Hikikomori (Japanese: ひきこもり or 引き篭り) are adolescents and young adults that feel overwhelmed by the Japanese society, feel unable to fulfill their expected social roles, and react with social withdrawal. Hikikomori often refuse to leave their parent's house, and may lock themselves in a single room for months or even years. According to some estimates there may be 1 million hikikomori in Japan, or one out of 10 young men. Most of them are male, and many of them are the eldest son.

Causes of withdrawal

There is a lot of pressure on the adolescent and young adults in Japan by the Japanese society to be successful. The pressure comes from a number of different sources.

One of the biggest concerns for Japanese adolescents is their performance in the education system, where they often face significant pressure from parents and the society in general. In extreme cases the pressure starts already before pre-school, where they have to pass an entrance exam to get into the best pre-school, which prepares the children for the entrance exam of the best kindergarten, which in turn prepares the child for the entrance exam of the best primary school, junior high school, high school, and eventually for the entrance exam of the university. Many adolescents take 1 year off after high school to study exclusively for the exam hell of the university entrance exam. The higher the prestige of the university, the more difficult the exam, the most prestigious university with the most difficult exam being the University of Tokyo.

After graduating from high school or university, they also have to face a very difficult job market in Japan, often finding only part time employment and ending up as freeters with little income, unable to start a family.

Another source of pressure is from their co-students, which may harass and bully some students for a variety of reasons, as for example physical appearance, especially if they are overweight, educational and athletic performance, wealth, ethnicity, and many others. Some have been punished for bullying and truancy, bring shame to their families.

Withdrawal symptoms

While many people feel the pressure of the outside world, and may feel uncomfortable in public, a hikikomori reacts with a complete social withdrawal to avoid all the outside pressure. They, usually male, may lock themselves into their bedroom or another room of their parent's house for prolonged periods of time, often measured in years. They usually do not have any friends, mostly sleeping all day long and watching TV or playing computer games throughout the night. This makes them an extreme case of parasite singles.

The withdrawal from society usually starts gradually before the hikikomori locks the door of his room. Often they appear unhappy, lose their friends, become insecure, shy, and talk less. Frequently they are bullied at school, which may be the final trigger for the withdrawal.

Reaction of the parents

Having a hikikomori in the family is usually considered an internal private matter of the family, and many parents wait for a long time before seeking psychological counsel. Also, in Japan the education of the children is traditionally done by the mother, and the father may leave the problem of a hikikomori to the mother, who feels very protective to her child. Initially, most parents simply wait and hope that the child will eventually overcome his problems and return to society by his own will. They see it as a phase the child has to overcome. Also, many parents are uncertain about what to do with a hikikomori, and wait simply due to lack of other options. An aggressive approach by the parents forcing the child back into society is usually not taken or only after a considerable waiting period.

Having a hikikomori in the family is often embarrassing to the family and considered a private internal matter of the family in Japan. The schools and social workers may make inquiries, but usually do not get involved into the situation.

Effects on the hikikomori

The lack of social contact and prolonged solitude has a profound effect on the mentality of the hikikomori, who gradually loses their social skills and the necessary social references and mores of the outside world. Anguished about their isolation and acutely self aware of their problem, they immerse themselves into the fantasy worlds of manga, television or computer games, which in turn becomes their only frame of reference. As time passes, the hikikomori, lacking interpersonal stimulus, developmentally stagnates into routine behaviors of sleeping all day and staying up all night only to sneak out into the kitchen for food when the family is asleep. Eventually, hikikomori may abandon their diversions of books and TV and simply stare into space for hours at a time.

If the hikikomori finally - often after several years - re-emerges voluntarily or through the aid of a care worker, they must face the problem of lacking social skills and years of education that their peers already posses through normal daily interaction with society. Also making reentry into society difficult for recovered hikikomori is the recent social stigma that has come to be attached to the condition due to mass media attention since 1998. The fear exists that others will discover their hikikomori past, and so they often feel uncertain around people, especially strangers, in how they should act. Also detrimental is the fact they lack a work history, making anything beyond menial labor jobs difficult to acquire.

