Japan ranks lowest in quality of life satisfaction among 30 countries: happiness survey
April 10, 2025
Japanese people have the lowest satisfaction and expectations for "quality of life" among 30 countries, while just 60% are happy, a global survey has shown.
It might be a coincidence that Japanese people have the lowest satisfaction and expectation for anything asked, or it might be that surveying this sort of crap and trying to compare between countries is the biggest waste of time
Japan was likely where I had the highest peace of mind in my whole life. I was convinced somehow by that that i was somehow on vacation from life, I think, and made the conscious choice to hop back into the rat races. My contract with the company I moved back to the states for was voided because they went bankrupt; I was jobless again for about a year before finding work that I love.
Then I got laid off.
None of that insane stress likely would have happened if I stayed in Japan, even if electricity bills are like getting teeth pulled without anesthetic
Strongly disagree. Japanese should get out more to see how good they have it. A nice trip through the states or Europe won’t do it.
Why Japanese People!?
Work life balance is terrible, everything else that matters is pretty damn high….
I did some happiness research in Japan for a few years, and translated a well known mental health scale into Japanese and validated it.
It’s hard to do cross cultural research, because even translating “happiness” is tricky and cultures express it differently. For example in France it’s quite uncool to talk about “happiness” as being meaningful (the French writer Mathieu Ricard changed the title of his book Happiness in French due to this) whereas in the US it’s literally written into the Declaration of Independence.
Anyway in Japanese we struggled with whether to use 嬉しい、幸せ、幸福、 etc.
This survey showed that 60% of Japanese said they were very happy or rather happy, which sounds good to me. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in India (and I’m Indian on my father’s side) and I don’t think Indians are any happier than Japanese.
TLDR: I think these surveys are capturing the way people talk about happiness not happiness itself.
Borderline propaganda.
I believe it. Everyone here seems miserable. Been here since 2002, but I’m not miserable for some reason.
I remember drinking at a yatai in Fukuoka chatting with a salaryman who was sitting next to me. He was a pretty good-natured dude who was pleasant to talk to. We got to talking about our jobs and I asked him if he enjoyed his work. He said no. I responded that there must have been at least some part of his job that he enjoys, or at the very least a single moment where he thought “hey this is kind of fun”. His response: “no, I’ve never had a single moment in my life where I thought this job was enjoyable.”
My problem with surveys is exemplified by an episode on the british show “Yes, Prime Minister.”
I mean they are almost out of rice. Of course they are unhappy.
The least rich son of some idiot who attends Harvard probably thinks he has it hard too. Not only is this article clickbait trash with no references or details of the so-called survey; I’m betting the survey is from 40 pissed off people in Meguro who were thrilled they found something to complain about.
I’ve been to Japan and that place is awesome! Easily my favorite foreign country I’ve visited.
Japan is such an oddity, tourists LOVE to visit there and have such a great time. However the residents there tend to be unhappy, stressed out, depressed, etc.
It’s the work/life balance
I lived/worked there for 2 years .
1) Societal pressure is insane. You won’t feel it as a foreigner working there because less is expected of you. Especially if you aren’t fluent in Japanese.
2) the wages of your average person are pretty low. Another thing your average foreign doesn’t realize. We see cheap prices everywhere, but Japanese don’t.
My students in middle high school and my co-workers in their 20’s both often had gray hair from stress.
Living there as a foreigner is just desserts. Most Japanese people I met were struggling either financially, or with work-life balance.
Makes sense if you ever had a conversation with a real life Japanese person, especially the youth. A lot of commentators would have to leave their apartments for that though.
Though Japan is not a perfect country, I am pretty sure Japan is better place to live than many of the countries on that list.
>India had the highest happiness score at 88%,
Yes, totally legit
But this doesn’t stop people from trying to live there and then experiencing inevitable culture shock.
How the US isn’t dead last is beyond belief.
Wonder how this survey would look like it if it was split on gender. Not seen many other developed countries that fuck over their female population like Japan does. The amount of exploitation and abuse is pretty amazing.
