Hikikomori

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Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き篭り lit. "pulling away, being confined," i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents and young adults who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. The term "hikikomori" refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to individuals belonging to this societal group.

Contents

Definition

The Japanese Ministry of Health defines hikikomori as individuals who refuse to leave their parents' house, and isolate themselves away from society and family in a single room for a period exceeding six months. While the distinctiveness of the phenomenon is varying depending on the individual, some of such youths remain in isolation for a span of years, or in rare cases, decades. Many hikikomori may start out as school refusals, or tōkōkyohi (登校拒否) in Japanese.

Situation

Japan

According to estimates by psychologist Tamaki Saito, who first coined the phrase, there may be one million hikikomori in Japan, twenty percent of all male adolescents in Japan, or one percent of the total Japanese population. Surveys done by the Japanese Ministry of Health as well as research done by health care experts suggest a more conservative estimate of 50,000 hikikomori in Japan today. As reclusive youth by their very nature are difficult to poll, the true number of hikikomori most likely falls somewhere between the two extremes.

Though acute social withdrawal in Japan appears to affect both genders equally, due to differing societal expectations for maturing boys and girls, the most widely reported cases of hikikomori are from Japanese families with male children who seek outside intervention when their son, usually the eldest, refuses to leave the family home.

Worldwide

While total social withdrawal seems to be mainly a Japanese phenomenon, there are reports of similar phenomena developing in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Still, with the appearance of NEET in the United Kingdom and Twixters in the United States in recent years, there are indications that hikikomori may be part of a larger global phenomena in affluent and highly developed Post-Industrial countries, although specific causes may differ from the Japanese phenomenon.

Causes

General Causes

Sometimes referred to as a kind of social problem in Japanese discourse, the hikikomori phenomenon has a number of possible contributing factors. Young adults may feel overwhelmed by modern Japanese society, or be unable to fulfill their expected social roles as they have not yet formulated a sense of personal tatemae (the public facade) and honne (the "true self") – both of which are needed to cope with the daily paradoxes of adulthood.

The dominant nexus of the hikikomori issue centers on the transformation from young life to the responsibilities and expectations of adult life — indications are that advanced capitalist societies such as modern Japan are unable to provide sufficient meaningful transformation rituals for promoting certain susceptible types of youth into mature roles within society.

As with many advanced capitalist meritocracies, there exists a great deal of pressure on adolescents in Japan to be successful and perpetuate the existing social status-quo. A traditionally strong emphasis on complex social conduct, rigid hierarchies and the resulting, potentially intimidating multitude of social expectations, responsibilities and duties in Japanese society contribute to this pressure on young adults. Historically, Confucian teachings deemphasizing the individual and favoring a conformist stance to ensure social harmony in a rigidly hierarchized society have shaped much of the Sinosphere, possibly explaining the emergence of the hikkimori phenomenon in other East-Asian countries.

In general, the prevalence of hikkimori tendencies in Japan may be encouraged and facilitated by three primary factors:

Middle class affluence in a post-industrial society such as Japan allows parents to support and feed an adult child indefinitely in the home. Lower income families do not have hikikomori children because a socially withdrawing youth is forced to work outside the home if he cannot finish school, and for this reason isolation in the room stops at an early stage.
The inability of Japanese parents to recognize and act upon the youth's slide into isolation, soft parenting, or even a codependent collusion between mother and son known as amae in Japanese. When a youth withdraws from life, parents can act or respond in such a way that causes the child to become even more seclusionary.
A decade of flat economic indicators and a shaky job market in Japan makes the pre-existing system requiring years of competitive schooling for elite jobs a pointless effort. While Japanese fathers of the current generation of youth still enjoy lifetime employment at multinational corporations, incoming employees in Japan enjoy no such job guarantees in today's job market (See Freeters and NEET for more on this). Young Japanese people are savvy enough to see that the system in place for their grandfathers and fathers no longer works, and for some the lack of a clear life goal makes them susceptible to social withdrawal as a hikikomori.

