Japan is sending a team of experts to Bhutan to assist the remote Himalayan kingdom in measuring its Gross National Happiness. Bhutan has long been famed for its unusual policies of focusing on the nation’s well-being via its happiness levels as opposed to more conventional gross domestic product.
The kingdom’s government, based in Thimphu, is clearly keen for its Gross National Happiness survey to be taken as seriously as possible and has enlisted the help of Japan to improve its accuracy.
A team of three experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the nation’s foreign aid body, are preparing to travel to Bhutan later this year to conduct a sample happiness survey.
The goal of the experts, who specialize in social metrics, will be to boost the accuracy of the way Bhutan measures the prosperity of the nation via the happiness of its 742,000-strong population.
