Advertise on podcast: The Ikigai Podcast

A former would-be astronaut helps a tiny town in Japan teach the world how to live lighter. Yuki Ohata returns with Satoshi Nonoyama, founder and CEO of Pangea, to unpack why Kamikatsu, Tokushima has become a magnet for sustainable tourism, study tours, and corporate learning trips. This conversation is recorded in Japanese with interpretation support, and it’s packed with practical lessons you can steal for your community, your team, or your next trip. We start with Satoshi’s origin story: a childhood obsession sparked by Mobile Suit Gundam, a formative NASA Space Camp experience, and the long arc from human resources to building an educational travel business rooted in nature and community. Then we zoom in on what makes Kamikatsu so compelling. The Irodori leaf business proves that an aging society can still be innovative, profitable, and tech-enabled, with farmers around 70 using ICT tools and earning real income from a product that’s physically accessible and high value. Next, we dig into Kamikatsu’s famous zero waste town system, where residents sort trash into 44 categories and bring it to a shared facility, turning waste reduction into a community habit and a working circular economy. From there, Satoshi explains what Pangea offers: experiential learning, outdoor programs, MICE travel for company teams, and “moonshot” education designed to build critical thinking, tacit knowledge, hands-on problem solving, and new value creation. We also explore the vision for ikigai retreats in Kamikatsu and potential collaboration with Shizuoka’s emerging leaf initiative. If you care about sustainable tourism in Japan, community-led revitalization, or team retreats that actually change how people think, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves purposeful travel, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking from Kamikatsu.

The fastest way to lose your edge is to confuse information with wisdom. We sit down with Tokyo-based Japanese calligrapher and author Naoko Omikami to talk about her new book, *Wisdom of the Shoguns: Valuable Life Lessons from Japan’s Greatest Warriors*, and why it’s designed to be read slowly, not binged. We get practical about the history without turning it into a lecture, clearing up the roles of samurai, shogun, and daimyo, and even the marketing choices that shape a book’s title for global readers. From there, the conversation moves into Japanese aesthetics and meaning-making, including the cover’s kanji “Michi” (the way), and how disciplines like bushido and shodo point to lifelong learning. Naoko shares why calligraphy is not decoration here: each brushstroke is meant to help you feel the spirit of a quote before you analyze it. Then we dig into leadership lessons that still sting in the best way. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s rare trifecta of patience, clarity, and self-discipline meets Oda Nobunaga’s bold standard: choose people by ability, not by seniority. We connect those ideas to modern work culture, attention overload, and the need to reflect rather than react, including Naoko’s insight that wisdom doesn’t change, but we do, and a line you ignore today might become exactly what you need later. If you’re drawn to samurai wisdom, Japanese leadership principles, mindfulness, calligraphy, or simply better questions about how to live, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a steadier “way,” and leave a review with the quote that hit you hardest.

The world is changing fast, and “just be strong” is not a plan. I’m joined by my good friend, clinical psychologist and author Professor Daiki Kato to share the thinking behind his new book Beyond Myself 8 and the BM8 framework: eight practical psychological powers that help us stay steady, connect deeply, and move forward with purpose when life feels uncertain. We dig into why non-cognitive skills like resilience, self-efficacy, empathy, and tolerance matter as much as any technical ability, especially in an era shaped by rapid change and emerging AI. Daiki reframes resilience as flexible strength, like bamboo that bends and returns, and explains how self-efficacy grows through small wins that prove to your brain that progress is possible. From there we explore rolefulness, the sense that our presence and actions matter, and how that feeling can expand into genuine empathy and real tolerance, the “mental margin” that lets us welcome difference without feeling threatened. We also get concrete with the “navigate society” powers: identifying better questions when there are no clear answers, learning from experience without getting stuck in the past, and using imagination for risk management without spiraling into fear. Daiki shares two hands-on tools you can try right away: question journaling (discomfort to question to wider view) and a resilience map that helps you name what you have, who you are, what you can do, and where you can go for support. If you want a clear, usable map for mental strength, relationships, and meaningful contribution, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadier footing, and leave a review with the one BM8 power you want to practice next.

