My friend is a hikikomori. He worked for a major company, but he couldn’t cope with the pressures of work , he marriage failed , he no longer sees his Children. And he lives with his elderly father. He told me would jump infront of a train but he is too much of a coward. He wants to go back to society but he is so scared of how people will treat him. I told him he will always have me and my family . Even my boss offered a backroom Job for him. But he isn’t too keen on
I hope the best for your friend and that he can see his real worth one day. There are many people in the world who will look down on him. Those types of people usually don't even like themselves, hence why they lash out. But one day when he begins to reach out he will find there are more people like you than he thought. Please let him know there are people out in the world who wouldn't judge him, and would be honored to have a friend like him.
you should tell him to not to dive into society, dont tell him to go find a job. tell him to make his own space by opening a small shop about something he still loves to do. this way people will come to him less personal and also the important point; let him prove that he can gain sense of achievement on daily basis.
Imagine living in an individualist society that worships appearance so much and ignoring everything about mental health. Everyone's smiling but nobody really cares, loved ones leaving, working under pressure everyday, feeling depression, living an empty life while watching other people thriving, life is cold and alone and empty while you slowly aging wasting away your health and time to do things that have no meaning anymore. In this situations being a hikkikomori is the best coping mechanism you can do.
I honestly think japanese government needs to give this different approach, instead of fixing the persons (hikkikomori), they need to fix the system itself, the fastest solution will be reviving asian family culture which is difficult in current capitalist world and american controlled media. Individualism and greed, isn't a good match for asian working ethos and social pressure, if mixed together they created the situations japan have today.
@@havefuntazarasu5367 the younger society is totally different and more understanding. I’m 49 and so is my boss. We won’t pressure him hence we have always said come when you are ready . He knows as my bosses daughter was one and he knows the mental anguish and pain they go through. I have ADHD, BPD and autism and I didn’t get diagnosed by the Japanese health care system. I went to a US naval doctor who was brilliant. He knew straight away something was wrong. Many old people in Japan tell you to grow up , smile and get on with your life. How can you when you feel like you have failed everyone around you!! It’s an awful society and they don’t allow for failure as it is a sign of weakness. Which I am glad the youth are starting to rebel against and about bloody time too!
That mainstream society can only understand the hikikomori phenomenon through the lens of unemployment figures and productivity loss speaks to it's inhumanity, the very thing that created the conditions for the phenomenon in the first place.
If they'd tried acting this way a century ago, they'd have starved. It's about time people stopped giving them excuses. And I'm not saying it from a position of privilege - I was brought up with the fact that if I wanted anything, I had to earn it. As such they either want to be helped or they don't. If the latter, there is no need to have them waste anyone else's time.
When sociopathy and psychopathy became the norm in modern society some demographics couldn't handle the toxic environment due to the usual factors like bullying and the horrendous hustle culture so none of this should come as a surprise. People can't be expected to function as machines without there being consequences.
@@The_Phoenix_Saga There's a reason why self-deletion rates are high in Japan. We could stop giving them excuses not knowing that when pressured enough, they only know one way out.
@@The_Phoenix_Sagaright... The boot straps rationale. There are over a million hikikomori in Japan alone, and this dummy thinks bootstrapping will solve this ever growing problem.
The government wants them to get back to work but Japan's work environment is too harsh for people who are healthy and social let alone Hikikomori. Plus having to state mental illness or personal struggles in interviews is more than a little uncomfortable. On top of that Japan is not the most sensitive though it is trying. There is the saying like the same pressure that turns someone into a diamond can turn another into dust, most Hikikomori will turn dust with very little pressure. A Hikikomori doesn't often go outside, doesn't ride the subway or a bike or car, they don't friends, they don't talk much, they don't eat at restaurants, they don't party or dance, they don't garden, they don't go shopping for fun, they usually don't have a lot of money, they don't usually get haircuts, some have poor hygiene, no intimate relationships, etc. Now think of all of those things and how they pertain to getting and keeping work, that's not one step it's a thousand. They could be 40 and not know how to schedule an appointment or work out a conflict, they need to be raised essentially because that was so neglected. I saw Japan had a few groups/social appointments with some voluntary work/learning with transportation, honestly the best thing I've seen so far. I truly believe that if you can catch up a Hikikomori no matter the age they will naturally tend towards leading productive lives in most cases. They basically need surrogate parents.
