This is a personal anecdote, but it happened last week seems relevant-ish:<p>My landlord is a hikikomori. He is around 50-60 years old, and refuses to leave his room in his house; he instead barks orders at his extremely elderly mother (we're talking older than dirt here; I wouldn't be surprised if she was older than 80).<p>She is a very kind old woman. I was shocked that he sent her to collect water money (we pay to our landlord instead of directly to the utility; they are quite wealthy and generous, so I doubt it is a scheme to extract extra cash from tenants) as I live on the third floor of a building with no elevator.<p>I found out about he was that way when I went over to their house to pay my water bill; I didn't want to make her walk up all those stairs again for the sake of around twenty dollars. My water heater was kinda-sorta broken from being quite old (probably as old as the building, so 1991).<p>She thought it was my air conditioner that was broken, and I corrected her. She stood at the open door his dark, shuttered room (this is around noon) and asked him if that was correct. He growled back in an annoyed tone "I TOLD YOU IT WAS THE WATER HEATER!"<p>Even though I told her it was fine, she apologized profusely, gave me some vegetables, and sent me on my way.<p>The whole experience was surreal...
Japanese society and education can be very demanding of young people.<p>I live in Japan and have never seen so much brainwashing on the topic of the unemployed or uneducated.<p>Besides the term hikikomori there is also NEET (Not Employed, Educated or in Training).<p>Another shocking thing is whenever an upstanding pillar of the community is shown on TV they go out of their way to mention he is a "正社員", a full time employee.<p>But when they discuss a criminal they always trot out that he's either "無職", unemployed or at least "派遣社員", a temporarily staffed person.<p>Even within companies the treatment temps get from the full timers can be cruel and uncalled for.<p>Until this society is taught to be less caste based I don't think the hikikomori problem will go away.
It's a bit hurtful that they would say "teenage laziness," when it could be depression.<p>It started when I was 12 (probably). I slowly started losing interest in doing things that I enjoyed, even more so about the things I didn't enjoy doing. By the time I was 15 I stopped caring about my future and from a straight A student I became a C/D student. When I started high school that I wanted (we have similar requirements for HS as you would need for college or university in Croatia) things were better for about a year, but I started to fade and become "numb" again. This continued throughout HS, but since my HS was mostly about sciences (physics, maths, computer science) and linguistics, so my grades didn't suffer because I found the topics interesting.<p>I am a freshman & 20 years old. I am doing better because I sought help, while everyone I lived with (mum and grandmother) thought I was just a lazy, worthless do-no-good. I should also mention that my mum has an "abusive personality," which probably contributed to my depression (and is hindering recovery, in all fairness).<p>I was lucky to have a best friend since kindergarten, who was observant enough to notice my mental and physical deterioration and supported me to find help (to paraphrase: "i will beat the fuck out of you if you don't get yourself checked for some shit").<p>I was diagnosed with MDD (Major depressive disorder). I wouldn't say I am good, yet, but I am better than I was a few years ago and I haven't thought about suicide for almost 2 months now (which I did, for 4/7 days, six months ago).<p>TL;DR: When you are depressed, it seems like the air is thick and heavy, it seems like every ray of light is trying to push you down onto your shadow, it seems like every movement you do is being countered by an invisible force and requires you to use more energy. All your thoughts are polluted with a dark tint. You have no dreams, no hopes, no desires. You just wish to escape.
Maybe they are not lazy? Maybe hiding in their rooms are the early attempts of escape, and nobody is noticing their silent cries for help.<p>P. S: Sorry for the long&sad post.
Let's look at it from another perspective.<p>Why are 20 somethings without jobs, with minimal face-to-face social skills, average to poor grades and therefore minimal career prospects, confined to their homes when a hyper-competitive, youth loving, cute/adorable/flashy/shiny-thing loving society awaits them outside?<p>When the alternative is to be involved in the antithesis of your own persona, I can imagine why the slightly <i>less</i> horrifying self-imposed withdrawal is still more attractive than the slightly <i>more</i> horrifying "outside". Despite the blatantly obvious effect it may have on your life.<p>Source: 2 Close pals in Shiogama living together (one who had to deal with the other's hikikomori ways).
