Japan’s Hikikomori Phenomenon

We all feel lonely at times, but what is it like to be alone for a really long time — months or even years? What is it like to become a shut-in and spend your life confined to a single room equipped with only a bed, a computer, and, perhaps, a TV? Welcome to Japan’s world of hikikomori!

The word “hikikomori” literally means “pulling inward” or “being confined” and refers to people who withdraw from society and have very little face-to-face contact with others for a prolonged period of time. This social withdrawal typically lasts for at least six months. Hikikomori can also have other mental health conditions, although social withdrawal itself is the defining feature. Although hikikomori has traditionally been associated mostly with men, women can be affected too.

According to a Japanese government estimate, there were about 540,000 hikikomori under the age of 40 in 2016. The real number has always been difficult to determine, particularly because people living in extreme isolation may never come into contact with services or researchers.

Young hikikomori often start by refusing to go to school and go downhill from there. Oftentimes there will be a trigger — an extremely stressful event — that pushes a person to seek refuge in the seclusion of their home. For school-aged hikikomori, it may be bullying or being unable to keep up with their studies.

After two or three years of seclusion, their friends and former classmates may have graduated, started working, and become more integrated into society while the hikikomori person feels increasingly left behind. This can make returning even more difficult and lead them to withdraw further.

In a sense, withdrawal can become a way of dealing with the stress that comes with being a member of a highly competitive society. Other people feel that stress too, of course, but not everyone deals with it in the same way.

“In the economic boom times, men became completely wrapped up in their work. Dads didn’t participate in family life, and they were always working. Moms, left to do almost all the parenting, became obsessed with education, teaching their kids things. This became a common societal model for raising children,” says Teruo Miyanishi, emeritus professor at Wakayama University.

After a few years of seclusion, hikikomori may begin to fear that the world will never accept them. People’s judgment — being called lazy or a slacker — can become another major concern. Some hikikomori will go out only for bare necessities, such as food shopping, while others manage to avoid going out altogether and rely on family members to provide them with food and everything else they need.

Hikikomori may pass the time watching movies, playing games, browsing the Web, and, if they choose to communicate with the outside world at all, they may do that through the Internet too.

While some hikikomori report feeling sad, lonely, or unwell, others say they actually prefer this lifestyle and feel they can do what they want while remaining safe and secure. Some become extremely uninterested in the outside world and, as long as they have some source of financial support — either their own or their parents’ — may rarely leave home.

“I had only one parent, and I thought if I don’t start working, it will be really tough for everyone,” confesses one former hikikomori in an interview with RTD channel. By the time he realized what had happened, he was already 35 or 36 years old.

One may wonder whether the phenomenon could continue to exist if families refused to care for their hikikomori relatives. In reality, simply withdrawing support can create serious problems. Someone who has lived in isolation for years may have difficulty working, managing everyday responsibilities, or suddenly supporting themselves.

Families therefore often find themselves in a very difficult position. They may want to encourage the person to become more independent while also being afraid of what could happen if they suddenly stop providing support.

Despite the fact that many hikikomori depend heavily on their parents, family relationships themselves can also be complicated. Some hikikomori describe feeling that they did not receive enough emotional support as children or that expectations placed on them were too high.

If a hikikomori person does decide to go out, it can help to know that there is somewhere safe to go. In some areas, support centers and groups exist specifically to encourage socially withdrawn people to gradually leave their homes, communicate with others, and begin participating in society again.

There have also been controversial services in Japan that promise families they can force socially withdrawn people out of their homes. Such aggressive approaches have been heavily criticized because forcing someone out does not necessarily address the reasons behind their withdrawal and can make the situation worse.

Hikikomori became such a recognized phenomenon in Japan that there was even a publication called “Hikikomori News,” founded by Naohiro Kimura, who had experienced hikikomori himself. It was essentially a newspaper for hikikomori by hikikomori.

Ironically, working on the newspaper encouraged some writers to gradually become accustomed to going out and communicating with other people because they needed to attend editorial meetings. Some eventually reintegrated into society and stopped writing for “Hikikomori News.”

Hikikomori was originally described as a particularly Japanese phenomenon and is still strongly associated with Japan. “It’s a society that’s not very accepting of mistakes, so if people do make a mistake, they become ashamed and basically retreat to their home,” says Kimura.

However, similar patterns of prolonged social withdrawal have since been reported in other countries as well. This has led researchers to question whether hikikomori is uniquely Japanese or whether Japan was simply the first country where this particular form of extreme social withdrawal was widely recognized and studied.