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Islands of solitude: hikikomori

thomas

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I wanted to post two insightful articles dealing with one of Japan's pressing social issues: social withdrawal. Recluses are known as hikikomori (引き籠り).

The first article published last December was written by Dr. Sekiguchi, a psychiatrist, who estimates that about one million recluses live in Japan:

Islands of Solitude: A Psychiatrist's View of the "Hikikomori"

In Japan today, many young people are disconnecting themselves from society. They have come to be known as hikikomori (recluses), or more formally shakaiteki (social) hikikomori. Though their existence is widely recognized, their true situation is still far from being generally understood. They all have different backgrounds and circumstances and have withdrawn from society for different reasons. So, what can we say about this disparate group?

First, a definition: Hikikomori are individuals who (1) do not work or attend educational institutions, (2) are not considered to have a mental disorder, but (3) have remained at home for six months or longer without interacting personally with anyone outside their families. The third point is the most important. These people have no friends and are isolated from society, even though they may be living in the middle of a teeming city.

Some say there are as many as 1 million hikikomori in Japan. Add to that figure the 2 million parents who may have lived with them for decades and the sum comes to almost 3% of the population over 20 years old. This is a number that cannot be ignored. It demonstrates the immense scale of this social issue. Even so, many people remain indifferent.

One widely held view is that hikikomori are lazy or spoiled by parents who are willing to support their jobless offspring. I would like to emphasize that nobody becomes a social recluse because they enjoy it. If it were truly a case of being lazy or spoiled, why do hikikomoriand their parents suffer so much?

The article, translated by Nippon.com, was originally published by Hikikomori News, an online magazine published by a support group that collaborates with counsellors and psychiatrists.

The other article was published last Thursday by JT and takes a closer look at the situation of older recluses.

Japan's older hikikomori live in isolation, shunning society for years

Until recently it was thought to be an issue mainly afflicting those in their teens and 20s, but aging Japan is seeing a growing number of older hikikomori cloistering themselves away for longer periods of time. There are more than half a million hikikomori in Japan — according to the latest government survey published in 2016 — defined as people who have stayed home for more than six months without going to school or work and interacting with no one other than family. However, this underestimates the scale of the issue as it only counts people under the age of 39 and the government has now decided to conduct the country's first survey of hikikomori aged between 40 and 59. [...]

In the 2016 survey, more than one third of hikikomori said they had withdrawn from society for more than seven years, up from 16.9 percent of such cases in a 2009 survey. As hikikomori age and shut themselves away for longer periods, this places more pressure on elderly parents, both financially and emotionally. "Maybe it's common overseas that grown-up offspring leave their parents' home, but in Japan, parents let them stay," said Ikeda, the clinical psychologist. Rika Ueda, who works for the nonprofit that supports parents of hikikomori, says social stigma can make the situation worse. "Families with hikikomori children are very ashamed of themselves … They hide their situation from their community and become isolated" without being able to seek help, Ueda said.

We have a similar case in our neighbourhood. The gentleman, in his 50s, was lucky enough to inherit his parents' house; he leaves his domicile only after midnight to stock up and to satisfy his obvious hoarding compulsion.
 
More likely due to defects in the society than those individuals. Perhaps these guys, after seeing that society demands they be emotionless work robots, say "no thanks, I'm staying home". Not a good thing, but sounds reasonable. "Please reassume your duty as meat for our grinder" just ain't that enticing.

So perhaps the welfare should be directed at everyone who's not a recluse.
 
I'm a layperson in Japanese society, but I think it's society withdrawing form these people than they choosing to do so. The way I see it Japanese society is like a moving train and people need to leap on while it's moving. There are simply little or no choices for majority of people. I read a lot of Japanese documentaries by the way.

Everyone literally have to do what society wants them to do without failure. "Their living is literally reaching a quota" It is so different from where I live, I live in a society you can choose to do whatever you wish even drugs at Insite here in Vancouver(I don't do drugs but insite is a real thing :p )
 
I'm a layperson in Japanese society, but I think it's society withdrawing form these people than they choosing to do so. The way I see it Japanese society is like a moving train and people need to leap on while it's moving. There are simply little or no choices for majority of people. I read a lot of Japanese documentaries by the way.

Everyone literally have to do what society wants them to do without failure. "Their living is literally reaching a quota" It is so different from where I live, I live in a society you can choose to do whatever you wish even drugs at Insite here in Vancouver(I don't do drugs but insite is a real thing :emoji_stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

I live in the US, and here I'm sure is a lot different from Japan. We have a little more freedom and laxness in the culture.

Japan still carries its imperialist culture, and everyone is expected to (indirectly) work to further the country's progression. So I understand that it's like endless meat into a grinder.

