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Iyashikei is a Japanese genre that, according to Japanese studies scholar Paul Roquet, tells stories that are designed to comfort and heal weary readers by creating an aesthetic of calm. In order to achieve this, as Roquet articulates, these stories are presented as tales with little or no plot conflict.

That simple idea is, however, somewhat antithetical to longstanding western storytelling traditions, where conflict has been considered key to plot development.

Screenwriting guru Robert McKee simply states that "nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict."

Yet, instead of conflict, iyashikei typically provides, as educator Patricia Thang notes, "a feeling of warmth and comfort, like curling up in a big blanket with a cup of tea and fuzzy socks."

Iyashikei comes from "iyashi," which can be translated as "healing," "soothing" or even "therapy," and "kei," which means "type," notes Roquet. He links the emergence of iyashikei to Japan's economic downturn in the 1990s, where iyashi cultural outputs began operating across a wide array of media (including anime and manga, but also literature, commercials and cinema).

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