Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei makes the argument that the hikikomori complex is an elaborate form of aversion. In fact, all the people portrayed in the show are slightly dysfunctional and avoid facing reality in certain ways, and it is this backdrop which forms an excellent basis for equating the two. The title character continually reacts to life by fantasizing about suicide, relentlessly genki girl Kakufa Fuura reacts to everything negative by reimagining it as something bizarrely and improbably “positive,” the counselor hates helping people and does not willingly give of herself despite her job as school counselor, and so on.
The show deals directly with hikikomori in episode two, wherein they visit the house of Komori Kiri, the shut-in. Like all names in Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, this is a play on words: Hikikomori is the Japanese term used to designate people who shut themselves in their rooms and avoid social contact. True to form, Komori is shown in her room watching anime, with tankobon and DVDs piled up all around her.
The Japanese tend to insist that certain phenomena are uniquely Japanese, and hikikomori is no exception. Saito Tamaki, who coined the phrase, estimated that as many as 1% of Japanese may exhibit this condition. While that number seems small, it works out to as much as one-tenth of Japanese adolescents. (As this crude estimate was based on his observation that there were at least as many hikikomori as schizophrenics, the obviousness of hikikomori may lead to a higher reporting rate and thus inflation of the estimate.)
Withdrawal from society may simplistically be seen as an extreme reaction to societal demands. Added to this, for otaku, is the desirability of the unreal: as Katsuragi Keima says in The World God Only Knows, the virtual world is ideal and pure, whereas reality is comparatively muddy and tainted. Who wouldn’t want to live in a better world?
And yet the hikikomori does nothing that is not understandable within the broader context of aversion. People do this all the time who have nothing in common with hikikomori: they avoid strange relatives, obnoxious acquaintances, and debt collectors. They neglect unpleasant chores. This done by the well-socialized as well as the socially inept. At the broadest level, not wanting to deal with some portions of life is not unique to the Japanese or any other group – it is a universal human experience. However, the hikikomori who shuts herself in is not bothering to hide her inability or unwillingness to deal with certain aspects of life. Since society, particularly Japanese society, is largely based on the maintenance of illusions, this constitutes a fundamental break with the accepted rules.
What is so wrong about that? Hikikomori have basically said, “To hell with these social rules that don’t benefit me!” Perhaps one who does not follow the rules, especially in an Asian society that places tremendous value on order, is viewed as frightening because they are fundamentally unpredictable. Ironically enough, there are plenty of people who nominally follow the rules that are arguably far more dangerous: con men and politicians come to mind. But it is because they follow the letter of the rules so well that they are wrapped in the impermeable cloak of respectability, whereas hikikomori, by nature, do not acknowledge any need for public relations.
During the Melody of Oblivion arc where Toune is introduced, viewers are shown a boy standing on the edge of town day and night, not eating, not drinking, not sleeping. His incongruous and inexplicable existence is a challenge to the poorly-constructed reality of village life. The villagers, reacting to this, ignore or demonize him. Similarly, the hikikomori who stands outside the rules of society – who refuses to play nice with others even at personal cost – is shunned and villified. It is ironic, then, that hikikomori are not alone in their estrangement from society. But perhaps the supreme irony is that the hikikomori’s aversion of society is ultimately mirrored by society’s aversion of the hikikomori.
Comments
You mention that some Japanese try to present hikikomori as a Japanese-only phenomenon, but that seems to be slipping recently… Mainichi ran a piece about a month back reporting on an Italian report that their hikikomori problem has exploded, growing fivefold in the past two years. Of course, it’s still called “Japanese-style social withdrawal” in the article, so maybe this is just another factor of SOFT POWER COOL JAPAN?
link here: http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cache:OTxzf1PlcLMJ:mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20090219p2a00m0na001000c.html+italy+hikikomori&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a
@ Kransom – interesting that Italians are perhaps experiencing the same thing. However, I doubt their term is “hikikomori”, which is a Japanese word. It is sad that they’re having some of the same issues but because societies are different, I’m not so sure that their problem is exactly the same. Perhaps these people in Italy are just not as outgoing as the rest of the country, which seems quite outgoing in general? The average Japanese loves to talk in a self-centered (not necessarily selfish) way, but so do a lot of people from other nationalities. As long as there isn’t an internationally agreed scientific term for hikikomori, I suspect the Japanese will always see it as a “Japanese-style social withdrawal”. Finally, if I remember correctly, Mainichi and the company behind it, Asahi, are quite nationalist-oriented.
Consensus seems to cover so many things in a cloak of respectability. It’s kind of interesting of course that this sort of thing tends to happen in a culture which is not nearly as individualistic as America–it spawns this extreme form of individualism in a way.
I still really like Welcome to the NHK’s take on all this, though in a way Satou is not nearly as bad off as many of the real hikikomori I’ve read about. The behavior patterns depicted in the show are pretty believable, though.
I’ve decided to make this story the Dailysite anime/manga channel link of the day. Great work, mori!