But is it true for everyone? In the US if you're mediocre and land a cubicle job, you'll be facing the same grind and attempting to climb the corporate ladder. But in the US, if you're intelligent, you can land white collar careers in science, medicine, engineering, law, etc.. Are the Japanese scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers dealing with the same grind?

So maybe it's the same in both countries?
 
But is it true for everyone? In the US if you're mediocre and land a cubicle job, you'll be facing the same grind and attempting to climb the corporate ladder. But in the US, if you're intelligent, you can land white collar careers in science, medicine, engineering, law, etc.. Are the Japanese scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers dealing with the same grind?
So maybe it's the same in both countries?

Here in Japan they deal with the same grind, no matter what job they do.
 
Is it really? Even doctors? Surely that makes no sense...

Why does it not make sense?

Japan is a rule based group culture, where everyone follows the rules that society expects and one of those rules is that they maintain the harmony, as a result some become hikikomori and others just accept and work in jobs where they have never taken/received a days paid holiday.
 
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If you think Japan is merely a 'work' society, look into furitas and neetos. There are a lot of socially active people who opt out of Japan's workaholic culture... and many Japanese panic about them eroding society, or they did when the terms came out at least. The hikikomori issue seems to me at least a self-esteem and entitlement issue, almost the inverse of America where kids are raised thinking they are way better than they are or deserve, in Japan too many people think they are nothing. I wish every person here knew they were important.
 
We have some students like this at our high school. They're just in a state where they just can't stand relationships with others. Most of them are in a slump, or most likely utterly depressed. But they don't go to see a specialist, they just wait at home. They could get better for a lot of them if they'd take some medicine or go under a psy treatment. But their families are so passive, not knowing what to do, not accepting the evidence...
 
The New York Post on the American version of hikikomori:

Some 6,000 miles away, the United States is experiencing its own form of hikikomori. During a recent interview with Chris Williamson, a British podcaster based in Austin, Texas, the political economist Nicholas Eberstadt discussed the fact that 7 million men of prime working age are currently without employment and not seeking jobs. Many of these men, said Eberstadt, spend inordinate amounts of time indoors, totally withdrawn from society.

One of the (to me) surprising causes:

Work carried out by academics at Kyushu University in Japan has found that a low testosterone level is one of the common metabolic signatures of hikikomori in young social recluses — which is important to note because testosterone levels among young American men are plummeting and have been for years. The drop now reportedly affects 1 in 4 men in the US. It's commonly assumed that testosterone fuels anti-social behavior.


 
Retirement can be a bit like this and I'm sure many older people suffer a similar fate. I've outlived all my friends and if it were not for the internet , my wife would be my only social contact. It seems a cruel thing to go through for the young.
 
I am not a social person. But when I was a kid I played with various kids in the neighborhood and entered probably every door. I spent most of my time outside, often alone, wandering, making things, finding things.

Now I live in the countryside in Japan. I hardly ever see kids anywhere. Where and when do I see them? Walking to and from school, or shopping with the family.

Even a rudimentary understanding of evolution would inform you that this is no way for children to develop. Even a limited imagination regarding how kids grew up in nations of the past will inform you that this modern Japan is completely devoid of all the basic things kids experienced. Of course many are withdrawn now! You can't get something from nothing! Kids are like sponges and they need tons of experiences and information to form a self and its got to be varied and its best if all 5 senses can be employed. They need other kids and two way communication at their level. But they also need contact with other adults besides their parents. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Its true!

These things are just completely obvious.

It more difficult to see why Japan has created a society like this, but I think it has a lot to with excessive worry and a desire for safety, but neither of those concerns have been addressed with proper solutions.

For example, even in my country area, its not exactly safe to go take a stroll or ride a bike. The roads are narrow and the drivers drive much too fast, blind curves be damned. The solution should have been to crack down on speeding drivers. Instead, they tend to keep the kids indoors. I have yelled at and even stopped cars in front of my house and these people just think I am a crazy old man. And some of these blockheads actually unbuckled kids in the car as they fly down the lane!

Another point is the number of kids raised in apartments because the adults want somewhere new and pristine to live in rather than an old house they could afford....something with a yard.

Raising kids in an apartment or high rise condo is just criminal unless the place has quick access to a large wooded park and a few open play areas of some kind, but I have not seen much of that.
 
And the situation may be even worse in other developed countries. My boys have had a relatively high degree of autonomy as they've grown up, with my younger son spending most of his time out with friends in the local area since he was about eleven and my older son regularly cycling several kilometres to football practice when he was twelve. A lot of my friends in the UK wouldn't even give their children that amount of freedom for fear of traffic accidents.

We bought a large old house on the ground rather than a small new apartment in the sky (a garden was beyond our income though).
 
"The American version of hikikomori" has always existed.

