theory study (Corbin &
Strauss, 2015), we inductively developed a substantive theory of leisure and ikigai based on
photo-elicitation interview data(Tinkler, 2013). In the second, quantitative study, we tested
this theory using SEM (Kline, 2016) based on online survey data. The following discussion is 500
divided into three sections, each addressing one of the three research questions.
 LEISURE SCIENCES 15

Figure . The follow-up SEM results based on the final model for high-effort students (n = ; right param-
eters) and low-effort students (n = ; left parameters). All parameters are standardized. In the high-effort
group, sex had an only significant correlation with leisure enjoyment (r = .). Within the low-effort group,
sex had significant correlations with leisure enjoyment and effort (r = . and ., respectively), whereas
∗
employment status had a significant path to the balance indicator (b = .) ∗ p <., ∗∗ p <., ∗∗∗ p<..

What types of leisure experience pertaintospecific aspects of ikigai?

Our mixed methods results suggest that leisure pursuits positively influence students’ ikigai
when they are deemed to be keikenor valued experiences. Two major types of value are associ-
505 ated with leisure, enjoyment (or tanoshimi) and effort (or ganbari). The findings also indicate
these valued leisure experiences resulted in two types of perceived life worthiness, life affirma-
tion and life vibrancy. The former refers to the perception that one’s daily life is worth living,
and the latter is the perception that one’s daily life is full of energy and motivation.
Our findings add new insights to the eudaimonia and ikigai literatures. In terms of the for-
510 mer, our inductive conceptualization of ikigai appears congruent with the tripartite model of
meaning in life, especially its significance subdimension (Martela & Steger, 2016). Our find-
ings regarding ikigai seem consistent with the past studies that identified leisure’s relevance to
MIL (e.g., Choi et al., in press). What our study adds is that this positive link exists because par-
ticipants value their leisurely pursuits as enjoyable and/or effortful. Similarly, Matteucci and
515 Filep (2017) found that flamenco experiences allowed dancer tourists to experience positive
arousal and conquest of challenge, which enhanced their self-expressiveness or eudaimonic
well-being. Perhaps our focus on this subjective aspect of leisure experience may have resulted
in larger effects in our findings compared with past studies (e.g., Choi et al., in press).
Furthermore, past eudaimonic studies identified weak correlations between hedonic
520 motive and eudaimonic well-being (e.g., Huta & Ryan, 2010). Our finding diverges in that
leisure enjoyment,seemingly a hedonic value, had a stronger direct effect on life affirma-
tion than leisure effort. A possible explanation is that leisure enjoyment, or more accurately
16 S. KONO ET AL.

tanoshimi in Japanese, may refer to more than the mere pursuit of pleasantness. For instance,
Kono and Shinew (2015) showed that in a postdisaster context, tanoshimi meant something
that survivors anticipated. In contrast, leisure enjoyment did not have a significant direct 525
effect on life vibrancy in the quantitative study. One possible explanation is that as leisure is a
primarily enjoyable life domain, identifying this value in it does not add much vibrancy—
operationalized as energy, motivation, and positive changes—to students’ lives especially
when assessed over a long time (i.e., over a one month as in our survey study).
Our findings also help unpack the positive relationship between hobbies and life worthi- 530
ness documented in the extant ikigai literature (e.g., CRS, 2012;Kumano, 2012). Within leisure
as an enjoyment-centered life domain, hobbies may be a unique subdomain where partic-
ipants, or hobbyists (Stebbins, 2015), not only perceive amusement but also make serious
efforts. Therefore, hobbies may be a unique leisure experience such that individuals can pur-
sue both enjoyment and effort. Our value-based ikigai theory appears similar to Kumano’s 535
(2012) theory that recognizes effects of personal values on the ikigai pursuit process, although
our unique contribution resides in identifying enjoyment and effort as the major values rele-
vant to ikigai among university students.
On a surface level, our findings that enjoyment and effort through leisure have posi-
tive effects on quality of life are congruent with other theories of leisure and well-being. 540
For example, from a needs theory perspective, Tinsley and Eldredge (1995) discovered the
needs for self-enhancement and challenge were satisfied through activities such as quilting,
chess, and weightlifting, whereas the need for hedonism was met during baseball and drink-
ing/socializing.Newman et al.’s (2014) DRAMMA model might suggest the importance of
enjoyment by their reference to autonomy, which is often satisfied through interesting and 545
thus enjoyable activities, while indicating the relevance of effort under the name of mastery.
Stebbins’s (2015) serious leisure perspective postulates that casual leisure generates joy, and
serious leisure results in self-actualization and personal enrichment. In terms of meaning-
making, Iwasaki et al. (2015) found that leisure pursuits promoted joyful and empowered lives.
However, our value-based theory of leisure and ikigai suggests somewhat different under- 550
lying mechanisms than these extant theories. The difference between needs theories and our
theory appears rather clear. The former assumes that needs reside within individuals, thus
fixing the starting point of need satisfaction on actors who lack in certain needs (e.g., Deci &
Ryan, 2000; Tinsley & Tinsley, 1986). By extension, needs theories presuppose a clear dualism
between individuals who seek and receive need gratification effects and their external envi- 555
ronments (e.g., activities) that serve as sources of such effects (Deci & Ryan, 2000).Contrarily,
our qualitative findings indicate that the process through which students (de)value their
leisure experiences are often confluent with external factors, such as social norms and ref-
erence groups (see Hinata’s, Daisuke’s, and Tidus’s comments). Therefore, our value theory
acknowledges that individuals and their external environments co-construct the leisure val- 560
uation process, and does not assume a rigid dualism between self and external environment.
This difference also distinguishes our theory from Newman et al.’s (2014) DRAMMA
model. Most notably, Newman and colleagues eliminated experiential aspects of leisure from
their model partially because of their concerns about potential conflation with psychological
mechanisms. However, in our theory, the subjective valuation of enjoyment and effort are 565
specific to leisure experiences (e.g., considering one’s hobby as effortful) as opposed to
achievement of generic psychological outcomes (e.g., more leisure participation leads to a
sense of general mastery). Thus, we advocate for re-integrating the experiential aspect of
leisure, especially subjective valuation of leisure, into well-being models.
 LEISURE SCIENCES 17

