Happiness and the Good Life in Japan

Wolfram Manzenreiter is Professor of Japanese Studies, Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. Barbara Holthus is Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies section, at the University of Vienna, Austria.

• Part I: Introduction1. Happiness in Japan through the anthropological lensPart II: Family, Intimacy and Friendship2. More than just nakayoshi: Marital intimacy as a key to personal happiness3. Intimate relationships: Friendships, marriage and gender in Japan4. Happiness and unconventional life choices: Views of single women in Japan5. Physical intimacy and happiness in Japanese families: Sexless marriages and parent-child co-sleeping 6. Japanese gays, the closet and the culture-dependent concept of happiness 7. Grandfathering in contemporary Japan: Altruistic and self-serving means to happinessPart III: Self and Community8. Makers and doers: Using actor-network theory to explore happiness in Japan’s invisible civil society 9. Dimensions of happiness for young political activists: A case study of "Greens Japan" members 10. Living and working for the moment: Motivations, aspirations and experiences of disaster volunteers in Tōhoku 11. "A really warm place": Well-being, place, and the experiences of buraku youth 12. “My life is Taiyō Kōmuten”: On the relationship between organized football fandom and happiness in Japan 13. The midnight community, or under-the-counter happiness Part IV: Conclusions14. Happiness in neoliberal Japan15. Happiness as balancing act between agency and social structure