I know Japan's got a bad rap on current studies about their happiness but I don't believe how unhappy they make the people of Japan seem to be in the studies. In the reports 26% of the population is 'thriving' while the rest is 'suffering'.

I've been to Japan and though I didn't speak Japanese, by taking a hint at their emotions through their voice and eyes I recognized a lot of the people I met there were happy.

Its been difficult to find out otherwise if the Japanese people are in general, happy. Could you please clarify this for me?

Individual happiness is not a priority for most individuals here..
"trying hard" is considered more important..

If they were to relax and have fun they would feel lazy.. so even their relaxation time is busy..

It is too much.

Being happy is a relative term here in Japan. I think most Japanese think they are ?happy? or at least feel good about their individual situation. However people are people and you can?t look at Japanese through Western eyes it just not the same here. In Japan you have to look at thing through Japanese eyes, which is very hard to do most of the time. For example Japanese are not taught to dwell on bad things so they don?t, its pretty simple for them. As a Western guy I have a hard time with this concept and don?t really understand it very well myself. However I do live in Japan and am trying to understand the culture and adapt to it is difficult. Trying to define happiness is very difficult in this culture and well as others, but I do think Japanese are happy for the most part. Does that make sense? For me just cleaning the bike trail makes me happy in my own way or picking up garage off the street. Its hard to define happiness isn?t?