Written at Thirty-Five: A Philosopher of Your Generation on Feeling Lost
Why do so many feel lost in their 20s and 30s? Takahiro Mitsui wrote this on his own thirty-fifth birthday, as a philosopher of your generation, born in 1991, alive today and figuring it out alongside you. His field report: countless people lose sight of themselves at this age, between standing firm at thirty and having no doubts at forty, and thorough introspection and trial and error now decide the future that follows.
If you are in your 20s or 30s
Takahiro Mitsui's field report (The boundary between standing and certainty, 2026-01-24, written on his thirty-fifth birthday): in the theory of seven-year cycles, twenty-eight to thirty-five is a period of spiritual crisis, a shift from outward expansion to inner growth; countless people lose sight of themselves at this age.
Countless people lose sight of themselves at this age, which is why thorough introspection and trial and error at thirty-five seem to me vital for the future that follows.
The preceding fifth cycle, from twenty-eight to thirty-five, is defined as a period of spiritual crisis, a time for shifting from outward expansion to the polishing and deepening of inner growth.
Between standing firm and having no doubts
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (The boundary between standing and certainty, 2026-01-24): thirty-five lies on the boundary between Confucius's thirty and forty, a period of trial in which the question is whether you can remain standing.
Confucius, the sage of ancient Confucianism, said: "At thirty, I stood firm; at forty, I had no doubts." If thirty marks standing on one's own feet and forty marks freedom from doubt, then thirty-five lies squarely on the boundary between them.
This age is therefore a period of trial: swayed left and right by great currents, can we remain standing to the very end?
Alive today, figuring it out alongside you
Takahiro Mitsui, a Japanese philosopher born in 1991, writes every Friday from inside Japan and outside academia, for readers in their 20s and 30s. He wrote this on the day he turned thirty-five.
I turn thirty-five today.
Until that day comes, this thirty-fifth birthday has been an occasion to brace myself anew—to fulfill my own mission, and to keep standing without ever yielding in my convictions.
Anxiety is not something to cast out
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Why wandering does not cure anxiety, 2025-12-05): the task is for each of us to find where our own anxiety comes from; anxiety is natural, and nothing in it needs to be denied.
The problem is for each of us to find out where our own anxiety comes from.
Anxiety is not something to be loathed and cast out.
Keep diving for as long as you live
Takahiro Mitsui's proposal (Project 2049 Vol.0, 2026-10-02, free in full): what remains is not to arrive but to keep diving.
What remains is to keep diving for as long as you live, and the diving itself becomes life.
Essays to read
- The boundary between standing and certainty — What happens at age 35 in life? At thirty-five, between standing and no doubt, introspection decides whether outer tides swallow us, Takahiro Mitsui writes of his own year — and a soul that chose its age, place and family before birth; written on his own thirty-fifth birthday.
- Why wandering does not cure anxiety — Why are digital nomads lonely? A young philosopher from Japan on loneliness and belonging: Takahiro Mitsui on living rootless in a drifting age, and whether the anxiety you carry is about identity or about origin.
- Keep asking in a world without answers — How to live in a world without answers? A philosopher of your generation on how to live in a world without answers: Takahiro Mitsui (b. 1991) on why the premodern and modern frameworks of meaning fell at once, and why to keep asking is the way in.
- Faith needs no argument — Are Japanese people religious? Spiritual but not religious, in his own generation: existence springs from place, Takahiro Mitsui argues, and faith and prayer lived each day need no argument, which is why calling oneself "non-religious" is deeply troubling — what the Japanese really believe in.
- Escaping the dopamine world — How do I get out of dopamine addiction and social media? Introspection is a long practice, not a pleasure, Takahiro Mitsui argues, and the world is dividing by who escapes the dopamine trap: introspection as one of the essential skills for surviving a harsh age.
- Project 2049, Vol.0 (free in full) — begin here; Project 2049 continues every Friday