A single ignored greeting can sound small until it becomes the daily signal that you do not belong. We talk with Dorothy Dalton, a global HR leader and inclusive workplace champion, about what gender balance looks like when you have lived through normalized sexism, and why so many organizations still fall short on psychological safety and fair treatment. Dorothy shares how workplace harm has shifted from overt harassment to covert exclusion: being left out of emails, frozen out of meetings, measured against invisible standards, or kept in a constant state of anticipatory threat around redundancy. We dig into workplace trauma as an accumulation of repeated stressors, and we name the dynamic that makes recovery harder: corporate gaslighting that tells employees to “fix themselves” with confidence hacks, resilience talk, or burnout labels while the system stays the same. If you care about employee engagement, retention, and healthy performance, this is the uncomfortable side of workplace culture that cannot be ignored. We also get practical about healing. Dorothy explains how she integrates trauma-informed coaching, cognitive behavioral coaching, and a culturally accurate view of Ikigai to help people rebuild after bullying, layoffs, and chronic anxiety. We challenge the popular Ikigai Venn diagram and make room for a more human truth: your job does not have to be your only source of meaning. Purpose, gratitude, relationships, and small daily joys can be real steps back to stability, identity, and hope. If this conversation helps you name what you have been experiencing, share it with someone who needs it, subscribe for more on Ikigai and work culture, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

A grandmother stops farming and something quietly disappears: her energy, her rhythm, her reason to get up. That single story becomes the thread that ties everything together as we talk with Yuki Ohata, representative director of Sanchi No Mikata in Shizuoka, about Ikigai as a lived practice instead of a business buzzword. Yuki’s work sits right at the intersection of purpose, Japanese agriculture, and community building, and it offers a surprisingly practical model for rural revitalization.  We dig into the Irodori leaf-farming approach made famous in Kamikatsu, where elderly farmers collect and ship high-quality leaves used as tsumamono garnishes in Japanese fine dining. These are the details that make kaiseki feel like a season on a plate, and they create real income in places that need it. We also touch on Kamikatsu’s zero waste lifestyle and what it teaches about discipline, pride of place, and how local systems shape daily behavior.  From there, we move into what Yuki is building now: a Shizuoka-based leaf project designed to help older adults stay active, earn money, and most importantly, have an ibasho, a place to belong. Plus, we explore his branding work on a rare hanabiratake cauliflower mushroom nicknamed the phantom mushroom, sold under the warm, memorable name Hohohotake. Sydney Siegford joins us as interpreter and shares her perspective as a Tokyo-based food writer and inbound hospitality consultant working with Japan’s fine dining scene.  If you care about Ikigai, farm-to-table culture, aging with dignity, or the future of rural Japan, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Japan can look easy from the outside: huge buying power, world-class retail, and consumers who love quality. Then you try to sell there and discover the real barrier isn’t your product. It’s trust, context, and the unglamorous work most brands skip. We sit down with Timothy Connor, CEO of Synnovate, a bilingual and bicultural entrepreneur who has called Tokyo home for more than 30 years. Timothy shares how he went from learning Japanese and working in rural Iwate to building deep expertise in Japan’s distribution system, customer experience, e-commerce, omnichannel retail, and luxury consumer goods. We talk about why Japan is a “by the book” market, what foreign companies misunderstand about decision-making speed, and how long-term thinking changes everything from negotiations to loyalty. Timothy breaks down what “doing the homework” actually means for Japan market entry: market need, product fit, localization, translation, packaging standards, and the patience required to build real distributor relationships. He also explains why small cultural details can create massive wins (hello, Kit Kat) and why his rose logo is a simple metaphor for how Japanese business relationships grow: do the right thing at the right time, consistently. We also zoom out into leadership, with Timothy’s five archetypes that show up at different stages of company growth, plus lessons from Japan’s bubble era and what it teaches about resilience. If you’re expanding to Japan, selling to Japanese consumers, or building a trust-first brand anywhere, this conversation will sharpen your strategy. Subscribe, share this with a founder or brand leader, and leave a review with your biggest Japan market question.

On this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, we talk with Olesia Kyrylchuk about what happens to purpose when life gets disrupted, from relocating to Japan after the war in Ukraine to rebuilding belonging through community and work.  We connect the global engagement slide to a deeper meaning problem and lay out a practical path for HR leaders who want work to feel worth doing. • Olesia’s move to Japan, cultural adaptation, and carrying home in her heart • Building new ibasho through community, work, and a Ukrainian playback theatre group • What playback theatre is and why stories create meaning and connection • A 25-year HR path shaped by philosophy, burnout, and returning to the “calling” • Why employee engagement is falling and how AI accelerates purpose questions • The gap between job satisfaction and true engagement • A three-layer view of workplace well-being: meaning, health, environment • Beyond Engagement program for HR leaders using Ikigai, Ibasho, rolefulness, and kokorozashi • Practical outcomes including a meaning and belonging heat map, diagnostics, and burnout tools listeners, if you're interested in in this, if you work in HR, go to IkigaiTribe.com and then on the website you will see the a link to all the details. You can email us or you can reach out to us on LinkedIn if you have any questions.

