Worry often feels like a constant companion, but holding onto that mindset can drain joy and overshadow meaningful moments. A more balanced approach can be found in the Japanese concept of yutori, which encourages creating mental and emotional space to live with calmness and clarity.
For anyone who struggles with overthinking or stress, embracing yutori offers a refreshing shift toward a more peaceful way of living.
Definition of Yutori
Yutori means having sufficiency and ease—a sense of comfort, time, and financial or mental space. It’s a broad Japanese concept linked to everyday life and well-being, often seen as a positive and relaxed state of mind.
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The Origins of Yutori
Yutori first gained wide attention in the early 2000s, when Japan introduced yutori education. At the time, students were under intense pressure from highly competitive schooling, long study hours, and rigorous testing. Society began to notice rising stress, declining mental health, and reduced creativity among young learners.
Educational reformers proposed a new framework that would lighten academic workloads and encourage experiential learning. Schools reduced instructional hours and expanded opportunities for curiosity-driven exploration. The goal was not to eliminate academic rigor but to give students more room to think, reflect, and discover on their own terms.
Although yutori education sparked debate about academic outcomes, the idea behind it—protecting a sense of balance—continues to resonate far beyond classrooms.
Yutori as a Lifestyle Philosophy
At its heart, yutori isn’t just about scheduling or reducing tasks; it’s a mindset. It’s about embracing space rather than filling every moment or environment to its limit.
Yutori encourages:
- Pacing yourself rather than rushing through your day
- Intention behind commitments, choices, and possessions
- Being present instead of constantly thinking ahead
- Space for failure and experimentation, not perfectionism
- Slowing down to appreciate life’s smaller details
Even in Japanese design and architecture, yutori appears in clean layouts, open areas, and thoughtful simplicity. It’s the breathing room built into a garden path or the pause in a traditional tea ceremony that allows reflection.
A Scale to Measure Yutori
In 2001, Miyako Yamashita, Ryuichiro Yagi, and Hideo Furukawa published a scale to measure yutori. It includes eight factors: economic wealth, free time, environmental amenities, competence, contentment, enjoyment, challenge, and behavioural freedom. They were particularly interested in using the scale to examine the efficacy of pro-yutori initiatives implemented by various companies; their hope was to address a countrywide yutori deficit in Japan:
‘Financially, Japan has attained a standard of living at which most people can obtain at least minimum satisfaction. Many Japanese people, however, do not feel real fulfilment and satisfaction in their daily lives. ‘No yutori can be found in our daily life’ is an expression often used among Japanese people.’
Their results indicated that yutori was related not only to objective, material measures, such as time and economic sufficiency, but also to very subjective psychological concepts – particularly contentment:
‘Contentment was the core factor of yutori in the model…while material factors such as free time, economic wealth, and environmental amenities acted in support. The findings indicated that the higher contentment people obtained, the more psychological factors, such as enjoyment, behavioral freedom, and challenge, were promoted. Time and economic factors contribute yutori because they enhance people’s control of their environment. Therefore, a state of yutori is not only the result of material, objective factors that arise when the fundamental conditions are met, but it is also a subjective and psychological concept.’
Karōshi - Death from Overwork
Ironically, even though the Japanese value yutori and ikigai and have tools that are useful for identifying and promoting both, the country still suffers greatly from a lack of yutori – especially in the workplace, with hundreds of workers literally working themselves to death every year.
The problem is so common that the Japanese language has a word to describe this tragic occurrence: karōshi, with karō meaning ‘overwork’ and shi meaning ‘death’– death from overwork. Suicide induced by work stress is also a problem in Japan; this is known as karōshi-jisatsu, with jisatsu meaning ‘suicide’.
‘Karōshi’ was coined in 1978 by Dr Tetsunojo Uehata, formerly of Japan’s National Institute of Public Health. Every year, the Japanese government estimates at least 200 people die from karōshi, working so many hours that they drop dead from heart failure or that they choose to end their lives rather than return to the office.
That figure is considered extremely conservative and campaigners against overwork have estimated that the actual karōshi toll reaches into thousands of deaths annually. A hotline run by the National Defence Council for Victims of Karōshi – which seeks government compensation for work-induced stress, disease, and disability – receives between 100 and 300 calls every year.
Clearly, Japan has a lack of yutori when it comes to work life. This is something we want to avoid and highlights why we must not make our work our only source of ikigai.
Yutori is not about creating space to do more things. You don’t need to partake in activities like meditation, journaling, or tai chi to create yutori. You simply slow things down. You slow down to create a feeling that you have plenty of space in between your activities, resulting in a mindset with more latitude.
Ibasho - A Place to Be
Ibasho and yutori share a close connection, as both concepts emphasize emotional comfort, a sense of belonging, and mental spaciousness in daily life. While ibasho refers to a personal place—physical or emotional—where one feels safe, accepted, and at ease, yutori represents the breathing room or margin that allows individuals to slow down and exist within that space without pressure. When combined, ibasho becomes not just a location, but a sanctuary supported by yutori’s calm and unhurried mindset.
Yutori creates the space in which ibasho can flourish, and ibasho offers a warm environment where yutori can be experienced fully. Together, they encourage balanced living, nurturing both inner peace and meaningful connection with one’s surroundings.
Why We Need Yutori Today
Many people experience modern life like a never-ending race—packed with work demands, social expectations, digital distractions, and the constant urge to “keep up.” Burnout has become common, and mental clarity often feels like a luxury.
Yutori offers a lens to rethink success—not as maximum output, but as a life that feels fulfilling and manageable.
By creating space to:
- Think, we innovate.
- Rest, we heal.
- Reflect, we grow.
- Disconnect, we reconnect—with ourselves and others.
Yutori helps restore our capacity for joy and resilience. It reminds us that time is not only a resource to spend but also a space to inhabit.
Frequently Asked Questions About Yutori
Yutori is a Japanese concept that refers to spaciousness, breathing room, and mental or physical margin. It reflects a lifestyle that encourages balance, mindfulness, and a slower, more intentional pace.
The idea of yutori is rooted in Japanese culture, but it became widely recognized during Japan’s educational reforms known as yutori education, which aimed to reduce academic pressure and encourage more creative, balanced learning.
No. Although the term became popular through education reform, yutori is also a broader philosophy. It can be applied to lifestyle, work, design, time management, and personal well-being.
Yutori education was a policy introduced in Japan to reduce study hours, ease academic pressure, and promote more explorative and hands-on learning experiences. It aimed to give students room to think, rest, and develop creativity rather than focusing only on test performance.
In daily living, yutori encourages creating space—both mentally and physically. It might involve scheduling downtime, reducing clutter, practicing mindfulness, or valuing quality over quantity in activities and possessions.
With increasing workloads, digital distractions, and fast-paced lifestyles, yutori serves as a reminder to pause and breathe. It promotes mental health, reduces burnout, and allows individuals to feel more present and grounded.
Workplaces can apply yutori by encouraging reasonable workloads, breaks between tasks, and flexible work arrangements. This often results in higher morale, improved creativity, and better long-term productivity.