This isn't only in Japan, it is a phenomenon that is spreading across the globe. Japan is first hit because of the strong disparities between generations. Truth is, the internet brought about a lot of things so one could have a constant "window out" from a single room. Most of us know precisely what I am talking about.<p>I would like to theorize that this is only one of the things that facilitate such isolation by making it more tolerable. What pushes people IN is the social reflection. Misfits often get shunned for being different. Tack all that on top of the social networks and the compound strength can be overwhelming:
This generation is the first generation EVER to get to observe first-hand how their failure compares to their 5th grade friend Jimbo, who's now a doctor. And Suzan has had 2 kids. Meanwhile Jack constantly posts pictures of his new cars on sites X,Y,Z. That doesn't help your self esteem when you see everyone happy and you're lonely.
Back in the days, your dad might have messed up for 3 years, but the stigma never stuck because (1) people did not have proof from the network itself and (2) he was able to "snap out of it" because he wasn't constantly reminded of others great lives (and by comparison how miserable he was) - those things would get ushered behind the blinds of hearsay, they'd be on the very periphery of your life. But now all of those haunt you, via Facebook feed and other social medias, where subconsciously we mostly try to advertise our successes.
I think it is time for psychiatry to wake up to this. I fear it will take another 50-100 years for this to be understood.<p>I wish the world would wake up and realize that WE as a society are malfunctioning and that the burden to support each-others falls on all.
Hikikomori might be a Japanese term, but its not a Japanese phenomenon. I know dozens of my American friends who do the same thing -- hide from seemingly unprecedented expectations and similarly daunting odds, hide from society in alcohol, in television, in dual 2560x1600 monitors, even in exercise.<p>(My room was video games, and I'm glad I found the doorknob.)
I think the simplest explanation is the one always ignored. Japan is a tough place to live and raise a family. It's super expensive, the economy has been in a funk for a long time, the work hours are widely known to be brutally long, people don't know anything but work and sleep over there. When one is confronted by this harsh reality, one wonders, what's the point? So they either commit suicide, which Japan ranks amongst the highest in the world, or they just withdraw from society.<p>And look at Japan's demographic trends. It's like all of the young people just said to hell with it and are not procreating anymore. I don't blame them either. If all I had to look forward to in life is a meaningless existence of an 80 hr work week to support a small family, I would probably not even go there.
Honestly, I don't know if I'd blame them.
Japanese society, particularly with regard to sociological structure has a lot to be desired.<p>Recruiting practice heavily centered to "new graduates" (which means if you don't get hired in the year you are graduating, you are screwed.)<p>Even if you do land on a job, then unpaid overtime being norm rather than exception.<p>Across the field, quality of output from any jobs in Japan are insanely high compared to many of countries; and basically workers end up paying the cost of that. (and many of them involving unpaid hours and over the top expectations) And I can certainly understand people exhausted to end up in the state of "Hikikomori."<p>It is a nice place to visit, but living there can be tough...
This hit like a ton of bricks. There are days when I could easily identify with these Japanese men. On the days where I'm more outgoing, confident, and social, I've noticed that feeling productive -- and what I deem to be "happiness" -- go hand-in-hand. It could be something as simple as helping a friend set up their wireless router or tutoring my niece in math. It's almost as if I <i>allow</i> myself to be a part of society once I feel like I've earned it -- as silly as this may sound to those who haven't experienced this phenomenon. Ultimately, and I'm not saying it's a panacea, but what never fails for me is to attain some feeling of productivity or importance.<p>When I was a kid, my dad told me something that has always stuck with me: "Pretend like everyone you meet has the following sentence stamped on their forehead: 'I want to feel important'".
Anecdotally, the phenomenon is exacerbated by many people with varying degrees of untreated depression. (A disease which Japan addresses shockingly poorly, even by the standards of Japanese mental health care, which is shockingly poor even considering that mental health care lags treatment of other illnesses virtually everywhere.)
