What Makes Super‐Aged Nations Happier? Exploring Critical Factors of Happiness Among Middle‐Aged Men and Women in Japan

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.256
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018

What Makes Super-Aged Nations Happier? Exploring

Critical Factors of Happiness Among Middle-Aged Men

and Women in Japan

Yoko Moriyama , Nanako Tamiya, Nobuyuki Kawachi, and Maya Miyairi

This study aimed to examine multiple factors associated with happiness from the perspective of

gender difference among a middle-aged Japanese population. A total of 865 participants (male ¼344,

female ¼521) aged 40–64 years were divided into two groups (high and low) by their self-reported

level of happiness. Logistic regression analysis by gender was carried out. In men, high levels of

happiness were signif‌icantly correlated with living with spouse, occupation, enough sleep, leading a

normal life, and regular checkups; while low levels of happiness were signif‌icantly correlated with

smoking and having two or more diseases. In women, low levels of happiness were signif‌icantly

correlated with caring for a family member. Our data suggested that the factors relevant to

happiness levels might vary between men and women among middle-aged people in Japan. To

increase the nation’s level of happiness, the Japanese government must implement extended social

services and policymaking, to alleviate caregivers’ burdens, especially among Japanese women.

KEY WORDS: happiness, subjective well-being, gender policy, middle-age, family caregiver

Introduction

Health factors related to well-being such as happiness have been used as an

index to evaluate positive outcomes of individuals’ lives in many countries. The

Kingdom of Bhutan was the f‌irst country to formally adopt individuals’

happiness as its principal goal, labeling it “Gross National Happiness (GNH),”

and this idea has inf‌luenced some developed countries such as France and the

United Kingdom (Bok, 2010). Furthermore, the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recommended assessing national

well-being alongside more traditional economic measures to help governments

create an innovative policy that improves the lives of its citizens (OECD, 2013a,

2013b, 2014). France’s report by the “Commission on the Measurement of

Economic Performance and Social Progress” also stated that “national statistical

agencies should incorporate questions on subjective well-being in their standard

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018

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doi: 10.1002/wmh3.256

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surveys to capture people’s life evaluations, hedonic experiences and life

priorities” (Stiglitz, Sen, & Fitoussi, 2008). Thus, higher levels of happiness have

been recognized as a positive health factor that improves a sense of well-being,

sleep quality, and general work productivity.

Using happiness as a health index has become a common method to assess the

progress of nations effectively. Measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) has

been identif‌ied as a recommended evaluation tool for well-being (OECD, 2013b;

The Commission on Measuring Well-Being, Japan, 2011). Generally speaking, the

SWB consists of two main components: (i) the cognitive component includes

an individual’s life satisfaction such as evaluations of one’s life according to

subjectively determined standards and (ii) the affective component is likely to

associate with psychological factors for one’s own situation or health (Diener,

1984; Schimmack, Radhakrishnan, Oishi, & Dzokoto, 2002). Each country or local

government measures various aspects of well-being. Despite increased awareness

of well-being as an important life quality, the most recent trend among Japanese

citizens has illustrated lower levels of SWB than other countries (Diener, Helliwell,

& Kahneman, 2010; OECD, 2013a; The Commission on Measuring Well-Being,

Japan, 2011), especially the affective dimension was lower relative to the cognitive

dimension such as life satisfaction in Japan (Ohtake, Shiraishi, & Tsutsui, 2010).

The Gallup-Healthways State of Global Well-Being (2014) Country Well-Being

Rankings, which measure well-being across f‌ive elements (purpose, social,

f‌inancial, community, and physical) ranked Japan 92nd out of 145 countries.

While Japan ranked 11th for f‌inancial well-being, the other four categories of

well-being were far lower (87th, 127th, 86th, and 135th, respectively). The World

Happiness report using the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (Cantril, 1965)

measuring SWB also ranked Japan 51st out of 155 countries (Helliwell, Layard, &

Sachs, 2017). Furthermore, the World Database of Happiness, which assesses life-

satisfaction by means of surveys in general population samples, ranked Japan

62nd out of 158 countries (Veenhoven, n.d.). Although these rankings focused on

evaluating cognitive dimensions such as life satisfaction as a happiness index, it

is unknown whether Japan might rank worse if measuring affective dimension

such as happiness. To address this concern, the Japanese government has begun

placing greater value on well-being as an assessment tool and conducting

research on well-being at the Cabinet Off‌ice of Japan, which set up a Commission

on Measuring Well-Being in 2010 (The Commission on Measuring Well-Being,

Japan, 2011). Three main purposes of this commission were: (i) to make indicators

from subjective and objective well-being and examine levels of happiness and

factors affecting happiness, (ii) to utilize the SWB for policymaking, and (iii) to

make evidence to discuss policy from the view of happiness of not only

individuals but also community (Uchida & Ogihara, 2012).

Many factors have been examined as determinants of SWB including genes,

personality, age, gender, income, and relationships (Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, 2016) and of these factors, age and gender play particularly

important roles in determining levels of SWB. Gender differences signif‌icantly

play critical roles on determining levels of happiness. For example, biological

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