Shigekazu Yamawaki, Associate Director of EWBI, East Asia
“Hikikomori” is a Japanese terminology, which means “Acute Social Withdrawal”.
Jeffrey Angels, who translated the Japanese book “Hikikomori – Adolescence Without End” authored by Tamaki Saitoi, describes hikikomori as not exactly an illness.
It is a reclusive state that develops in conjunction with certain environmental factors. It is a state that arises in response to perceived setbacks on the individual’s path to emotional maturity and independence.
People in a state of hikikomori hide themselves, retreat from school and work, and refuse to go outside. They cease to interact with society. Instead, they stay nervously cooped up at home. They suffer specific interlocking series of symptoms that cannot easily fit under a single, easily identifiable medical cause.
It has been thought that people living with hikikomori were first identified in societies where Confucianism was rooted, such as Japan and Korea. However, reports have emerged claiming that the same kind of phenomenon is now observed in the Western world as well.
According to Marisa Galbusseraii from the Italian Women’s Centre in Padua, Italy, clinical psychologists from the West (Canada, France, UK, US, Spain, and Italy) are treating an ever-increasing number of young hikikomori sufferers.
I met recently with Mr. Yoshihiko Fujimoto, head of the organisation Orenji no Kai, a Hikikomori Support Organisations in Kobe to discuss EWBI’s interest in the prevalence of “acute social withdrawal” among Japanese youth.
However, the hikikomori phenomenon is observed not only among youth, but also among the aged. As the years go by, the age of a person living with hikikomori has increased.
Currently, there is a social issue called “8050 Problem”, which refers to hikikomori sufferers in their 50s living with their parents who are in their 80s.
Members of Orenji no Kai are mainly parents of persons living with hikikomori. The organisation mainly provides:
· Opportunities for members to gather and talk about what they are going through.
· Safe places for people living with hikikomori to interact or engage in activities.
· Consulting services (entrusted by the City of Kobe).
· Certified courses for people who wish to become hikikomori supporters.
Mr. Fujimoto said that each and every person who is in a state of hikikomori feels “ikizurasa” - an indefinite sense of despair that life is hard and filled with insurmountable problems.
During my stay in Japan, I also met with the head of an organisation that provides a place of work for people living with higher brain dysfunction; and the head of an aged care facility for people living with dementia.
Both of them said that hikikomori was inter-related with challenges that people in their care face daily.
What can EWBI do?
A system to address issues related to hikikomori is established in Japan with the central government at its top. There is a system that coordinates actions of organisations from governmental departments to groups at grassroots level.
At the coalface, local organisations such as Orenji no Kai and Hikikomori Supporters play crucial roles.
The Emotional Well-Being Institute can learn, adopt and adapt the strategies and approaches to hikikomori taken by Orenji no Kai.
Learning in-depth about hikikomori in Japan will provide a practical foundation for EWBI to develop emotional well-being projects to complement Orenji no Kai’s activities in Japan.
Based on the knowledge obtained from Japan, EWBI could work on establishing a system to help address similar “acute social withdrawal” among the youths in other parts of the world.
As EWBI’s associate director for East Asia, I hope to take the course provided by Orenji no Kai to become a certified hikikomori supporter, hence, to forge a working relationship with the organisation and its affiliates.