@@stephanc6138 i thought it's not the issue, since since kids japanese have taught to be independence, and many of hikikomori in japan is not someone that won't face off reality, but they just got tired from society. At least that i know hikkikomori have enough money to extend their life till where the time is coming for looking other job. But in some case they just looking easier job than before
@@stephanc6138 yes their real parents could be part of their current problem, I'm not talking about the problem I'm talking about the solution. You can call it a coach if you want but they would be filling in missing gaps that parents, friends and family would have taught them. No, I would strongly advise against pets for hikikomori.
As somebody who basically became a shut-in and recovered from it (at least mildly), I have a very high appreciation of people who try to understand hikikomori and see their worth as people. Hikikomori can have many reasons for becoming shut-ins, and for some it can be the effects of things like autism that made it hard to feel connected with people around them in real life, that then reflects negatively with their self-worth, and then have a hard time to see the worth of connecting more with other people. I think a lot of hikikomori are people who are inherently sensitive to the opinions about things around them, who then just never have the right environment to foster that into things that are socially normative, like work or art, and, not seeing a way out, retreat into their homes. I hope that in the future people can reconsider that just because some people are sensitive, that they don't then see it as an immovable feature that will never change, but as something that can be discussed with - then leading to better results when it's realised that if put in the right environment, those people can see worth in themselves and start to participate socially again. I think, in a way, having shut-ins interact with old people like at Nijiiro can be an effective way for them to see worth in social interaction again. Lots of hikikomori now interact online a lot, and can become even more cynical viewing a lot of social interactions through the internet because emotions seem to run so high all the time, and social interaction can feel commoditized or fake. Getting those people to interact with others who live generally slower, more relaxed lives and see worth in more tangible, as opposed to virtual things could help them see the more realistic aspects to social interaction, although this all will of course differ from person to person. Apologies for the long comment.
Well said, totally agree... I just hope that the old people are not dogmatic and judgemental about the habits of hikikomori, because older generations might not be able to fully understand the unique troubles of our generation... It's not that they have to comprehend it completely, but a kind and relaxed tone goes a long way.
It is also a question of finding meaning outside of the social models of "expected success". The part about the social stigma hikikomori face (and societal expectations for that matter) reminds me of that scene in the movie "Fight Club" where Tyler is saying "you are not your job, or how much money you have in the bank". I think this particular crisis is, at its core, a question of perception. How society sees these individuals, how the individuals perceive themselves in relation to society. @ryoki_PH you do make a good point regarding perception and meaning. I hope you found meaning.
I’m also a shut-in in the last 2-3 years, but for a mix of health conditions (endometriosis, fibromyalgia and UCTD) so I really feels for hikikomori people, because I’m also scared about society, how people perceive me not understanding my diseases or because I’m 35, single woman living with my mother and I’m currently incapable of working or being self sufficient. I’m trying my best to recover, but even if I’m suppose to rest, I feel uncomfortable doing so, I’m not being productive, I’m not earning a living, I feel like a burden. But inside of me I know I have the right of keep living my life, trying to enjoy the time I have without feeling constantly ashamed.
A society with really high expectations where failure is not tolerated. A collectivist society where "the nail that sticks gets the hammer". Public image (tatemae) being above everything else. Brutal (almost psychotic) work culture where excellence and self-sacrifice for the company is key. People getting gradually desensitized over the course of their lives to the plights of other because of the above reasons. Rigid hierarchical structures that don't allow for "outside the box" thinking. Refusal of social entities (companies) to give people a chance. Social stigma. These are some of the social issues I can identify in this video that are part of the problem. Thank you, Nobita-san, for these insightful videos.
I agree with this statement. Japan needed to rebuild after WWII and people sacrificed much for Japan to become successful. We all have paid a price to chase stability and a respected position in society, Japan is such a intense example of what modern life has become, no real friends, isolation and to top it off- after making all the “right” moves to enhance our careers- many of us do not obtain even the money we want at the end of our careers.
If I don't have a job, i would probably be a hikikomori too. However, I don't feel like i'm shutting myself from society. I just don't have any interests to talk to people or socialize.
