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生きがい ikigai
The thing that gets you out of bed.
What does ikigai mean?
Your reason to keep going, and it does not have to be grand. Grandchildren, a vegetable patch, Friday karaoke — anything that makes tomorrow worth showing up for.
Example
祖母は孫の成長が生きがいらしい。
Watching her grandchildren grow up seems to be my grandmother's reason to keep going.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
Culture note
The four-circle diagram about passion, mission and money was drawn up outside Japan. In Japanese it is a modest everyday word, not a career framework.
The story behind ikigai
Split the word open and you find iki, living, plus kai, an old noun meaning worth or payoff. It is the same kai hiding in yarigai, the sense that a task is worth doing. So ikigai is just this: the thing that makes living worth the trouble. In Japanese it stays small and domestic. A grandchild. A tomato plant. Thursday choir practice.
Abroad it grew a diagram, four overlapping circles about passion, mission, vocation and money. That chart was drawn outside Japan and glued onto the word much later, which is why Japanese readers meet the international ikigai industry with polite bewilderment. Ask someone here and they will name a hobby, not a career strategy.
Get ikigai in your pocket
生きがい is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