570 One can draw an analogy between our findings of effortful/enjoyable leisure and Stebbins’s
(2015) serious-casual leisure contrast. Namely, serious leisure is characterized by a signifi-
cant level of personal effort, whereas casual leisure features immediate intrinsic rewards and
sheer enjoyment. Despite this similarity, we take issue with Stebbins’s framing of “rewards” and
“benefits” in serious and casual leisure. These terms in a traditional sense indicate “advanta-
575 geous changes” in one’s conditions (Driver, Brown, & Peterson, 1991, p. 4), which was not
necessarily the case for enjoyable leisure in our qualitative study. For example, Kanon’s and
Sayaka’s quotations did not indicate any clear improvements in their conditions, and yet they
valued their leisure experiences as enjoyable. This exemplifies the difference between benefits
and valuation, with the latter being more subjective evaluation of experience itself, not distinct
580 outcomes. Moreover, Stebbins’s contrast of benefits to costs seems problematic to us. Many of
the interviewees, such as Hinata, valued even parts of their leisure experiences they initially
disliked. As such, we argue that some costs are also valuable within the context of effort and
are not antithetical to benefits.
The difference between leisure meaning-making and our ikigai theory is less apparent.
585 Indeed, we argue there are more similarities than differences. Both frameworks emphasize
the importance of personal and social contexts, and they also recognize the embedded nature
of individuals within the meaning-making and valuation processes, respectively (Porter et al.,
2010). Having said this, our theory identifies enjoyment and effort as the values individuals
experience identify within their leisure to enhance their life worthiness, whereas the LMM
590 framework appears to identify positive emotions and human growth as outcomes of LMM
(Porter et al., 2010, p. 173). Therefore, participants’ recognition of tanoshimi and ganbari are
at the heart of the valuation process, not just end products. An additional methodological
divergence is that whereas Iwasaki and associates’ (2013) LMM scale focuses on one spe-
cific (meaningful) leisure activity, our leisure valuation scale asks individuals to evaluate their
595 leisure life as a whole.

How does leisure relate to ikigai?

Our mixed-methods findings suggest that the balance between overall enjoyment and effort
is an important meditator that links valued leisure experiences to perceived life worthiness.
This appears consistent with past findings that people perceive ikigai in both leisure and work
600 (e.g., COGJ, 1997). This may have been because the life-work (or leisure-work) balance likely
corresponds to one’s enjoyment-effort balance. Discovery of the enjoyment-effort balance,
in relation to leisure and ikigai, is a major contribution of our study. Although Iwasaki (in
press) discussed the topic of harmony and balance in the LMM context, this theory stays
short of explaining what constitutes balance.Stebbins (2015) speculated the complimentary
605 role of serious and casual leisure in actualizing an optimal leisure life; however, our theory goes
beyond this by (a) considering casual (enjoyable) leisure to be equally as important as serious
(effortful) leisure and (b) alluding to the importance of pursuing an overall balanced life as
opposed to a well-round leisure life. In the psychology literature, Sheldon and Niemiec (2006)
found that the balance among satisfied basic needs, including autonomy and competence, has
610 a significant effect on well-being beyond the effects of individual needs satisfaction. While
suggesting enjoyment is a concept related to yet distinct from autonomy, our findings also
indicate the relevance of their balance thesis to eudaimonic well-being as well as identifying
leisure as a potentially important life domain for achieving such balance. We now turn to this
topic.
 18 S. KONO ET AL.

