What is We-Being
Happiness lives not only within us, but also between us.
We-Being is a way of thinking about well-being that KOKUYO has been deepening together with Professor Yukiko Uchida of Kyoto University.
Replacing the “Well” of Well-being with “We,” the name carries the meaning of “well-being that lives in between.” It is a perspective that finds happiness not only in the individual mind, but in the relationships between people, and between people and places — in the “in-between.”
We define We-Being as “a state in which we harmonize through curiosity toward people and places, and can act autonomously supported by those cooperative relationships.” This is not about suppressing the individual to fit the group. Precisely because there is solid cooperation, each person can act on their own will. We value this order: cooperation supports autonomy.
We-Being is made up of three kinds of happiness, each with a different direction of curiosity.
The happiness of sharing
The happiness of feelingyour colleagues' growth and achievementsas your own, not just your own results.
It grows from curiosity toward those close to you,supported by the sense that you arepositively influencing one another.
The happiness of belonging
The happiness of having people and placesthat naturally support each other,and feeling this is where you belong.
It grows from curiosity toward places —teams, meetings, offices — and is the senseof blending into them without strain.
The happiness of being in step
The happiness of gently affirming who you are,grounded in the reassurance thatyou are doing okay in society.
It grows from curiosity toward the world at large;by caring about its reality, you can seesociety's standards at their true scale.
The three kinds of happiness differ in the breadth of relationships they correspond to: the person in front of you, the organizations and environments you spend your days in, and the faceless society at large.
No single one needs to stand out. Being able to see them separately should also help in assessing the challenges of the places we belong to. And we believe the key to keeping cooperation from turning into conformity is “curiosity” toward people, places, and society.
Why we need a new measure now
From “my” happiness to “our” happiness.
Many well-being indicators to date have been built on Western values that take the individual as the unit. What those measures have cherished is self-growth and self-actualization, and they have undoubtedly enriched individual lives. At the same time, pursuing only our own happiness increasingly leaves us feeling somehow constrained.
In fact, loneliness and isolation are spreading in Japanese workplaces. In a nine-country survey by KOKUYO and Kyoto University, the number of colleagues Japanese workers could casually turn to was the lowest, at an average of 2.0 — and about 20% said they had none at all. Though known as a highly cooperative culture, Japan ranked last in both.
What we should look at now is not only individual happiness, but the happiness that lives “in between” people, places, and society — re-examining happiness from the perspective of “we,” not just “I.” There, we believe, lie hints for solving problems that previous values could not, such as loneliness and isolation at work.
Rather than treating these as matters of individual mindset, we want to face them as challenges of relationships and places. That is why we want to bring a new measure called We-Being to society.
Why KOKUYO explores We-Being
Turning workplaces into places to regain connection.
KOKUYO envisions an “autonomous-cooperative society” as the future it aims for: a society where each person chooses how to work and live by their own will, cooperates loosely with others, and creates value together.
Yet a four-region comparative survey found that only in Japan do autonomy and cooperation conflict. Japan has traditionally been a cultural sphere where individual autonomy grows on a foundation of cooperative relationships. If so, what we should nurture first may be cooperative workplaces where people feel safe to speak up. We-Being is a way of thinking for measuring and practicing this path of “autonomy that starts from cooperation,” and it connects to KOKUYO's promise to society: “May curiosity be part of life.”
KOKUYO is translating this idea into the design of spaces and environments. The key is designing the “in-between.” Relationships and curiosity often start moving not in the meeting room itself, but in the gaps between functions — like a chat in the corridor after a meeting. Leaving room for relationships to emerge, without over-defining a place's function: where efficiency sees waste, We-Being sees meaning. You can stay without a reason. You may make changes. You may show unfinished work. Small accumulations of such “good” nurture places where curiosity is easy to offer.
From places that process work, to places where we regain connection with people — that is the kind of place we envision.
What we aim for
Anchors to rely on and refuges to step away to, here and there across society.
We want this project to be not a place where KOKUYO hands out answers, but a place of exploration we open up together.
Without turning We-Being into a productivity tool or fencing it in, we will nurture it together with companies, researchers, and practitioners who share the vision. Its practice will extend beyond workplaces to schools and public spaces. And beyond Japan, while also drawing on Asian perspectives on well-being, we will offer another option to societies troubled by excessive individualism.
What we aim for is a landscape where anchors with someone to rely on, and refuges to retreat to when you need distance from the noise, exist here and there across society. Please join us in this exploration.
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