One Japanese word can change your life. It did for us, and it’s how we met Kumiko Sugiyama, a Japanese language coach, business Japanese trainer, and ICF Associate Certified Coach who blends language learning with coaching, communication skills, and a deep love of Japanese culture. We talk through Kumiko’s real-world path across sales, parenting, startups, community work, and finally teaching Japanese to executives and engineers. Then we dig into her informal Ikigai survey of 100 people and what it reveals about how Japanese people experience purpose: not as a single “dream job,” but as something felt in daily life, relationships, hobbies, and contribution. We share examples that range from personal joy to family wellbeing to meaningful work, and we look at why Ikigai often sounds more practical and relational in Japan than it does online. From there, we explore Ibasho, the “place to be” where you can show up as yourself and feel a sense of belonging. Kumiko explains how shared-interest communities build warmth, safety, and growth, and we connect it to positive psychology, strengths, and motivation. We also reflect on loneliness, social withdrawal, and why in-person community may become even more important as AI changes work and connection. Along the way we touch on beautiful Japanese concepts like ohitorisama and yutori, and how language can shape wellbeing. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s searching for meaning, and leave a review with the Japanese word that has colored your life.

On this episode of The Ikigai Podcast, I talk with Chie Sawa, founder of Thrive Life Design, about why all leaders need a sanctuary to pause and reconnect with themselves.  We also explore reverse culture shock, the power of co-reflection, and how structured tools like Tarot readings for reflection can create clarity without crossing into therapy.  We explore: • Chie’s journey from Japan to the US and back  • Reverse culture shock and feeling out of place at home  • Why sociology and women’s rights shaped her path  • Building Thrive Life Design beyond psychotherapy  • What “thrive” means as steady life expansion  • Sanctuary as a space to pause, breathe, and renew  • Reflection vs naisei and why being heard matters  • Reflection as a tool with clear limits  • Rumination, resentment, and when therapy is the better path  • The Reflection Room as a flexible one-on-one space  • Soul Story Tarot as a reflective structure not fortune telling  • Utori as the felt sense of inner room  Book a session with Chia.

Caitlin Kight returns again to host the Ikigai Podcast to interview Nick on his new book, A Year of Ikigai. In this episode, Nick shares how Japanese voices, careful cultural research and daily prompts, helped him write a book that the reader can actually use.  This epsidoe covers:  • A 365-day reflective journey built around roles, relationships, rituals, contribution, and belonging   • How this book differs from Western ikigai takes and why Japanese perspective matters   • What living in Japan and speaking Japanese changes about interpreting Japanese philosophy   • The messy reality of writing 365 short entries, scrapping drafts, and finding themes   • Fact-checking Japanese terms, tea ceremony concepts, and misquoted haiku   • Why prompts matter and how action turns reflection into felt ikigai   • Favorite entries including “What Matters Today” and the surprising “Ikigai Is Found In Revenge” reframed toward forgiveness   • The “four A’s” thread: awareness, affirmation, agency, and action   • Translation news and why one-word concepts reshape how we think   • Ikigai at work, workplace belonging, and healthier coping versus quick fixes

What if the feeling you’re most afraid of could become your clearest compass? Our conversation with Mae Yoshikawa begins in the hard places—parental divorce, a mother’s early-onset dementia, and the sudden death of a spouse—and unfolds into a practical path for turning pain into insight. Mae introduces Kizuki, the Japanese idea of an awakening moment of clarity, and shows how these flashes can be invited through disciplined attention, safe emotional space, and a deceptively simple journaling practice. We dig into attention as the currency of consciousness and why so much of our suffering springs from where we place it. Mae explains how untrained attention leaks into loops, resentment, “why me,” and autopilot narratives that exhaust us. Through yoga, breathwork, and meditation, she rebuilt a foundation that made acceptance possible. Arugamama—what is is—doesn’t minimize grief; it removes the fight against reality so we can feel fully and act wisely. The turning point is learning to observe thoughts as thoughts and feelings as temporary signals, not edicts. Mae’s Kizuki Journaling method brings this to life. Each session weaves one theme and three finely tuned prompts with a guided meditation designed to loosen mental grooves. The first two prompts surface honest clutter; the third reframes with precision, often triggering an “aha” you can’t unsee. We share real moments from a workshop, including reconnecting with a bold, generous childhood self, a reminder that clarity often reveals what was always there. Mae also opens up about a recent insight: spotting the story that kept her small in English-language work and choosing expansion over safety. If you’re feeling stuck in a “why” loop, overwhelmed by noise, or ready to trade fear for clarity, this episode offers tools and a humane mindset to help you move. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the biggest insight you’re taking forward. What truth can you see today that you can’t unsee tomorrow?