Why leisure matters to the pursuit of ikigai? 615

An important theme across our findings is that leisure helps students better balance different
experience values, namely enjoyment and effort, in their lives. This may be because leisure
isa life domain where students supplement the type of value missing in other domains. This
speculation fits with, for example, our finding that the majority of leisure effort’s effect on life
affirmation was the indirect effect through the overall enjoyment-effort balance, not direct 620
effect. This may have been because, despite its enjoyment-centered nature, leisure functions
as an extra source of effort if students struggle finding value in more effort-focused domains
(e.g., education).Another finding that supports the above hypothesis is that leisure enjoy-
ment’s effects on the ikigai variables drastically changed depending on the overall effort level
(Figure 3).This may mean that leisure’s role as a major source of enjoyment becomes salient 625
when a life in general is dominated by effortful experiences. Although leisure has been defined
Q3 as freedom to do what people want and freedom from norms and obligations (Bregha, 1980 , as
cited in Kleiber, Walker, & Mannell, 2011), we propose that freedom to value may be another
important aspect of leisure that distinguishes this domain’s role in the pursuit of ikigai, and
well-being more broadly, from that of other life domains. It is not merely that individuals can 630
freely participate in leisure activities and become free from restrictive norms during leisure.
Rather, it is also that they can freely find enjoyable and/or effortful leisure experiences and
value them depending on their life circumstances; and, further, that doing so is much easier
than in other life domains (e.g., work, education).Thus, leisure matters to ikigai because it is
freely value-able. 635
However, we also echo others’ cautions against adopting an uncritically positive view of
leisure (e.g., Iwasaki, in press; Mock et al., 2016). This warning is relevant because value flex-
ibility may make leisure predominantly enjoyable (or effortful) in an already enjoyable (or
effortful) life, thus leading to an imbalance and decreased ikigai. Another issue concerns social
inequity. For instance, people from lower income levels may find that not only fewer leisure 640
activity options are available to them, but also available activities are biased toward one value
(e.g., enjoyment). Because leisure effort requires participants to spend their resources on their
leisure experiences, this can be considered as a privilege that is not readily available to those
in disenfranchised social groups. Having said this, the fact that leisure can be “problematic”
in terms of pursuing ikigai and well-being does not mean it is irrelevant; rather, we argue that 645
its importance increases because leisure professionals can address these problems and further
enhance their clients’ ikigai.

Practical applications
This study has important practical implications. First, leisure professionals, especially those
who work with university students, can increase their clients’ ikigai by incorporating our 650
framework into their programming and service delivery. We specifically encourage them to
embed both enjoyable and effortful elements into their programs. Doing so will increase the
likelihood that their clients will find a good balance between the two values. Second, we con-
cur with Iwasaki’s (in press) advocacy for a proactive, people-centered approach in leisure
service delivery. Like meaning-making, valuation is a subjective process in which participants 655
play a central role. We recommend that practitioners play facilitative roles by (a) educating
clients on ikigai and the enjoyment-effort balance, (b) informing clients about which pro-
grams are inclined toward a certain value, and (c) encouraging clients to reflect on the value
of programs and overall value balance.
 LEISURE SCIENCES 19

660 Limitations
Our study has several noteworthy limitations. First, we focused on university students,
and thus the applicability of our findings to other populations is unknown. Second, our
qualitative study was limited to students from one university, while the quantitative study was
constrained to students who registered as online survey panelists. Although these different
665 sample characteristics complemented one another, it is possible that both samples were
somewhat biased. Third, we focused on the Japanese population, which was a logical decision
considering ikigai is rooted in Japanese culture (Kamiya, 1966). Future cross-cultural com-
parisons are, however, warranted. Fourth, the validity of the leisure valuation scale requires
further substantiation.

670 Future directions

Application of the current model of leisure and ikigai to nonstudent populations is certainly
worthy of future research. In so doing, it will be informative to include more effort-centered
life domains (e.g., education, paid work) to further clarify the unique role of leisure in the
pursuit of ikigai, that is, value-ability. The way lay people conceptualize ikigai may vary across
675 age groups (Kumano, 2012). Moreover, people at different life stages may emphasize values
other than enjoyment or effort. Therefore, a qualitative approach will remain valuable in these
future studies. Research within nonstudent populations should also examine whether the rela-
tionship between ikigai and leisure applies to people across different social classes, especially
among those who are disenfranchised. Another important line of investigation is to exam-
680 ine how various aspects of leisure (e.g., time, activity participation, and satisfaction) influ-
ence leisure valuation, and in turn life worthiness. This will help validate the leisure valuation
scale. Quantitative methods will help discern similarities and differences between compara-
ble constructs, such as meaning-making, serious and casual leisure, and benefits. Finally, it
is imperative that an interventional study be conducted to reinforce our causal assertion that
685 leisure experiences make our lives more worth living. We assume that cognitive treatments
(e.g., evaluating leisure experiences and overall life experiences) will be more effective than
merely behavioral approaches (e.g., increased leisure participation).