<i>"I was very well mentally, but my parents pushed me the way I didn't want to go," he says. "My father is an artist and he runs his own business - he wanted me to do the same." But Matsu wanted to become a computer programmer in a large firm - one of corporate Japan's army of "salarymen. But my father said: 'In the future there won't be a society like that.' He said: 'Don't become a salaryman.'"</i><p>Starting your own SaaS/app/startup isn't that common for Japanese people, but it is starting to pick up more steam over the past few years. Sounds like his father would be happy to know what he can do with his computer skills if he expands out to becoming an entrepreneur.<p>A bit of a wasted opportunity there, that I wish someone could have explained the opportunities available to him instead of becoming hikikomori.
I have to admit I was frightened when I heard of hikikomori. I am not Japanese, but I have a tendency for staying at home, sometimes for as much as a couple or three days. I thought I might be or end up like them.<p>I have what you would call a successfull full-time job as a programmer and my tendency for staying home was so that I could hack on things I wanted. The pressure however to try and stay ahead of the curve has always been there. Some of it came from parents and society (I'm not American either) but I would say most of it came from me seeing no future ahead of me if I got stuck at the country I was from. I would have gotten by, but I doubt I'd be happy. I'd be on a grim path. I probably felt I was a bit ahead of this curve to not be affected, but now that I'm getting older (35) I'm starting to wonder if I really fenced it off. I'm still unmarried and like to stay home; just in a different country.<p>What makes it hard for me to connect is not a presence of pressure to do well, but a lack of authenticity in people or events going around in the several places I've lived in the US. I'm talking about a connection. Even as a teenager I would feel some sort of connection with people around me. Now it seems there isn't enough of a will in people to do the same. Whatever dense ingredient was there has now dissipated or distributed over by time or a larger moving population.<p>When I read of hikikomori, I ended up writing a blog/site to record such connections. Here it is if you find it useful: hikigo com. I like these small reminders that there's enough beauty if you care enough to observe it. I never posted this site anywhere until now, because the anonymity of it is what i like most about it - as a sort of protest to the social Facebook pressure.<p>I hope it stays that way.
If I had the money I would probably stay at home all the time as well. I have no problem socializing and doing stuff. It's just that I prefer being home.
I am ignorant of the deep aspects of Japanese culture, but my suspicion is that it's a high-pressure society that uses shame heavily in the false belief that shame is a motivator. In reality excessive shame generally produces withdrawal, demotivation, and depression.<p>Combine this with the demographics -- it's very hard for young people to work their way up in an elder-dominated culture -- and you have a recipe for irrational expectations followed by shame and withdrawal.<p>That's my outsider suspicion.
There are degrees of isolation. Paul Graham talked about suburbs being a place designed to raise children. He said that as you grow older a suburb starts to seem fake. Another reason suburbs seem fake is their demographics. A place designed to raise children will primarily have children in it. After a certain age it is no longer acceptable to talk to kids as equals. You bite your tongue and talk in a sing song voice or risk the ire of parental suspicion. In their eyes anyone who would <i>want</i> to talk to a child is a pedophile or other bogeyman.<p>You have friends who grow up with you. A few generations of teens live in your town at best. Should they not enjoy your company you are SOL. Adults are suspicious of your youth, energetic youngsters scare them. They are held to the same sort of rule about talking to children except to them you are a child. That in mind it should not be hard to imagine how you end up a social pariah in the Americas.<p>You know there is somebody else out there just like you. You will never meet them because they are inside just like you. The large pool of bored kids that hang out on IRC and talk about whatever it is other kids talk about has dried up. Twitter is not a replacement. Facebook is not a replacement. Those services are localist. They focus on the people you know in your town.<p>When you have nobody to talk to books become your conversation partners. Stacks of them in a sort of personal library. What F. T. Marinetti called "Public dormitories where you sleep side by side for ever with beings you hate or do not know.". You start to hate yourself for not reading them. You start to hate yourself <i>for</i> reading them. You desperately want to talk about what you are reading yet you know it is boring and nobody wants to listen.<p>The loneliness starts to break you. It eats away at your sanity. You start daydreaming of smashing the monitor that glows against your face in the night. Throwing the books from piles into the walls their pages slamming into drawers and dressers. Pages litter the floor as you step forward to the CRT television and knock it from the stand. Blood trails behind your step as the glass cuts your feet coagulating into a pool around you. Sitting in the fetal position against the wall of that destroyed room looking up at the face of your shocked mother.<p>"Son, I think you need to see a doctor." she says in an almost whisper.<p>"I know" you whisper back.