The working conditions are Dickensian. That’s the major issue. Manages treat staff like they’re office furniture.
26 comments
They should rank more than 30 countries lol
Can confirm….
“Japanese people…”?
They polled “around 2,000 people from Japan”.
It might be a coincidence that Japanese people have the lowest satisfaction and expectation for anything asked, or it might be that surveying this sort of crap and trying to compare between countries is the biggest waste of time
Japan was likely where I had the highest peace of mind in my whole life. I was convinced somehow by that that i was somehow on vacation from life, I think, and made the conscious choice to hop back into the rat races. My contract with the company I moved back to the states for was voided because they went bankrupt; I was jobless again for about a year before finding work that I love.
Then I got laid off.
None of that insane stress likely would have happened if I stayed in Japan, even if electricity bills are like getting teeth pulled without anesthetic
Strongly disagree. Japanese should get out more to see how good they have it. A nice trip through the states or Europe won’t do it.
Why Japanese People!?
Work life balance is terrible, everything else that matters is pretty damn high….
I did some happiness research in Japan for a few years, and translated a well known mental health scale into Japanese and validated it.
It’s hard to do cross cultural research, because even translating “happiness” is tricky and cultures express it differently. For example in France it’s quite uncool to talk about “happiness” as being meaningful (the French writer Mathieu Ricard changed the title of his book Happiness in French due to this) whereas in the US it’s literally written into the Declaration of Independence.
Anyway in Japanese we struggled with whether to use 嬉しい、幸せ、幸福、 etc.
This survey showed that 60% of Japanese said they were very happy or rather happy, which sounds good to me. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in India (and I’m Indian on my father’s side) and I don’t think Indians are any happier than Japanese.
TLDR: I think these surveys are capturing the way people talk about happiness not happiness itself.
Borderline propaganda.
I believe it. Everyone here seems miserable. Been here since 2002, but I’m not miserable for some reason.
I remember drinking at a yatai in Fukuoka chatting with a salaryman who was sitting next to me. He was a pretty good-natured dude who was pleasant to talk to. We got to talking about our jobs and I asked him if he enjoyed his work. He said no. I responded that there must have been at least some part of his job that he enjoys, or at the very least a single moment where he thought “hey this is kind of fun”. His response: “no, I’ve never had a single moment in my life where I thought this job was enjoyable.”
My problem with surveys is exemplified by an episode on the british show “Yes, Prime Minister.”
I mean they are almost out of rice. Of course they are unhappy.
The least rich son of some idiot who attends Harvard probably thinks he has it hard too. Not only is this article clickbait trash with no references or details of the so-called survey; I’m betting the survey is from 40 pissed off people in Meguro who were thrilled they found something to complain about.
I’ve been to Japan and that place is awesome! Easily my favorite foreign country I’ve visited.
Japan is such an oddity, tourists LOVE to visit there and have such a great time. However the residents there tend to be unhappy, stressed out, depressed, etc.
It’s the work/life balance
I lived/worked there for 2 years .
1) Societal pressure is insane. You won’t feel it as a foreigner working there because less is expected of you. Especially if you aren’t fluent in Japanese.
2) the wages of your average person are pretty low. Another thing your average foreign doesn’t realize. We see cheap prices everywhere, but Japanese don’t.
My students in middle high school and my co-workers in their 20’s both often had gray hair from stress.
Living there as a foreigner is just desserts. Most Japanese people I met were struggling either financially, or with work-life balance.
Makes sense if you ever had a conversation with a real life Japanese person, especially the youth. A lot of commentators would have to leave their apartments for that though.
Though Japan is not a perfect country, I am pretty sure Japan is better place to live than many of the countries on that list.
>India had the highest happiness score at 88%,
Yes, totally legit
But this doesn’t stop people from trying to live there and then experiencing inevitable culture shock.
How the US isn’t dead last is beyond belief.
Wonder how this survey would look like it if it was split on gender. Not seen many other developed countries that fuck over their female population like Japan does. The amount of exploitation and abuse is pretty amazing.
The working conditions are Dickensian. That’s the major issue. Manages treat staff like they’re office furniture.