I don’t know why.. But being a hikikomori seems cool after watching anime too much. So does being a lonely and unsocial person, being a butler, being a maid, having super determinaton and super failures, etc.
…..Awesome.
from what I see on the curent situation on this hikikomori ‘syndrome’, the best thing society or maybe ‘some’ to do is to help them re-introduce to a social world rather than despising or degrading them more.
hikis are just like ‘[illegal] drug-addicts’, they need rehab and further attention.
but hey, only 1% constitutes hikis in Japan? well, that’s not a problem at all there. hehe.
Thanks for the comments!
@kransom – My understanding is that many Japanese psychologists find hikikomori to be an essentially Japanese phenomenon. That’s not to say it (or something very similar) can’t happen elsewhere, but they describe it primarily in terms of the Japanese mindset and society rather than in terms of generalizations toward all societies.
@Mike – Thanks! Yeah, research for this article uncovered some disturbing case studies.
@rayyhum777 – Yes they are. Asahi was the company used as a villain in Black Lagoon, and I do not think that was in the least accidental.
@Qwerty – But if you put them together, like the moe amalgam in NHK, what do you get?
@rollchan – I think they’re afraid, since it’s 10% of the adolescent population, that it won’t remain 1%. If every year 10% of students became hikikomori, Japan woul’d have a big problem.
Hey there!
Most people would probably consider me to be a hikikomori (I am from Canada though, if that matters to you and your understanding of the definition). Basically 2 years no social contact.
Though my situation is quite different then others within the realm of anime, or the stereo-type, as in I am not afraid of people. But it does seem to be connected with the idea of “conforming,” I refuse to do something, or participate in something I do not believe in. I refuse to bend my morals, and that strains social situations, so I’d rather not deal with it.
Am I afraid? Yes I am. But not much of people, I am afraid, of who I will become if I participate in a society I dislike.
Also I enjoyed the final sentence in the article.
The 1% figure is completely made up. xD If it were really ten percent of adolescents, that would be a huge problem and probably an educational crisis. The actual number is in the low-to-mid hundred-thousands. I heard 350,000-400,000-ish.
There are plenty of hikikomori outside of Japan, including myself. (I haven’t been out of my house in over a year and haven’t had any offline social interaction in over three.) Are there very few English language sources that say so? I got my information from Japanese Wikipedia. xD
Having done ten months of research at a Tokyo rehab center for hikikomori I can tell you that there is nothing “cool” about youth who are actual hikky. First the media scare on “Dangerous hikikomori youth” back in 1999 and 2000 and the recent the pop culture depictions have really distorted and glorified the whole hikikomori phenomenon.
The reasons or trigger that caused a youth to become hikikomori vary. They can be like ghosts, staying up all night and sleeping by day or they can seem completely normal except they won’t look at a person face-to-face. It can be heartbreaking to be around hikikomori who are recovering as you can sense their frustration and desire to be normal but they are locked into patterns of behavior that avoid contact.
The thing is, the label “hikikomori” was originally about the behavior of acute social withdrawal by Japanese youth, not the causes of it. The reason why a lot of Japanese may say hikikomori are unique to Japan is because of the different way such behavior is viewed in Japan by everyday people. In western societies there is a tendency to label a troubled person by a clinical condition such as depression, aspergers, agoraphobia, schizophrenia and so on. If a doctor diagnoses such a condition the parent will seek care at a hospital and or a drug regimen. In contrast, a youth in Japan suffering from any of those conditions or even bullying or stress from school who avoids social interaction will be viewed as a hikikomori.
Also hikikomori is not a black and white “condition”, perfectly fine people, even adults, may lose a job or have hard times and slip into being a NEET and then into a hikikomori.
As I do research on the topic, I’ve been contacted by people from all over the world expressing concern over hikikomori in their own country, including South Korea, Italy and most recently Poland. Because the word “hikikomori” is now so high profile I think people self-identify with being hikikomori rather than seek help and see if perhaps they might have medical or psychological condition.
@Michael D. – Thank you for your most excellent response. If I understand you correctly, hikikomori is originally a descriptor that says nothing about the underlying reasons, just as the term “idiopathic” is really about the limitations of treatment rather than the condition itself. There is therefore a broad variety of conditions that fall under the label “hikikomori.”
Since, as you say, perfectly fine (which I take to mean otherwise rational) people can become hikikomori, is it fair to say that there can be a certain sort of logic that drives one to become hikikomori? Of course, it wouldn’t apply in all cases if the cases are so disparate, but with that caveat, would that statement be in line with your understanding? Or would you shy away from saying we are ready to attempt to understand the underlying factors?
@anonymous – Thank you for commenting. It must be hard. I do see a certain symmetry to it and I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
@Saisai – Thanks for your insight. Tamaki admits that the figure is made up and I speculated above as to why it might be inaccurate. Ultimately we won’t know until more studies are done.
“NHK福祉ネットワークによると、2005年度の引きこもりは160万人以上。稀に外出する程度のケースまで含めると300万人以上存在する。全国引きこもりKHJ親の会の推計でも同様である。”
“According to the NHK Network, in 2005, there were at least 160,000 hikikomori. When we include the cases in which the hikikomori do seldom go out, at least 300,000 exist. The Countrywide Hikikomori KHJ’s founder’s estimate is identical.”
