Iyashikei (癒し系) is a genre specific to Japanese works, primarily manga and anime. It is a sub-genre of slice of life, portraying characters living out peaceful lives in calming environments, and is intended to have a healing effect on the audience. The word iyashikei could mean "healing type" or just "healing" in Japanese.[1][2][3] Shaenon K Garrity of Otaku USA wrote that in iyashikei works, "the focus is less on character and plot, more on worldbuilding and creating an immersive visual setting".[4]
Iyashikei originated in the late 1970s, but it emerged as a distinct subgenre in 1995, in the wake of the Great Hanshin earthquake and the Tokyo subway sarin attack. These traumatic events, combined with the economic recession, would lead to what scholar Paul Roquet calls the iyashi trend, or healing boom.[5] The trauma suffered by the Japanese public provided "the emotional context for the emergence of calm as a lucrative and marketable feeling."[5]