Anti-social/depressed/suffering from social anxiety children and adults have always existed in almost every developed country. (Hey, I should know because I was one many years ago and have come full circle to now be one again! Isn't that fun?)

Just because Japanese has a word from it doesn't mean it's some phenomenon unique to Japan, nor does it mean that Japan as a country or Japanese people as a people are uniquely socially inadequate or inadept or whatever.

It just means there's a word for it and Western cultures like to look down on and point fingers at Japan, as if they don't have both (1) similar problems, and (2) other problems that Japan doesn't have.

Not to say that the Japanese government and Japanese sociologists and whatever shouldn't be trying to help these people, but other cultures pointing fingers at Japan or looking at Japan as some exotic, bizarre place where -- gasp! -- people suffer from social anxiety! Oh my god! Those poor, socially-underdeveloped-and-inhibited-Japanese! -- isn't doing jack ******* **** for anyone. It's virtue signalling of the absolute worst type -- the type where people who have zero understanding of another culture get white savior syndrome and think they know how to fix everything.

It's ridiculous, is what it is.

For all of the talk about America being more proactive about mental health, accepting of individual differences, etc. etc., you still have people withdrawing from society and isolating themselves more and more.

Honestly, the biggest difference between those sort of people in America and the "hikikomori" in Japan is that the latter are far, far less likely by several orders of magnitude to shoot people up and cause double-digit deaths or injuries on a literally every-other-week basis as seems to be the case in the "enlightened" US of A.
 
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Having lived here for almost twenty years and stated in a recent comment that Japan seems to be working much better than Britain, I hope you'll trust my following observation is not one based on a sense of western superiority. Judging from hikkikomori I've talked to online and a book on them that I've read, there is very much a specific element to the problem in Japan. That is, people have experienced bullying and ostracism at school or in the workplace, and because of the lack of options they have felt they have in a society that defines what you can do very narrowly, they have simply felt that they have nowhere to go to, so have shut themselves away. In short, a lack of plurality in Japan has added to the problem. The book also suggested that the Japanese concept of amae may be a contributing factor: parents' indulgence of their children's 'weaknesses' making it possible for adults to financially depend on their parents for decades.

I also suspect the problem is increasing in other developed countries, particularly with the increased incidence of mental health problems and the proliferation of supportive online communities catering to all interests.
 
Judging from hikkikomori I've talked to online and a book on them that I've read, there is very much a specific element to the problem in Japan. That is, people have experienced bullying and ostracism at school or in the workplace, and because of the lack of options they have felt they have in a society that defines what you can do very narrowly,
Well, I was bullied in America (which, despite what everyone wants to say, is not some enlightened dreamworld) and came to Japan and found a better life for myself.

So what do you want to say to me based upon a book you read and some people you talked to?

Does America and Britain really value everyone and allow them to live their best life?

Please.
 
Well, I was bullied in America (which, despite what everyone wants to say, is not some enlightened dreamworld) and came to Japan and found a better life for myself.

So what do you want to say to me based upon a book you read and some people you talked to?

Does America and Britain really value everyone and allow them to live their best life?

Please.
I want to say to you what I said. That there are factors in Japan that exacerbate the situation.

The answer to the last question is obviously no. As you're perfectly aware.
 
I want to say to you what I said. That there are factors in Japan that exacerbate the situation.

I can neither confirm nor deny this.

But I can agree there are different forms, modes and reasons.

In fact, I am sure there is quite a lot of variety in both countries and neither country can be said to have a single, easy to define cause.

I think its a complicated problem, and I have not really even begun to give it serious thought. I might have some actual answers in time, but a cursory look tells me, this is multi-faceted.
 
Honestly, the biggest difference between those sort of people in America and the "hikikomori" in Japan is that the latter are far, far less likely by several orders of magnitude to shoot people up and cause double-digit deaths or injuries on a literally every-other-week basis as seems to be the case in the "enlightened" US of A.
I really haven't seen the connection between the US version of "hikikomori" and the mas-shootings. I'm curious what brought you to that conclusion?

Its seems to me that mas-shootings, or mas-killings by other means, typically fall into one of the following categories just about everywhere they occur:
  • Extremists (religious, ideological, political, etc)
  • Revenge
  • Mental health issues
  • Notoriety
  • A mix of the above
There may be some component of anti-social behavior but it seems like most people with social anxiety would prefer to not draw attention to themselves or really go out in public at all.
 
I wonder if the internet and computers has anything to do with it? Before covid , I was always out and about. Due to my age and a few friends dying of covid , I started staying in. To kill time I got on Facebook and other things and found it super addicting. I spend 8 hours or more on the internet and only leave my house now once or twice a month when I have to. I find internet friends much easier to deal with than face to face friends. My excuse is age & health issues , but I can see where young people could be affected by computer addiction. Seems cell phone addiction is similar to internet addiction ; just a thought.
 
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