The Ikigai Podcast

Nick Kemp - Ikigai Tribe
  • 4.7 (14)
  • Philosophy
  • Updated Weekly

Nick Kemp from Ikigai Tribe reveals what ikigai truly means to the Japanese and how you can find it to make your life worth living. Discover how you can find meaning, purpose, and joy in your day to day living, with this podcast. From interviews with professors, authors and experts to case studies of people living their ikigai, you'll learn about the power of rituals, why having a daily morning routine is vital, how to find your confidence, how to improve your relationships, and why you should start a meaningful online business. Hit the subscribe button, and get ready to find your ikigai.

  1. 4h ago

    How Ikigai Can Support Recovery from Workplace Trauma with Dorothy Dalton

    A single ignored greeting can sound small until it becomes the daily signal that you do not belong. We talk with Dorothy Dalton, a global HR leader and inclusive workplace champion, about what gender balance looks like when you have lived through normalized sexism, and why so many organizations still fall short on psychological safety and fair treatment. Dorothy shares how workplace harm has shifted from overt harassment to covert exclusion: being left out of emails, frozen out of meetings, measured against invisible standards, or kept in a constant state of anticipatory threat around redundancy. We dig into workplace trauma as an accumulation of repeated stressors, and we name the dynamic that makes recovery harder: corporate gaslighting that tells employees to “fix themselves” with confidence hacks, resilience talk, or burnout labels while the system stays the same. If you care about employee engagement, retention, and healthy performance, this is the uncomfortable side of workplace culture that cannot be ignored. We also get practical about healing. Dorothy explains how she integrates trauma-informed coaching, cognitive behavioral coaching, and a culturally accurate view of Ikigai to help people rebuild after bullying, layoffs, and chronic anxiety. We challenge the popular Ikigai Venn diagram and make room for a more human truth: your job does not have to be your only source of meaning. Purpose, gratitude, relationships, and small daily joys can be real steps back to stability, identity, and hope. If this conversation helps you name what you have been experiencing, share it with someone who needs it, subscribe for more on Ikigai and work culture, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

  2. 6d ago

    Life Needs A Role with Yūki Ōhata

    A grandmother stops farming and something quietly disappears: her energy, her rhythm, her reason to get up. That single story becomes the thread that ties everything together as we talk with Yuki Ohata, representative director of Sanchi No Mikata in Shizuoka, about Ikigai as a lived practice instead of a business buzzword. Yuki’s work sits right at the intersection of purpose, Japanese agriculture, and community building, and it offers a surprisingly practical model for rural revitalization.  We dig into the Irodori leaf-farming approach made famous in Kamikatsu, where elderly farmers collect and ship high-quality leaves used as tsumamono garnishes in Japanese fine dining. These are the details that make kaiseki feel like a season on a plate, and they create real income in places that need it. We also touch on Kamikatsu’s zero waste lifestyle and what it teaches about discipline, pride of place, and how local systems shape daily behavior.  From there, we move into what Yuki is building now: a Shizuoka-based leaf project designed to help older adults stay active, earn money, and most importantly, have an ibasho, a place to belong. Plus, we explore his branding work on a rare hanabiratake cauliflower mushroom nicknamed the phantom mushroom, sold under the warm, memorable name Hohohotake. Sydney Siegford joins us as interpreter and shares her perspective as a Tokyo-based food writer and inbound hospitality consultant working with Japan’s fine dining scene.  If you care about Ikigai, farm-to-table culture, aging with dignity, or the future of rural Japan, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

  3. Aug 20

    Trust and Leadership: An Entrepreneur’s Journey in Japan with Timothy Connor

    Japan can look easy from the outside: huge buying power, world-class retail, and consumers who love quality. Then you try to sell there and discover the real barrier isn’t your product. It’s trust, context, and the unglamorous work most brands skip. We sit down with Timothy Connor, CEO of Synnovate, a bilingual and bicultural entrepreneur who has called Tokyo home for more than 30 years. Timothy shares how he went from learning Japanese and working in rural Iwate to building deep expertise in Japan’s distribution system, customer experience, e-commerce, omnichannel retail, and luxury consumer goods. We talk about why Japan is a “by the book” market, what foreign companies misunderstand about decision-making speed, and how long-term thinking changes everything from negotiations to loyalty. Timothy breaks down what “doing the homework” actually means for Japan market entry: market need, product fit, localization, translation, packaging standards, and the patience required to build real distributor relationships. He also explains why small cultural details can create massive wins (hello, Kit Kat) and why his rose logo is a simple metaphor for how Japanese business relationships grow: do the right thing at the right time, consistently. We also zoom out into leadership, with Timothy’s five archetypes that show up at different stages of company growth, plus lessons from Japan’s bubble era and what it teaches about resilience. If you’re expanding to Japan, selling to Japanese consumers, or building a trust-first brand anywhere, this conversation will sharpen your strategy. Subscribe, share this with a founder or brand leader, and leave a review with your biggest Japan market question.

