Life in Japanese: seikatsu, inochi and jinsei

If you study Japanese and watch anime, you must have noticed that there are several words to refer to life. Seikatsu [生活], inochi [命], and jinsei [人生] are just a few of them. In this article, we will see how to express life in Japanese and its differences.

Have you ever wondered why English uses one word, life, where Japanese uses several? Two ideograms related to life make up a lot of those Japanese words.

First, we have the ideogram sei [生] which, besides life, indicates birth, living, and existing, as well as conveying the idea of something natural and genuine. The second ideogram, inochi [命], conveys life, vitality, a lifespan, and life force. The same character is also read mei, and that reading shows up in words for an order or a decree. One character holding more than one job is part of how ideograms work in Japanese.

These two ideograms combine in the word seimei [生命], life in the biological sense. The existence of a thing or a person is usually sonzai [存在].

The meaning of the word inochi [命] and derivatives

Let's start by examining the word inochi [命]. It gives an idea of life as a force, a lifespan, and also of something that is the foundation and core of a person. You meet it when a life is at risk, or when someone saves a life: being between life and death, or asking whether there is life on another planet.

In the Edo-period pleasure quarters, lovers had this ideogram tattooed on each other's upper arm. The mark was the character 命 by itself, or a name followed by 命, and the dictionaries record it as a vow between those two people.

To get a better hold on inochi [命], it helps to see other words that share the character. Some keep the reading inochi. Others use mei, where 命 means an order, a decree, or giving a name. I will leave a list below:

Responsive table: scroll the table sideways with your finger >>

English	Japanese	Romaji
Destiny	運命	unmei
Order, command	命令	meirei
Death anniversary	命日	meinichi
Giving a name	命名	meimei
Risking one's life	命がけ	inochigake

Meaning of seikatsu, jinsei, and words derived from [生]

The ideogram sei [生] is very broad and is part of thousands of words and verbs. It is related to birth, a way of living, nature, and production. One of the most common words is seikatsu [生活], which means living, daily life, and making a living.

The word seikatsu joins the ideogram for life [生] with activity [活]. People use it for ordinary days, such as school or work, and for a lifestyle. That job is different from inochi [命], the life you can lose. The same everyday pace shows up in slice-of-life anime, where the story stays with school, chores, and the hours between them.

We also have the word jinsei [人生], the course of a person's years, from birth to death. It is built with the ideogram for person [人]. Jinmei [人命] is also a human life, and it shows up when that life has to be saved or protected.

The same ideogram [生] works as the prefix nama for something raw, undiluted, or live. Nama tamago is a raw egg, and nama biiru is draft beer. Words such as biochemistry [生化学], physiology [生理学], ecosystem [生態系], and survival [生存] are built on it as well.

The list below keeps a few ordinary words built on [生].

Responsive table: scroll the table sideways with your finger >>

English	Japanese	Romaji
Birth	生まれる	umareru
Live, exist, earn a living	生きる	ikiru
Production, manufacturing	生産	seisan
Student	生徒	seito
Living creature	生物	seibutsu
Living thing	生き物	ikimono
Whole life, until death	一生	issho
Lively, vivid	生き生き	ikiiki
Grow, sprout	生える	haeru

The next time a subtitle says life, check which Japanese word is sitting under it. I hope you enjoyed the article. If a reading still feels unclear, leave a comment or a question.