Japan - hikikomori
In Japan, hikikomori are people who shut themselves into their homes for reasons ranging from difficulty finding a job or refusal to attend school to trouble in their personal relationships. Hikikomori, which literally means to "pull in" and "retire" is a modern type of distinctively Japanese rebellion. In the West young people tend to rebel outwardly through independence, whereas in Japan young people rebel inwardly through over-dependence. Hikikomori are very distrustful of other people and are unable to form intimate relationships; they are unwilling or unable to abide by the Japanese social conventions of honne and tatemae, which leads to attachment trauma and dual personalities.
In Japan, half a million people live isolated in their bedrooms, unable to face the outside world. These modern-day hermits are known as the hikikomori. Since April 2018, the Japanese government began conducting a nationwide study in a bid to fully understand this strange phenomenon. Once limited to young people, it now affects the whole of Japanese society.
Most hikikomori are under 40, but this extreme form of isolation increasingly affects older people, which worries the Japanese government. Older hikikomori sometimes have no relatives or friends to support them and remain cut off from society for longer periods. Getting them out of isolation then becomes very difficult. Their fear is to die alone. Every year in Japan, some 30,000 people die without a loved one by their side – arguably an even more worrying phenomenon.
Hikikomori tend to be the sons of successful people in the bureaucracy or corporations, i.e. from families in which there is a high expectation on the son to succeed. The official definition of hikikomori from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is those who live as a recluse in their room for six months or longer; have no intimate friendships with people outside their family; are not suffering from psychotic disorders; and are not able to participate in school or work.
A Cabinet survey has found that, while the number of people shutting themselves in their homes fell from about 696,000 in 2010 to around 541,000 in 2015, the ratio of those who have been isolated from society for seven years or more has reached a new high of 34.7 percent. While studies had been limited to younger age brackets, the nation has seen a rise in the number of middle-aged hikikomori in recent years. Psychologists estimate that there are around 1 million hikikomori in Japan.
When asked about their perceptions of hikikomori, some said they envy them because their families show them understanding or even give them financial support, while others said they have a “negative image” of such social recluses — who are often the subject of television news reports. Hikikomori may be seen by some people in Japanese society as a loss of the existing frame of mutual social responsibility and a threat to the historical cultural fabric of Japanese society.
In the case of hikikomori, the child only has the possibility to remain in his bedroom because the parents are a consistent and reliable source of money, food, and an internet connection. Therefore, both parent and family play a role in supporting and maintaining the problem. After a certain period of time, the individual may become stricken with a feeling that he has to do something about his situation, but often, the person himself or his family are unable to seize any opportunity to go out, the feeling of resignation grows, and their condition deteriorates. As years go by, the individual gradually loses the will to go outside on his own initiative.
Hikikomori has been discussed primarily from a psychological perspective in Japan. Hikikomori in Japan is a widespread social problem. From a psychological perspective, it could be classified in DSM IV as something like social withdrawal or apathy, but this reflects only some outward symptoms which may make hikikomori appear to be similar to these disorders in western cultures. Before the academic term "hikikomori" appeared, Inamura (1983) used the term "Adolescent setback symptom" for school phobia, student apathy and work phobia. He suggested that this is a uniquely Japanese phenomenaand national disease. Kasahara (1988) described what he called "retreat (withdrawal) neurosis" for a people who leave school or work for long periods.
People who consider themselves to be “hikikomori” see themselves as inferior and withdraw from relationships with others because though they have difficulty working, they worry excessively that “working is the natural state for an adult.” Their self-esteem cannot be restored immediately even if they participate in a self-help group. They re-construct stories about themselves and their lives and come to see the norm of life-courses in relative terms, and regain self-esteem from this. However, this can lead to a decline in their motivation to start working. Moreover, hikikomori cannot overcome their distrust and fear of society. Therefore, sufferers of “hikikomori” seek a new way of life as they again ask themselves various questions, such as, “why must we work?” “What do I want to do?” “Who am I?” and so on....
During times of relatively rapid change, there is an increase in a sense of personal threat that can persist for long periods of time. In the case of Japanese society, the reliance in the previously existing consensual frame on implicit communication is likely to lead to an inability to explicitly communicate to others about the depth of one's fears. Hikikomori, which occurs primarily in males, is one symptom of this breakdown. In the absence of reliable implicit systems of communication, the adolescent's only perceived option is nearly total withdrawal from school and family.
A 2014 study by Shunsuke Nonaka and Motohiro Sakai examined the effect of hikikomori, a Japanese term denoting “prolonged social withdrawal”, on quality of life (QOL). Individuals with hikikomori at present and in the past, as well as mildly depressed individuals without hikikomori and highly depressed individuals without hikikomori completed the WHO Quality of Life 26 (QOL26). The results indicated that the present hikikomori group’s scores on the social relationships domains of the QOL26 were significantly lower than the scores of the highly depressed group. The results of this study suggested that it might be important to intervene to improve QOL in individuals with hikikomori.
“Hikikomori” - youth in a state of social withdrawal - has been noted since the latter half of the 1990s in Japan. In recent years, the concept of “NEETs” has also come to attract attention. “NEETs” refers to young people who are “not in education, employment, or training.” The concept of “hikikomori” has been partly incorporated into discussions about “NEETs, ” and it is commonly said that the two can be discussed in the same context. Moreover, some organizations dealing with “hikikomori” have started to support “NEETs.” However the understanding of “hikikomori” that has accumulated may be distorted by the confusion between the two concepts. Moreover, this confusion has a direct effect on individuals who consider themselves to be “hikikomori.” Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish the two concepts.
Current measures for “NEETs, ” are based on the idea that it is more important to start working than to think too much about the meaning of working. However, individuals suffering from “hikikomori” have regained their self-esteem by asking the various questions concerning working and their own lives.
As long as the issue of Hikikomori is looked down upon and seen as something negative, it is impossible to move forward. They are creative, articulate, sensitive adults who are looking for a way out of a system that will not allow them to be different.
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