Hikikomori refers to acute social withdrawal in Japan, typically among adolescent males. It began receiving public attention in the late 1990s and led to moral panics. Definitions and understandings of hikikomori vary and debates surround whether it is a psychological, social, or economic issue. While initially seen as temporary, concerns now include aging hikikomori and its relationship to developmental disabilities and internet use.

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?