The Education System

The Japanese education system, like those found in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea is demanding upon the youth. A multitude of expectations, high emphasis on competition, and the rote memorization of facts and figures for the purpose of passing entrance exams into the next tier of education in what could be termed a rigid pass-or-fail ideology, induce a high level of stress. Echoing the traditional Confucian values of society, the educational system is still viewed as playing an important part in society's overall productivity and success. In this social frame, students often face significant pressure from parents and the society in general to conform to its dictates and doctrines. These doctrines, while part of modern Japanese society, are increasingly being rejected by Japanese youth in varying ways such as hikikomori, freeter, NEET, and parasite singles.

Beginning in the 1960s, the pressure on Japanese youth to succeed began successively earlier in their lives, sometimes starting before pre-school, where even toddlers had to compete through an entrance exam for the privilege of attending one of the best pre-schools. This was said to prepare children for the entrance exam of the best kindergarten, which in turn prepared the child for the entrance exam of the best primary school, junior high school, high school, and eventually for their university entrance exam. Many adolescents took 1 year off after high school to study exclusively for 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.

Since 1996, the Japanese Ministry of Education has taken steps to address this 'pressure-cooker' educational environment and instill greater creative thought in Japanese youth by significantly relaxing the school schedule from six day weeks to five day weeks and dropping two subjects from the daily schedule, with new academic curricula more comparable to Western educational models. However this may be too little too late, as highly competitive Japanese parents are sending their children to private cram schools to 'make up' for the newly lax curricula in the Japanese public schools.

After graduating from high school or university, Japanese adolescents 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, who may harass and bully some students for a variety of reasons, including physical appearance (especially if they are overweight or have severe acne problems), educational or athletic performance, wealth, ethnicity, or even having lived overseas even for a short time. Some have been punished for bullying or truancy, bringing shame to their families.

Symptoms

While many people feel the pressure of the outside world, and may feel uncomfortable in public (or "social anxiety"), a hikikomori reacts by complete social withdrawal to avoid all outside pressure. In some cases, they may lock themselves into their bedroom or another room of their parent's house for prolonged periods of time, sometimes measured in years. They usually have few, or no friends. A hikikomori's days are characterized by long spells of sleeping, while their nighttime hours are often spent watching TV, extensively playing computer games, surfing the internet, reading, or other non-social activities.

This refusal to participate in society and fulfill their expected roles makes hikikomori an extreme subset of a much larger group of the younger Japanese generation that includes parasite singles and freeters. All three groups seem to be rejecting the current social norms society has placed upon them in their own unique ways, with lifestyles considered deviant by society at large.

The withdrawal from society usually starts gradually. Affected individuals may appear unhappy, lose their friends, become insecure, shy, and talk less. Those in their teen ages may be bullied at school, which, atop the already high pressures of school and family, may be the final trigger for the withdrawal.

Hikikomori often set their own sleep schedule, waking around noon and going to bed in early morning. While they are awake, they may engage in a variety of activities shared with other people of their age, including listening to music, surfing the internet or actively posting in internet forums like 2channel, which has become famous for its hikikomori population. While hikikomori favor indoor activities, most of them do venture outdoors on occasion, though they may prefer to do that at night.

Effects

On the individual

The lack of social contact and prolonged solitude has a profound effect on the mentality of the hikikomori, who gradually lose their social skills and the social references and mores necessary to interact with the outside world. They may immerse themselves into the fantasy worlds of manga, television or computer games, which in turn become their only frame of reference. Due to a lack of interpersonal stimulus the hikikomori may developmentally stagnate into routine behaviors as time passes, sleeping all day and staying up all night only to sneak out into the kitchen for food when the family is asleep. In extreme cases, the hikikomori eventually abandons all diversions of books and TV and simply stares into space for hours at a time.