I noticed a gender focus : why are so many Japanese MEN refusing to leave their rooms?<p>I found a research report on the topic which basically seems to say that Hikikomori women are probably labeled as "Parasite Singles" rather than Hikikomori, but if the two sets of youth were considered as one, the distribution by gender would be closer to 50:50 rather than the impression that the media serves to give that is is almost always a man :
<a href="http://towakudai.blogs.com/Hikikomori_as_Gendered_Issue.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://towakudai.blogs.com/Hikikomori_as_Gendered_Issue.pdf</a>
The article states that the expert thinks it's a problem in Korea and Italy, too. I can't speak for Italy as I've never been there, but it is definitely not common in Korea. Yes, Koreans live with their parents until they're married, typically, and yes, some Korean males are kind of shut-ins, but it's definitely not a phenomenon here like it is with our neighbors across the East Sea.<p>I can't say for certain what caused the differences between Japan and Korea despite the countries have very similar cultural and historical backgrounds, including economically, but for whatever reason that's kind of unheard of here.
On this topic, I recommend to watch a movie called Tokyo [1]. It's in fact 3 short films. One of them is about Hikikomori. Very well done indie series.<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976060/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976060/</a>
They were discouraged and discouraged and discouraged, as if they were conditioned to be discouraged. They've decided to escape the loop altogether, by shutting off the sources of discouragement, or social interactions.
There's a good anime/manga about the subject, called "Welcome to NHK" (NHK = Nihon Hikkikomori, not the TV station with the same name). It captures the situation pretty well.
Asians in general have a high probability of genetically having less Oxytocin receptors. Oxytocin affects levels of self-esteem and optimism. It also has a strong effect on whether stress causes a person to withdraw from social situations or to seek help from others. It also affects empathy in a society.<p>The withdrawal symptoms shown in this article, and subsequent scorn by Japanese society (rather than sympathy) could be a indicator of this genetic predisposition.<p>Here is a breakdown of oxytocin receptiveness across some common racial groups. The more G's you have, the more resilient and social you are.<p><a href="http://browser.1000genomes.org/Homo_sapiens/Variation/Population?r=3:8803871-8804871;v=rs53576;vdb=variation;vf=40343" rel="nofollow">http://browser.1000genomes.org/Homo_sapiens/Variation/Popula...</a><p>Also the wikipedia article on oxytocin might be of interest for anyone who has Aspergers or Autistic tendencies.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin</a><p>It's interesting to ponder Oxytocin's effect on Asian culture as a whole... confucianism, book smarts, wrote memorization, suffer in silence, etc.
From the BBC article: "For a time one company operating in Nagoya could be hired by parents to burst into their children's rooms, give them a big dressing down, and forcibly drag them away to a dormitory to learn the error of their ways."<p>I was just thinking of starting up something like this in Australia, but just realised the bikies (e.g., Hell's Angels, Nomad, Rebels etc) already do something very similar.
Well, I highly doubt that generational social issues are going to stay confined to Japan, and I would argue that they are already common around the world at large. Here in the West, people ranging from 18 to 30 are seeing higher unemployment and higher debt levels as educational costs rise. A lot of us visiting this site may not see this as unemployment within the IT sector is not as high as other sectors, but many of my friends fit the category of highly educated and unemployed.<p>A few of my friends have taken to getting 3 part time pink collar jobs to try and make it on their own. They sleep maybe 4 hours each night, a little more on weekends. Some would argue that this problem is related to degrees that are not useful in the job market, but in older generations only 1/3 of the population had attended college... yet those over 60 hold over 3/4 of the USA's wealth.