Conclusion
How does leisure experience make our lives more worthwhile? Our mixed methods study
690 within a Japanese university student population suggests that leisure is a life domain where we
can identify the value of enjoyment and effort, which in turn makes our overall lives worthier.
Moreover, our study identifies the balance between overall enjoyment and effort in life as
an important underlying mechanism through which subjective valuation of leisure impacts
overall life worthiness. Furthermore, leisure seems to play a unique role in serving as a life
695 domain where people can find an experience value missing in other life domains (e.g., work,
education). In so doing, leisure functions as the value balancer in our life. We propose that
this is because leisure experience is relatively freely value-able, compared to experiences in
other life domains that may be, say, more effort-focused (e.g., work, education). This argument
opens up a new question related to leisure and well-being: why is leisure important to our
700 well-being compared to other life domains? The current study is a step toward answering this
underexplored question. As leisure studies and positive psychology interact with each other
even more (Mock et al., 2016), this key question needs to be addressed. Lastly, as our study
 20 S. KONO ET AL.

focused on the Japanese concept of ikigai, research on leisure and well-being needs greater
global perspectives (Ito & Walker, 2014; Iwasaki, 2007).

Funding 705
This project was partially supported byaSasakawa Sports Research Grant (160A3-011) from the
Sasakawa Sports Foundation (Japan) awarded to the third author.

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Appendix A
The List of Main Constructs and Corresponding Survey Items for the Quantitative Phase
Leisure enjoyment: the subjective valuation that one’s leisure (or free-time) experience
makes one’s overall daily life enjoyable.

Item 1. My free-time experiences can make my daily life enjoyable. 830

Item 2. My free-time experiences can infuse joy into my daily life.
Item 3. During free time, I can experience what I really like.

Leisure effort: the subjective valuation that one’s leisure (or free-time) experience allows
oneself to make an effort that leads to personal growth and/or goal achievements.

Item 1. I can achieve my goals in my free-time experiences. 835

Item 2. I can make an effort in my free-time experiences.
Item 3. My free-time experiences give me an opportunity to feel personal growth.

Balance between overall enjoyment and effort: the experiential process through which
one increases and maintains a balance across multiple values in his or her recent life.

Item 1. Through my recent experiences, I have found a good balance between efforts and 840
enjoyment.

Life affirmation: the perception that one’s daily life is worth living.

Item 1. I feel that the life I have now is important to me.

Item 2. I feel that my daily life is meaningful.
Item 3. I feel that my current life is worth living. 845

Life vibrancy: the perception that one’s daily life is full of energy and motivation.

Item 1. I feel that my daily life is full of energy.

Item 2. In my daily life, I feel motivated in general.
Item 3. I feel that every day is different from one another in a good way.
 LEISURE SCIENCES 23

850 Overall effort experience: the experiential process through which one discovers effort
within his or her recent undertakings.
Item 1. Recently, I have been engaged in experiences that required me to make efforts.
Item 2. I have strove in my recent experiences.
Note. The item number corresponds to the numbers in the SEM results (Figure 2 & 3).
855 These English items went through the back-translation procedure. The Japanese version is
available by contacting the first author.

Appendix B
A Summary of the Bootstrap Analyses of the Indirect Effects through the Overall Enjoyment-
Effort Balance in the Follow-Up Models

A group of students who reported a higher level of overall effortful experiences (n = )
Exogenous and target Indirect effect Total effect Point estimate Bootstrap Lower Upper
variables (standardized) (standardized) (unstandardized) SE boundary boundary p value

Leisure enjoyment to . . . . . . .

life affirmation
Leisure enjoyment to . . . . . . .
life vibrancy
Leisure effort tolife . . . . . . .
affirmation
Leisure effort tolife . . . . . . .
vibrancy
A group of students who reported a lower level of overall effortful experiences (n = )
Exogenous and target Indirect effect Total effect Point estimate Bootstrap Lower Upper p value
variables (standardized) (standardized) (unstandardized) SE boundary boundary

Leisure enjoyment to − . . − . . − . . .

life affirmation
Leisure enjoyment to − . − . − . . − . . .
life vibrancy
Leisure effort tolife . . . . . . .
affirmation
Leisure effort to life . . . . . . .
vibrancy

860

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