Should a hikikomori decide to give up his seclusion, whether on his own or through the aid of a care worker, they may face the problem of lacking social skills and years of education that their peers already possess through normal daily interaction with society. Also making reentry into society difficult is the recent social stigma that has come to be attached to the condition due to mass media attention since 1998. As a result, some former hikikomori might be afraid that others will discover their past, adding to their feeling of insecurity around people, especially strangers, in how they should act. Also detrimental is the fact they lack a work history, making anything beyond menial jobs difficult to acquire.

On the family

Having a hikikomori in the family is often considered embarrassing, so usually it is acknowledged as an internal private matter of the family, and many parents wait for a long time before seeking help by a third party within the hikikomori support industry. 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 of 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.

In some cases, school homeroom teachers and social workers make inquiries, but usually do not get involved with the situation. In recent years, due to widespread media attention, having a family member who is a hikikomori has come to have a social stigma attached to the condition akin to mental illness. Due to this stigma and the resultant shame, many families strive to keep their child's hikikomori condition a secret from those in the community, thus further delaying parents from seeking outside intervention for their child.

Controversy

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. Allegedly, the boy felt betrayed by his parents as a result of his hospital admission, and some argue that 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 nine year old Fusako Sano and held her captive for nine years and two months, Nevada-tan's case, or Tsutomu Miyazaki who in 1989 killed 4 girls to reenact scenes of his pornographic 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.

In 2004, 29-year old Japanese-Dutch film school student Danyael Sugawara[link] made a film based on hikikomori called “Tamago". [IMDB page of "Tamago"]

The hikikomori's fear of the social pressure and the inability to effect change in their situation may turn into frustration or even anger— some hikikomori have even physically attacked their parents, though most of the time anger manifests in other 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, called the Strange Peace, 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 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.

Western youths who feel similar social pressures or bullying from peers and adults may become depressed, withdraw similar to hikikomori, or even lash out with hate and aggression. In some instances of the latter, their actions may escalate to the extreme, such as in the arson committed by June and Jennifer Gibbons, the deadly violence of Columbine High School massacre and Red Lake High School massacre in the United States, or the Erfurt massacre in Erfurt, Germany.

Reaction

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.

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. 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:

The psychological approach suggests psychological help is needed for these isolated young people, as many parents are overwhelmed with the problems of a hikikomori child whom they don’t understand. The standard psychological approach to hikikomori behavior in a youth is to treat the condition as a behavioral or mental disorder and so admit the child to a hospital ward in order to administer counseling, observation, and drug therapy using standard institutional procedures.
The socialization 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.

Acceptance

In contrast to the approach of treatment, some may argue that the Hikikomori status is a personal personality style or choice of living to be accepted, or resolved, within the respective families, as long as this choice is not leading to criminal or violent behaviour affecting others. As there is a certain tendency in societies, especially traditionally conformist ones like the Japanese society, to label individuals or minority groups deviating from the perceived norm, be it physical, social, psychological or sexual, "pathologically ill" and calling for their cure, i.e. re-alignment with the mainstream, there must be a careful examination regarding the actual wishes of the individual in comparison to the alleged harm to society (also see Asperger Syndrome and Schizoid Personality Disorder regarding the treatment vs. acceptance issue).

In some cases a Hikikomori partially or completely recovers in time when given a free house or apartment of his own.

References in pop culture

The manga Welcome to the NHK! created by Tatsuhiko Takimoto and illustrated by Kenji Oiwa, currently serialized in the magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace.
The 2004 film Hikikomori: Tokyo Plastic by director Adario Strange.
The manga Rozen Maiden created by popular manga authors PEACH-PIT features a hikikomori as a main character.
In the anime series Simoun, the extremely popular Neviril goes through a hikikomori phase after the death of her partner in combat.
In the anime series Marmalade Boy, main male character Matsuura Yuu also goes through a hikikomori phase at age 12, when he learns that the man whom he calls "father" may not be his real father.

External links

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