[Orientations to happiness in Japanese people: pleasure, meaning, and engagement]

A Japanese version of the Orientations to Happiness Scale was developed to investigate characteristics of Japanese people's orientations to happiness from the perspective of life satisfaction. Japanese university students (N = 477) completed the Japanese Orientations to Happiness Scale and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Factor analysis extracted three orientation factors: pleasure, meaning, and engagement. These factors were correlated with life satisfaction in a US population study. However, in the Japanese sample, orientations to meaning and engagement were correlated with life satisfaction, but an orientation to pleasure was not. These results are discussed from the perspective of differences in the concept of happiness between the US and Japan. In the US, positive feelings are considered to be indicative of happiness, whereas in Japan, not only positive feelings but also living a hopeful life under negative circumstances is considered to be involved in happiness.