Reminds me of Bartleby the Scriviner.<p>I'd guess that the widespread "major depression" aspect may be based in an acute perception (may or not be accurate or accurately portrayed) of what life is like for many Nippon men.<p>Thankless and sweatshop-like work, heavy drinking, the high value of socialization and lack of individuation. Not a surprise, then if "most men lead lives of quiet desperation" as they did when Thoreau recognized the fact.<p>If this is happening to young teens (sad) maybe they cannot see a "road less travelled". Homogenization of options is not good for everyone's mental health.
From a medical perspective, I'd worry that many of these folks suffer from major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder.<p>This is not to pathologize behaviors people choose which don't interfere with quality of life, but my gut reaction is that many of those described in the article would benefit from treatment with psychotherapy and/or medication. However, I'm told that significant stigma is attached to seeking evaluation and treatment for such issues in Japan (and obviously elsewhere, including the west).
So is this distinct enough from regular 'ol depression that it qualifies as a culture-bound syndrome like <i>Taijin kyofusho</i>?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture-bound_syndrome" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture-bound_syndrome</a>
The cultural factors mentioned in the article all sound plausible; I wonder if it has anything to do with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink</a>
<i>The trigger for a boy retreating to his bedroom might be comparatively slight - poor grades or a broken heart, for example - but the withdrawal itself can become a source of trauma. And powerful social forces can conspire to keep him there.</i><p>My observation is that mental illness often has a hurricane-like property wherein the storm is bearable but the social fallout (looting, arson, opportunistic crime) afterward is far more destructive. The disease itself is unpleasant but bearable. People are not.<p>In a high-stress society like corporate life in the U.S. or Japan, everyone will have deviances from perfect mental function. One would wish for them to have negative autocorrelation (self-correction). Instead, those deviations are often pushed <i>further</i> by external forces. Sometimes it's intentional (ambitious rivals want to thin out competition) but normally it's just an artifact of the stupid stigmas around these diseases. ("He's depressed, not a team player.")<p>People <i>really</i> don't understand these problems. They think a "panic attack" is that time they hit a heart rate of 120 because they drank too much caffeine before a deadline. No, that's not panic (that's mild anxiety). Panic attacks throw about 50 different symptoms (you have to have a few before you see them all) of which any one of them would feel like an acute, life-threatening crisis to a sane person. Almost everyone who has a true panic attack will end up in the ER, the first time. You have to cycle through all of the bizarre symptoms a few times before you realize that the attacks aren't dangerous. Once you've learned this, they're just annoying ("shit, there goes the next 10 minutes") but the first few attacks are devastating because they feel <i>real</i>.<p>I also think that the corporate world <i>creates</i> laziness and depression, not in the blase Dilbert sense, but because people who are conditioned to associate work with subordination turn either into disengaged clock-punchers (steal from the system, because it will steal from you) or useless, delegating executives. We think our society values <i>work</i>, but given the increasing association between work and subordination, isn't that indicative of the opposite?<p>Society effectively programs people to lose motivation and shut down, then stigmatizes people who do so-- whether because of conditioning or an unrelated biological problem-- even if it's only for a week or two. I think the "test" of the dues-paying grunt work is whether a person can keep going in spite of recurring negative signals (subordination, artificially delayed advancement, repetitive busy-work without the leeway to automate it or render it unnecessary) but the truth is that that's a stupid fucking test.
Hikikomori, momorikiki. Those are usual mental health problems such as depression (probably, around 98%), psychopathy, or mental retardation. Those guys just need to see the doctor, a psychotherapist.<p>Giving them tags and doing nothing about their problems is just uncivilized, such as in developing countries where most people are uneducated, the people with rare physical diseases who desperately need help get alienated or are made fun of.