Hikikomori, Japanese Youths Isolated In Their Rooms
The Hikikomori are young Japanese people who avoid leaving their rooms. In Japanese culture, solitude has always been a traditional value that represented the search for and the wisdom of oneself, nature and social relationships. In a way, it’s a feudal perspective, albeit a positive one. But in today’s Japanese society constructive solitude has become pathological isolation.
Following World War II, Japanese society began to develop unrestrained economically, which led to an increasingly demanding and competitive pace of study and work. Young people received an increasingly rigid education, which was manifested in an educational system that promoted a fierce discipline of knowledge acquisition, leaving aside communicative and psychological issues of students in the classroom.
Exposed to these pressures from their families and society, young Japanese people developed a form of isolation unknown to the Western world: they shut themselves in their rooms for months or years with no intention of returning to the real world.
Hikikomori, a phenomenon to be defined
The first person who coined having Hikikomori was Japanese psychiatrist Tamaki Saito in his 2002 book “Hikikomori, Rescue Manual”. an increasingly stifling and competitive labor market. He points out that the main problem is the poor communication that exists between parents and children of some Japanese families.
The current Japanese society
Japanese society has been developing at breakneck speed for some decades. But for a few years now, an economic crisis has been unfolding in which if anyone wants to ascend socially, it is necessary to show impeccable capacity and discipline. Many couples who have experienced this economic boom have had only one child. They placed all their hopes for a better future in this son, and perhaps they projected on him some frustrated desires of their youth.
Families make enormous economic efforts so that their children can succeed in the labor market, taking them to the best schools, with many extracurricular activities and a curriculum that leaves no room for leisure and relationships with their peers.
Schools in Japan
Schools in Japan have a very demanding and varied educational level and curriculum design. They have a dynamic of constant tests, homework and strict teacher supervision in relation to student activities. Japanese youth often attend intensive extracurricular sessions that involve afternoons and weekends spent at school.
But that’s not all, sometimes intensive camps are organized in schools, in which students sleep and eat in the classroom, and are assessed in various subjects until they pass. Many of them do not sleep if they cannot solve all the tests they are submitted to.
However, many of them never manage to adapt, either because they have special educational needs or because such intense stress causes the emergence of various psychological disorders. Unfortunately, Japan has a deficient assistance network to help these young people who are increasingly disturbed by this pace.
The relationship with peers: competition, lack of communication and persecution
Many of these children and many of these teenagers begin to view their peers with fear and mistrust. And many of them suffer persecution because of their low scores compared to the group or because of other personal aspects. Young people do not receive assistance from any psychologist or social educator in educational centers, which makes the problem even greater.
Furthermore, they see the job market not as a tool for satisfying their personal independence and putting their skills to use, but as hostile terrain in which they fear they will not measure up and will not be able to be productive.
Many of them find themselves alone, tense, isolated, pressured by their families and with a professional future ahead that is very competitive for their capabilities. If to all this we add the incredible technological development in the country, we have a homemade bomb: many of these young people will feel more attracted by isolation and by creating a “virtual life”. It’s a way of saying enough to society and their families.
Where is the solution for the Hikikomori?
Hikikomori families see their children as a shame, as something to hide from neighbors and relatives, fearing scandal and likely stigmatization. They think this might be a passing problem.
However, if a young person is locked in his room for weeks and there is no clear answer from the parents, the problem tends to become chronic. Young people drop out of school and lock themselves in their rooms in social isolation. They eat, sleep and have their virtual leisure within these 4 walls.
The world looks better at relating to people through a computer, watching movies, reading manga, playing video games, listening to music, and sleeping. They have very limited personal hygiene and if they need to cut their hair, for example, they do it themselves. Years go by like this. And today it is an epidemic in Japan, as there are approximately two million Hikikomori in the country.
Japanese authorities have already put in place an intervention plan, as this is the great loss of an entire generation. In addition, they are looking for ways to help these young people. Many psychologists point out that the best intervention is the systemic-family one, to progressively make the family communicate with the young person and be able to get him out of his confinement.
Reintegration into society must be gradual and, often, the recovered Hikikomori are the people who guide and support these young people to get out of this voluntary confinement. The problem is not one of social phobia, agoraphobia or excessive shyness, problems that exist in other countries around the world; your approach, therefore, must be different.
The solution would be more of a preventive nature, as Japanese society must take note of this problem in order to reduce the level of demand and social isolation that it promotes in its schools.