What if the problem isn’t workload, but identity? We sit down with coach and HR leader Tina Bagwell to explore how many of us let a single role—the job—define who we are, and why that narrow frame leads to exhaustion, disengagement, and a loss of joy. Tina’s journey starts in Okinawa, where simple rituals, community, and omotenashi left a lasting imprint that later shaped her approach to leadership, culture, and coaching. Across global teams, Tina uses the Ikigai‑9 assessment and the seven needs identified by Dr. Mieko Kamiya to help people reconnect with what truly matters: resonance, belonging, self‑actualization, and everyday life satisfaction. She shares how Millennials and Gen Z are rejecting linear careers, opting instead for rolefulness—the healthy balance of many roles across work and life. We dig into why “return‑to‑office equals engagement” is a false promise, how boards miss the human core of culture, and why simple behaviors like greetings, real conversations, and gratitude are powerful levers for trust. You’ll hear how women leaders are reframing caretaking and career, reclaiming self‑care as a valid role, and finding presence both at home and at work. Tina reframes ikigai from a buzzword to a daily practice: checking in with the seven needs during morning coffee, a walk, or a shared meal. If even one need is met, the day carries meaning. We connect this to the creator economy, where younger workers value autonomy and making things that reflect their voice—music, products, code, stories—while using technology as a tool, not a master. The conversation moves from Okinawa to boardrooms to everyday rituals, showing how remembrance, not reinvention, can transform careers and cultures. If you’re craving purpose, balance, and a more human way to work, this conversation offers practical ideas and language you can use today—whether you lead teams or lead your own life. Enjoyed this one? Follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

What if the key to better work and wiser leadership isn’t adding more tools but building a bigger vessel? Shigeki Nishimura—author, cross-cultural leadership coach, and former global executive—joins us to introduce Utsuwa, the Japanese concept of inner capacity. Drawing on two decades in Germany and a career bridging Japanese precision with European efficiency, Shigeki shows how a clay tea bowl can rewire your approach to stress, focus, and team culture. We dive into a powerful triad: ikigai as the engine (purpose), kintsugi as the mechanic (repair), and Utsuwa as the chassis (capacity). Instead of sprinting toward bigger goals with a fragile frame, he explains how to grow stability, increase margin, and keep a low center of gravity—so you can hold success without arrogance and failure without shattering. The result is spacious leadership: decisive when needed, humble by default, and relentlessly human. Expect concrete practices, from tidy-desk resets and shorter meetings to one-on-ones that create trust and autonomy. You’ll hear how emptiness—yohaku—is not a void to fear, but the space where insight lands and innovation begins. Shigeki shares a four-question diagnostic to test your capacity, plus three habits to expand it: accept your cracks, lower your center, and practice the void. We also connect these ideas to modern overload—constant notifications, social feeds, and AI—and map out how to remove noise so your best thinking can surface. If you’ve ever felt like you’re pouring an ocean of complexity into a teacup, this conversation offers a sturdier bowl and a calmer hand. If the ideas resonate, follow the show, share this episode with a friend, and leave a quick review—what will you remove this week to make room for meaning?

Nick celebrates the launch of A Year of Ikigai and read the book’s introduction, separating myth from meaning and showing how purpose lives in daily moments.  Nick shares why Ikigai is felt more than defined, and how small sources of value build a life worth living. This episode covers: • what ikigai means in simple, daily terms • why popular Western takes miss the point • the problem with the four-circle Venn diagram • the kanji roots pointing to protection and beauty • intrinsic values like hope, growth and social ties • personal journey from Tokyo spark to research • sources of ikigai across roles, work, hobbies and memory • ikigai-kan as the felt sense that life is worth living • book launch timing across regions and preorder You can actually pre order the book on Amazon, but we hope you find it in your local bookstore