November 16, 2024 · Takeshi Mori

Yutori (ゆとり) describes a feeling of spaciousness — having enough room, enough time, enough margin. Not luxury — sufficiency. Yutori is the opposite of being rushed, squeezed, and overwhelmed. A life with yutori has time for tea, time for conversation, time for staring out the window. A life without yutori is efficient but exhausting. Japan's 'yutori education' reforms in the early 2000s tried to give children more space and less pressure — the concept applied to an entire generation. The question for any life is: where is your yutori?

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