Kouji Miki Explores AI’s Role in Discovering Ikigai

Kouji Miki

Kouji Miki explores how AI can create new opportunities to discover and engage in meaningful ikigai activities in episode 73 of the Ikigai Podcast.

Kouji is co-founder of Zen2.0, a conference on Zen and mindfulness that attracts speakers from around the world. Additionally, he has authored two books: Let’s Start Micro-Monozukuri and True Innovation.


*Watch the full playlist above.

Getting into Zen Meditation

Following a period of struggling with a mental condition, Kouji turned to Zen meditation, a practice that played a pivotal role in his recovery. This transformative journey inspired him to establish his own venture, Zen 2.0, as a sincere expression of gratitude.

Healing through Zen meditation

Nick: We connected on LinkedIn a few months ago, and you were busy promoting your Zen 2.0 conference that's obviously on Zen and mindfulness. And that attracts speakers from all around the world.

And a few of your speakers have been guests on my podcast: Ken Mogi and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu. So do you want to talk about that conference? How long have you been holding it? And what is the goal of that conference?

Kouji: Actually, the project start from 2015, and I lost my job because of the huge economic shock in 2009, and I had a bad mental condition. I have to recover from my mental illness, so I started Zen meditation in my house.

After three months meditation, I became fine. And I started my own business. So I feel great gratitude feeling for Zen Buddhism. That's the reason why I started Zen 2.0 to express my gratitude for them.

Nick: That's quite an amazing story. The financial crisis came along, you lost your employment, you fell into some depression or had struggled with mental health issues. So why do you think you moved to Zen rather than, let’s say, maybe other options like medication or counseling? What was appealing about Zen?

Kouji: I felt when I had a mental illness, I think I should go to the hospital, but I was afraid of addiction of mental drugs. That's the reason why I started searching how to cure by myself. And I start searching with many keywords like mental illness, how to stabilize my mind or something like that.

And I found some books and also found Zen meditation on the internet. So I searched YouTube about how to do meditation. First I have to find some meditation videos of Japanese monks. But in and Zen Buddhism tradition, there is a rule that they don't know talk about Zen itself.

So I don't know how to definite meditation. But I finally found that the video about how to do Zen meditation; it was created by an American guy, he was living in Japan for maybe more than 10 years. And in this video, he talked much about how to do Zen meditation. It was a very attractive way, so I started to learn how to do Zen meditation.

How is AI Beneficial to Ikigai

Kouji explains how they utilize AI in conducting conferences, providing an opportunity to engage in more ikigai activities.

We can use our free time to pursue ikigai sources

Nick: Let's talk about AI and how you're using AI and how it is benefiting you. So do you want to touch on on that?

Kouji: I have to prepare the Zen 2.0 conference every year. And for this event, we get 60 members, and each person is working for other companies, different companies. So it's very difficult to meet together at once.

We sometimes call meeting online, but 60 people, it’s very difficult to get that 60 people at one time. Our problem is how to meet together. So every year, we have weekly meeting online, but some member are claiming about that there's too many meeting, and they take a long time.

So we introduce AI meeting robot. So during the meeting on the Zoom, this AI, you take a memo by text automatically. So even if the member who cannot join the meeting, they can read the memo generated by AI. It's very effective.

Nick: Okay, so that's one example.

Kouji: Yes, one example. So by using generative AI, we can have much more free time. And how do you use your free time? So I think we can use this free time for ikigai.

Nick: All right. Well, let's touch on that. Because you do write that this increase in productivity will bring enormous amounts of extra time to people potentially putting workers into two categories: One is the ikigai worker, a traditional Japanese concept of well-being and a factor of finding joy in life.

And the other is the worker who has lived a life of work, and has excess time on his or her hands. So yeah, with this idea of more time, and extra time. You've obviously found it helpful. So let's talk about your ikigai sources and the time you now have for them. Do you want to talk about your personal ikigai?

Kouji: My personal ikigai is to transform, consciously, when I started Zazen, and Zazen helped me a lot. So I want to help other people by doing Zen mindfulness. So I'd like to bring these people to this world, I mean, Zen or mindfulness, as much as possible. So this is my ikigai.

