Book Talk: A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs

1. Hikikomori
How private isolation caught the
public eye
Sachiko Horiguchi
Temple University, Japan
Campus

2. Hikikomori
In Japan: abnormal avoidance of social
contact; acute social withdrawal; (also) a
person, typically adolescent male,
engaging in this; a recluse, a shut-in.
(Oxford English Dictionary 2010)
Gendered, ethnicized, classed issue

3. Outline of the presentation
• Methods
• Brief ‘history’ of hikikomori as a social
problem: moral panics & beyond
• Debates in definitions of hikikomori
• Contemporary concerns

4. Methods
• Japanese language literature & media
analysis
• Fieldwork in Tokyo Metropolitan area from
2003-2005, 2010-

5. Predecessors
• Futoko (school non-attendance), kateinai
boryokyu (violence in the home),
moratorium ningen (moratorium beings),
otaku, taijinkyofu, taikyaku shinkeisho
(student apathy)

6. 2000s
• -1999 Few newspaper reports
(Mainichi, Asahi)
• 1998 Shakaiteki Hikikomori (Saito
Tamaki)
• One million estimate
• 2000: Moral panic: Reporting of
crimes allegedly committed by
hikikomori

7. Definitions?
• MHLW (2003): life centered around the
home & shun social participation for 6
months & over; excluding psychosis
• Psychological condition? Labor issue?
Always at home?
• Local usage of the term: variety in
understandings, pure vs fake
hikikomori

8. ‘Hikikomori industry’
Public sector: (Mental) health centers; private
organizations commissioned by local governments
Private sector:
• Psychiatry <- medicalization!?
• Psychologists, counselors
• Media (NHK)
• Lay supporters
for tojisha: ‘ibasho’, job training approach, residential/
non-residential
for parents: oya no kai

9. Tojisha voices:
NHK hikikomori support campaign
(2002-2004)

11. The impact of NEET
• Focus on the labor issue
• Hikikomori organizations -
> NEET organizations?
• Hikikomori boom over??

12. Hikikomori now
• Continuing to be on policy agenda: new guidelines from MHLW & Cabinet
Office survey (2010); MHLW (mental illness) vs Cabinet Office (youth
problem)
• Relationship with hattatsu shogai (developmental disabilities), internet use/
addiction
• Concern with aging hikikomori not in employment: disability rather than a
temporary condition?
• Global attention (South Korea, France, Italy, U.S.)
• Hikikomori support organizations becoming an alternative space where
young people can share difficulties in life
• Female hikikomori?

13. Who are hikikomori?
In Japan (?): abnormal avoidance of
(obsession with?) social contact; acute
social withdrawal; (also) a person, typically
adolescent (?) male (?), engaging in this;
a recluse, a shut-in.
Mentally ill?