"Ikigai" and "Useful Life"? 「生きがい」と「耐用年数」？

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Have you ever heard of the term "ikigai"? Ikigai or a reason for being is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living (Source: Wikipedia). This Japanese term is now often used as it is, i.e., "ikigai," and has been taken up by several authors. It's similar to Victor Frankl's concept "the Meaning of Life," which I admire. 

So, it was kind of a nice surprise to see a van with "Ikigai" emblazoned on the side of the van a week ago. Cases of beer and sake were loaded into the van by a man from a liquor store nearby. I found it funny that a liquor store used a vehicle with such a term on the side of the vehicle but soon forgot about it.  

A few days later, however, I saw the van again but that day, I found on the other side of the van another term "Useful life" emblazoned. Hmm? What does "Useful life" mean? The term "useful life" immediately reminded me, who's been working in the financial industry for many years, of the number of years used for calculating depreciation of assets. Obviously, however, it should be emblazoned on the company car for another purpose. 

I stopped on the opposite side of the street to think about it. I even searched for the usage of "useful life" on my mobile phone, expecting to find many sentences containing "useful life" in non-accounting contexts, like psychology or philosophy, but in vain. I was able to find many websites using the term for accounting purposes but only few for other purposes (and many of them are like "useful life lessons" or "useful life skills"). I kept thinking about it. Are these terms "ikigai" and "useful life" the slogans of the store? Why are they emblazoned on the company vehicle? The only conclusion I was able to reach was that both terms were the store's slogans and someone working for the liquor store must have translated the term ikigai into "useful life."

I wanted to ask the guy carrying the heavy beer cases if my conclusion was correct but didn't. He seemed super busy. I wanted to take photos of the slogans on the van but didn't. Obviously it was very difficult to explain why I wanted to take such photos. I wanted to discuss my conclusion with someone, but I couldn't. I have nobody who speaks both English and Japanese and understands the terms "ikigai" and "useful life" both in English and Japanese. So, I've written this post.

So, here is my question. What would English speakers without having heard of the term "ikigai" think of when looking at the term "useful life"? The meaning/purpose of life? (and am I just an accounting geek?) Or would they think of depreciation as I did?

  

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生きがい。とても大事です。最近は英語でもそのまま Ikigai と通用するようになり、生きがいを持つ大切さについて書かれた英語の本があるぐらいです。

だから、先日、近所の酒屋さんの前に車が止まっていて、その車の側面に「Ikigai」と書かれているのを発見したときはうれしい驚きでした。車には大量のビールとお酒のケースが酒屋から積み込まれていました。（酒屋に生きがいはちょっと変だけど）生きがいって大事よね。私はしみじみ思いました。

数日後、また同じ車を発見。でもその日は別の発見がありました。何と Ikigai の横に Useful life という英語を発見したのです。Useful life と言えば耐用年数。減価償却を計算する際に必要な年数のことです。えっ！生きがいと耐用年数？私はその二つの言葉が並んで車の側面に書かれている理由を一生懸命考えました。そして出た結論：生きがいを英語にしようとして「Useful life」にしちゃったんだろうな～。「有意義な人生」と言いたかったのかしら。車の写真を撮りたかったのですが、許可をいただく際の説明がややこしくなりそうなのであきらめました。

でも「Useful life」と見るとほとんどの欧米人は「耐用年数」と思うんじゃないかな｡｡｡ それとも私が金融英語オタクなのかな｡｡｡

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