TOKYO -- Japanese people have the lowest satisfaction and expectations for "quality of life" among 30 countries, while just 60% are happy, a global survey has shown.

Ipsos, a global polling company headquartered in France, conducted an online survey on happiness between December 2024 and January 2025, targeting a total of 23,765 people across 30 countries in Europe, North America and Asia, among other regions. Around 2,000 people from Japan participated.

When asked about their sense of happiness with four response options -- "very happy," "rather happy," "not very happy" and "not happy at all" -- only 60% of Japanese respondents chose "very happy" or "rather happy," placing Japan 27th out of 30 countries. This was significantly below the average of 71%. While this marked a 3-point increase from the previous survey released in 2024 (57%), it was still a 10-point drop compared to the first happiness poll in 2011 (70%).

India had the highest happiness score at 88%, followed by the Netherlands at 86% and Mexico at 82%. Meanwhile, Hungary had the lowest score at 45%, followed by Turkey at (49%) and South Korea at 50%.

Relationships with family a key to happiness

Why is the happiness level so low in Japan?

Among Japanese respondents who said they were not happy, the most common reason was their "economic situation," cited by 64%. This was far greater than the second-most frequent reason of "I feel my life has meaning" at 27%.

Conversely, the most common reason for feeling happy was "relationships with family," given by 41.1%, with a close second "feeling appreciated/loved" at 41.0%.

What stood out for Japan was the low level of satisfaction with quality of life. Only 13% of Japanese pollees answered that their current quality of life is "good" -- the lowest among all 30 countries. This was less than half the average of 42% and notably lower than Hungary (22%), the second lowest, and South Korea (24%), the third lowest.

Expectations for the future were also low among the Japanese. Only 15% of Japanese respondents said "overall quality of life will be much better in five years," the lowest among all nations surveyed. In contrast, the highest optimism for the future was seen in Colombia at 79%, followed by India at 78% and 76% each in Argentina, Indonesia and Mexico.

Commenting on Japan's low happiness levels, Shunichi Uchida, Ipsos Japan's president and CEO said, "It seems that feeling economically strained has a major impact on people's sense of happiness. At the same time, the top factor for feeling happy was 'relationships with family,' so if more people in Japan can find sense of value in good relationships with those who are close to them, as well as in gratitude and love, there's a possibility that overall happiness levels could improve."

(Japanese original by Ei Okada, Digital News Group)