-Japanese Wikipedia
Now, we know!
Thanks moritheil.
Yes, what I found at my research site is that the rehab staff in the 1980s were treating youth with similar patterns of social withdrawal, but at that time, the kids were being called “school refusals”, tôhôkyohi. The more I’ve looked into trying to pin down a definitive pattern/cause for a static label hikikomori the more its like quicksand.
Hikikomori is different things to everyday Japanese- something to be slightly afraid of; its something else to Japanese clinics- who are medicalizing youth identified as hikikomori; and it is something again to youth who may view themselves as hikikomori- stuck and cornered in society, they may feel that a social moratorium as they see in the popular media depiction of what it is to be “hikikomori” might be an answer to their problems. It goes without saying that the label hikikomori internationally has its own flavors and permutations.
Of course as a social scientist, I’m sure a clinical psychologist might disagree with my interpretation of the situation with hikikomori, but in my own research experience, I found that the causes for a person to “become” hikikomori can vary. Hikikomori causation is a complex issue and is really hard to say in any absolute way that 50% of all hikikomori are depressive, 30% are avoidance behaviors, etc. In fact the staff at the rehab center would argue that the reasons for each hikikomori undergoing treatment there were unique. Further as a researcher, its impossible to quantify for various reasons (ever try to conduct a survey on people who hide from sight?).
As I said, some people have genuine chronic medical issues while others might just be stressed and initially seeking escape from daily pressures and family expectations- but they can all fall under the umbrella term of hikikomori- if they avoid social contact for six months or more. And there is a reason why the discourse on hikikomori focuses on the final behavior of social seclusion as it is easier to observe and identify than what spurred someone to become hikikomori in the first place.
You ask what might “drive one to become hikikomori”. Assuming the individual is rational as you say, I have seen several common ones (for people w/o preexisting health disorders). Let me go back to the 1980s to make my next point. When school refusals were identified within health circles, there were a steady number of cases to be sure, but when it hit the mass media (TV, newspapers, etc) there was a large spike in “school refusals”. The same thing happened after 1999, 2000 for hikikomori as the media raised public awareness via several sensational stories like the Osaka bus hijacking. Back then however, hikikomori were frightening and seen as mentally ill by the public (read/watch the BBC’s “Missing Million” to see what I mean). Thus reflecting the “public aversion to hikikomori aversion” you mention at the end of your article. (You may want to look into Japanese attitudes on mental and physical disability to see more about why this occurs in Japan)
Now, with hikikomori in pop culture and woven into stories as both protagonist and peripheral characters, being hikikomori might seem like a viable option for some people who can’t handle the daily strain of life. Becoming hikikomori can seem a viable choice for some people- the media has made them aware that this option, being hikikomori, is out there and exists, other people suffer from this condition…maybe I do too. Some people make the label “hikikomori” their own and choose to be hikky. Now, this is only one part of the hikikomori “population” and perhaps only a small portion, but I think it is important to consider as they may be the most vocal part of the hikikomori population, the rest avoiding social contact.
Here’s the catch: once many people decide to socially withdraw, become hikikomori, for whatever reason, be it serious emotional trauma or whimsy, certain patterns of behavior begin to settle into their lives. For one, they socially stagnate and may become night owls. Second, their lack of face-to-face interaction may mean they start to over-think the rare times they are confronted with another person. They may be fine in isolation for weeks or months but eventually something happens and they become trapped in hikikomori patterns and not sure how to break those behaviors.
Think about sensory deprivation chambers or the concerns space agencies have about the extreme isolation of a physically and mentally healthy astronaut in a small capsule that takes months to get to Mars. Humans are social creatures. The separation from groups of people and regular daily interaction will have its effects on any person’s psyche- no matter what the original reason a person may have undergone isolation. For individuals with pre-existing health conditions, like depression. Well, it would seem it just further complicates their situation in social isolation as a hikikomori.
Yeesh. Look how long winded I be. Its all that academic training.
I hope that answered your question moritheil.
Nice blog by and by, keep up the good work!
Hello and nice to meet you. I found the hikikomori term interesting as I was reading about the psychology. As far as I know(which the source is not originally from me of course), the typical type of these guys seemed to be antisocial. Although it was not officially being the part of the antisocial catergory, most of them seems to be lock themsleves away from the social and living the more vitual living or something like that.Furthermore, base from various Internet resources that I know, the public are much aware of this situation and maybe they want this situation under control.
So I have some questions to ask,
1. Will this isolation effect their future?
2. Is the influence from anything worse that worsen the situation?
3. The last question, does it has to be the negative effects?
That is all I want to know, hopefully I cn get the info that I want. Thank you.
@Chingaez -
Thanks for your interest. I refer you to the works of Michael D., who holds a graduate degree in psychology specializing in hikikomori. If his comments above are insufficient for your needs, try reading his academic papers or browsing his web site.