  4. Aug 3

    Beyond Engagement with Olesia Kyrylchuk

    On this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, we talk with Olesia Kyrylchuk about what happens to purpose when life gets disrupted, from relocating to Japan after the war in Ukraine to rebuilding belonging through community and work.  We connect the global engagement slide to a deeper meaning problem and lay out a practical path for HR leaders who want work to feel worth doing. • Olesia’s move to Japan, cultural adaptation, and carrying home in her heart • Building new ibasho through community, work, and a Ukrainian playback theatre group • What playback theatre is and why stories create meaning and connection • A 25-year HR path shaped by philosophy, burnout, and returning to the “calling” • Why employee engagement is falling and how AI accelerates purpose questions • The gap between job satisfaction and true engagement • A three-layer view of workplace well-being: meaning, health, environment • Beyond Engagement program for HR leaders using Ikigai, Ibasho, rolefulness, and kokorozashi • Practical outcomes including a meaning and belonging heat map, diagnostics, and burnout tools listeners, if you're interested in in this, if you work in HR, go to IkigaiTribe.com and then on the website you will see the a link to all the details. You can email us or you can reach out to us on LinkedIn if you have any questions.

  5. Jul 8

    Ikigai And Belonging with Kumiko Sugiyama

    One Japanese word can change your life. It did for us, and it’s how we met Kumiko Sugiyama, a Japanese language coach, business Japanese trainer, and ICF Associate Certified Coach who blends language learning with coaching, communication skills, and a deep love of Japanese culture. We talk through Kumiko’s real-world path across sales, parenting, startups, community work, and finally teaching Japanese to executives and engineers. Then we dig into her informal Ikigai survey of 100 people and what it reveals about how Japanese people experience purpose: not as a single “dream job,” but as something felt in daily life, relationships, hobbies, and contribution. We share examples that range from personal joy to family wellbeing to meaningful work, and we look at why Ikigai often sounds more practical and relational in Japan than it does online. From there, we explore Ibasho, the “place to be” where you can show up as yourself and feel a sense of belonging. Kumiko explains how shared-interest communities build warmth, safety, and growth, and we connect it to positive psychology, strengths, and motivation. We also reflect on loneliness, social withdrawal, and why in-person community may become even more important as AI changes work and connection. Along the way we touch on beautiful Japanese concepts like ohitorisama and yutori, and how language can shape wellbeing. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s searching for meaning, and leave a review with the Japanese word that has colored your life.

  6. Apr 14

    Reflecting to Thrive with Chie Sawa

    On this episode of The Ikigai Podcast, I talk with Chie Sawa, founder of Thrive Life Design, about why all leaders need a sanctuary to pause and reconnect with themselves.  We also explore reverse culture shock, the power of co-reflection, and how structured tools like Tarot readings for reflection can create clarity without crossing into therapy.  We explore: • Chie’s journey from Japan to the US and back  • Reverse culture shock and feeling out of place at home  • Why sociology and women’s rights shaped her path  • Building Thrive Life Design beyond psychotherapy  • What “thrive” means as steady life expansion  • Sanctuary as a space to pause, breathe, and renew  • Reflection vs naisei and why being heard matters  • Reflection as a tool with clear limits  • Rumination, resentment, and when therapy is the better path  • The Reflection Room as a flexible one-on-one space  • Soul Story Tarot as a reflective structure not fortune telling  • Utori as the felt sense of inner room  Book a session with Chia.

  7. Apr 6

    Reflections on A Year Of Ikigai with Nicholas Kemp

    Caitlin Kight returns again to host the Ikigai Podcast to interview Nick on his new book, A Year of Ikigai. In this episode, Nick shares how Japanese voices, careful cultural research and daily prompts, helped him write a book that the reader can actually use.  This epsidoe covers:  • A 365-day reflective journey built around roles, relationships, rituals, contribution, and belonging   • How this book differs from Western ikigai takes and why Japanese perspective matters   • What living in Japan and speaking Japanese changes about interpreting Japanese philosophy   • The messy reality of writing 365 short entries, scrapping drafts, and finding themes   • Fact-checking Japanese terms, tea ceremony concepts, and misquoted haiku   • Why prompts matter and how action turns reflection into felt ikigai   • Favorite entries including “What Matters Today” and the surprising “Ikigai Is Found In Revenge” reframed toward forgiveness   • The “four A’s” thread: awareness, affirmation, agency, and action   • Translation news and why one-word concepts reshape how we think   • Ikigai at work, workplace belonging, and healthier coping versus quick fixes

  8. Mar 30

    Unlocking Cross-Cultural Communication in Japan with Shohei Yoshida

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Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Nick Kemp from Ikigai Tribe reveals what ikigai truly means to the Japanese and how you can find it to make your life worth living. Discover how you can find meaning, purpose, and joy in your day to day living, with this podcast. From interviews with professors, authors and experts to case studies of people living their ikigai, you'll learn about the power of rituals, why having a daily morning routine is vital, how to find your confidence, how to improve your relationships, and why you should start a meaningful online business. Hit the subscribe button, and get ready to find your ikigai.

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Kemp - Ikigai Tribe
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    135
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Ikigai Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Ikigai Podcast

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