In the Eyes of Others: Loneliness and Relational Meaning in Life Among Japanese College Students

In recent years, loneliness has become widely recognized as a public health issue that impacts negatively both on physical and on psychological health, even increasing the risk of mortality. This article focuses on the relationships between social connection, loneliness, and meaning in life that emerged from a study of suicide website visitors and interviews with Japanese college students. It poses three questions: (1) Is the need to be needed and the strong desire for meaning in life unique to suicide website visitors or shared by Japanese college students? (2) Are the need to be needed and the need for meaning in life two separate types of mental pain that lead to loneliness, or are they interrelated?, and (3) What does meaning in life look like for Japanese college students? The interviews indicate that Japanese college students greatly value being needed and that they connect it closely to a sense of meaning in life. They exhibit a great fear of loneliness and understand meaning in life in a highly relational manner, rather than a cognitive one. The article therefore proposes that in Japan, relationships, especially those that include a strong perceived sense of being needed, are the foundation for meaning in life, but that such a strong need to be needed is also a manifestation of the fear of loneliness and social rejection.