That's the reason I started that Zen School, which is innovation school, based on Zen philosophy. This post project is really my ikigai.

Uncover a Deeper Connection to Ikigai

Due to the significant amount of time spent on work, some individuals are finding it challenging to discover additional sources of ikigai in their lives. Consequently, Kouji's Zen school aims to assist people in identifying more ikigai sources in their lives.

Pursuing a profound ikigai

Nick: This is interesting. So I've interviewed someone specifically about leisure time on my podcast several times. His name is Dr. Shintaro Kono, he's a leisure researcher. So I think leisure is a very strong source of ikigai.

And you believe that with AI, we will have this increase in leisure time, and that can improve well-being. But in a country like Japan, where many people work, and maybe their work is their ikigai, and they don't know what to do with their free time.

If there is an increase in free time, do you think they might struggle with this free time? If they don't have an ikigai outside of work?

Kouji: Definitely. I'm worrying about if free time goes up, not well-being because they don't know how to do their leisure time. That's the reason why we have to find our ikigai. So in our Zen school, we are helping how to find each person's ikigai.

Nick: I see. Do you think a person can have several ikigai sources or many. So I think Ken Mogi spoke at your event, and his book is about ikigai, The Little Book of Ikigai. And he describes ikigai as a spectrum—it can be many small things.

But I've also read other Japanese authors. There was an author called Tsukasa Kobayashi, and he said that ikigai is jiko-jitsugen, like ikigai is only self-actualization. So there are many different opinions even in Japan about ikigai. But I think if we have more sources of ikigai, that's probably more beneficial. Do you think?

Kouji: Yeah, I think my idea is across to Ken Mogi’s. I think kigai is many spectrums, many small things. I think one should have very big ikigai and other small ikigai, too.

Nick: I see.

Kouji: So I'm helping to make bigger ikigai for people.

Nick: I understand, I think that's important too. And maybe with the big ikigai we have that strong sense of purpose and creative expression as well. And that might also involve helping other people.

The Golden Circle of AI and Ikigai

Kouji explains the 'Golden Circle of AI and Ikigai,' suggesting that through AI, individuals can enhance productivity, reduce work hours, and create opportunities to pursue ikigai, ultimately leading to a more fulfilled life.

Having a richer and more fulfilled life

Nick: With this idea of AI, leading to this explosion in work productivity, and this increases leisure time. This gives us this opportunity to explore and maybe find more ikigai. You've actually come up with a model or a framework, and you propose the concept of the ‘Golden Circle of AI and Ikigai.’

So would you like to explain what that is?

Kouji: As I mentioned, if you use generative AI, our productivity goes up very dramatically. And also, you have much more leisure time. Then, how to use your leisure time? You're focusing on your ikigai like me, in my case, I held international conference every year, I use generative AI to my Zen 2.0 project.

And your ikigai project is very efficient and very impactful for the society, too. So I feel much more satisfaction with my ikigai project. And you'll be richer, richer and more fulfilled. This is the circle of AI and ikigai.

Nick: Yes, and you've created a graphic. So we'll put that on the website. So yeah, this makes sense, because time is the only one resource, we're constantly losing. We have limited time. It's very hard to create new time. But as you're sharing with us, AI gives us this opportunity to use our time more productively.

Kouji: I have many opportunity because I wrote my book in Japanese, and translated it by using DeepL. So I wrote my book in English by using generative AI. So that's the reason why you contact me.

Nick: Yeah. So it worked. So it was very well written—the article was very well written. I actually use DeepL, too, to translate from English to Japanese. In a way, they're just tools, very intelligent tools. But they're incredibly powerful. I'm thinking a tool when it's improved, you or I on our call, we could make a course on something, a course on ikigai, and then that could be translated into 20 languages.

Kouji: Actually, I'm trying to make a shorter video of my school.

Nick: So you can reach more people in different languages. That's a big step. That's a significant step on reach and connection. And what's interesting is, it looks like you're speaking that language because the video morphs your mouth and sounds very natural, too.

Kouji: They’re really trying to stimulate my voice and my movement.

Nick: Yeah. So I was very shocked when I saw you speaking English fluently.

For the full podcast conversation, go to: Embracing AI Opportunities for a Meaningful Life

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