Their fear of the social pressure and the inability to effect change in their situation may also turn into frustration or even anger— some hikikomori have even physically attacked their parents, though most of the time anger manifests in others ways such as nightly harassment by banging on walls while the rest of the family sleeps.

This hostility often arises when parents continue to exert pressure on the hikikomori to come out of their rooms after many months of isolation, despite the fact a status quo has been allowed to develop between the parents, usually the mother, and the hikikomori. This status quo occurs because parents passively allow their child to stay withdrawn and has many reasons but mostly centers on an amae relationship between mother and son, the fear and social stigma of the local community knowing the family has a hikikomori, and the simple notion that it is better to have the child in the house even in isolation than as a runaway.

It was initially argued in the mass media when hikikomori came into public spotlight in 2000 that the loss of a social frame of reference might also lead hikikomori to commit violent or criminal behaviors. However, it has been argued by hikikomori experts that ‘true hikikomori’ are too socially withdrawn and timid to venture outside of their rooms, let alone venture outside the home and attack someone. If hikikomori physically attack anyone, it is usually confined to family members.

Part of the reason that hikikomori gained worldwide attention was the fact that the media attributed a number of high profile crimes to hikikomori. In 2000, a 17 year old labeled as a hikikomori by the press hijacked a bus and killed one passenger. In fact, it was discovered later that the hijacker was originally a hikikomori but his parents didn’t know how to deal with him, so they admitted him to a mental hospital for two months of observation. Feeling betrayed by his parents, it was the period in the hospital that disintegrated the boy’s self esteem and made him mentally unstable— the violence during the bus hijacking was directed at his mother by proxy. In the coming days, the media reported other extremely violent cases as perpetrated by hikikomori, such as one man who kidnapped a young girl and held her captive for nine years or a young man who killed 4 girls to reenact scenes of his hentai manga. As a result of the media spotlight, a great social stigma of hikikomori being violent and mentally ill came to be attached to the condition that exists to this day.

Treatment

There are different opinions about the treatment of a hikikomori, and the opinions often split into a Japanese and a western point of view. Japanese experts usually suggest waiting until the hikikomori reemerges, whereas western doctors suggest dragging the hikikomori back into society, by force if necessary.

In the last several years, a hikikomori support industry has sprung up in Japan, each with its own style or philosophy in treating hikikomori cases. Despite this diversity, there seem to be two general camps for treatment. One approach suggests psychological help is needed for these isolated young people as many parents are overwhelmed with the problems of a hikikomori children whom they don’t understand. The other approach to hikikomori treatment views the problem as one of socialization rather than mental illness. Instead of clinical treatment in a hospital, the hikikomori is removed from the original environment of the home into a shared living environment and encouraged to reintegrate into social groups through daily activities with other hikikomori who are already in various states of recovery; this approach shows the person that they are not alone in their condition and appears to be successful for most cases.

While there are a growing number of doctors and clinics specialized in helping hikikomori, many hikikomori and their parents still feel a lack of support for their problems on an institutional level and feel that society at large has been slow to react to the hikikomori crisis.

Worldwide

While total social withdrawal seems to be mainly a Japanese phenomenon, there are reports of similar phenomena developing in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong which possess similar high pressure educational systems. However, youths all over the world experience similar social pressures from peers and adults, are bullied or become depressed, and may react with similar behaviors to hikikomori or even lash out with hate and aggression, such as the extreme cases of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, United States, or the Erfurt massacre in Erfurt, Germany.

External links

• BBC Correspondent: The Missing Million
• BBC Correspondent: Hikikomori Violence
• Time Asia: Japan's Lost Generation
• Time: Staying In and Tuning Out
• Al-Jazeera: Japan's Secret Epidemic
• Scotland on Sunday: Japan's Lost Generation
• Movie: "Hikikomori: Tokyo Plastic"