Kinda on the same boat. Thanks to having a job, I haven't become a hikikomori. Plus if I did become a hikikomori, my parents will kick me out. As an introvert with social anxiety, I don't enjoy people, especially those that I don't know.
But here you are talking to people and in a way socializing even if it’s through social medias. If you didn’t have this, maybe you’ll be more interested by talking and socializing in real life.
@@Devi_Seona BINGO! It boggles my mind every single day to see how many people all over the world have become antisocial socialites on the great destructor of civilizations: the internet
@@sunshine1110 It's a common word. Used by those who don't engage in social interactions or those with niche interests to refer to everyone else. Like "You got a girlfriend? You normie."
@@DKNguyen3.1415 In my experience it's also a word used mainly to describe people who place excessive confidence in crowd consensus, in other words those who do not examine life very deeply. A milder form of philosophical zombie, stooge for the powerful, or naive quaint thinker.
@@YadraVoat I'm always suspicious of definitions that needlessly elevate oneself while degenerating others. Overvaluing crowd consensus is one thing but to go so far as to imply that just because one is not mainstream means they're better is quite another. It's literally just the opposite extreme on the other side of the coin. Anybody who calls someone else a normie with that definition sounds like a narcissist to me. Like cranks who treat their persecution as an indicator of their unrecognized brilliance like with Galileo or the like. I've never heard it used in the way you mention though. Only ever as a self-deprecating way to refer to other people who would normally be described as well-adjusted individuals.
@@YadraVoat I'm always suspicious of definitions that needlessly elevate oneself while degenerating others. Overvaluing crowd consensus is one thing but to go so far as to imply that just because one is not mainstream means they're better is quite another. It's literally just the opposite extreme on the other side of the coin. Anybody who calls someone else a normie with that definition sounds like they suffer from narcissism to me. Like cranks who claim that their persecution is an automatic indicator of their unrecognized brilliance like with Galileo or the like. I've never heard it used in the way you mention though. Only ever as a self-deprecating way to refer to other people who would normally be described as well-adjusted individuals.
As someone who's been on the other side, I know what it's like to feel rejected, when nothing goes your way, constant stress, no understanding, and no one to openly talk to. You might feel emotionally drained because you help so many people, yet no one helps you. You're there for everyone, but no one is there for you. Broken souls, find self-confident and solace in your hobbies and take it step by step, and please don’t take every piece of advice from your loved ones as criticism or a fight. Likewise, if you have someone like that at home, help them, and show understanding because they have been destroyed by society, cast aside. It's not a shame to ask for help!
I became a shut in shortly before the pandemic started due to career failure and stress, and continued being a shut in afterwards. Only gradually have I been able to improve (I have a part time job, I participate in a few hobbies). One of the biggest barriers I find is that work is almost always an all-or-nothing proposition, at least in the USA where a lot of social support depends on income, where you either don’t make enough money to do much but keep social benefits, or you work a LOT and it’s the complete center of your life. It is hard to gradually reintegrate into society because at some point the cliff comes up: put work back in the center, or stay in poverty anyways. For someone who became a hikkikomori over work issues, it’s better to be poor… But if you’re saying “well you have to pay rent and here’s that burden you could never lift again”, I look at it and feel despair. I’m doing pretty good but I know what happened last time I tried to have a “normal” life.
yeah i was already pretty bad but then covid hit and ive never really recovered since then. i actually barely leave the house and find little point in doing so.
I wonder if many Hikkikomori worry about being a burden because they are "KY" or "not fitting in enough"? In the West this happens too. But there is also a common understanding: it's normal sometimes to be separated from your culture. "My pace" is an okay way to live. And then you can do what you can from there.
I said it before and I say it again: hikikomori is a misnomer. It's *not* a diagnosis, it's a _symptom_ of often several underlying disorders and problems. Total withdrawal from society is _caused_ by a whole host of issues. Depression, anxiety, phobias, unprocessed trauma, issues fitting in, and so on. Trying to fix just the social withdrawal without treating the underlying conditions by pushing these people back into society will not work and in most cases make things much worse. It's like trying to force someone with a broken leg to run a marathon. Not only will it cause pain and suffering to the victim, but the added failure will push them deeper into their mental prison. The whole mentality around hikikomori has to change. Hikikomori is _not_ a welfare issue, it's a mental health issue. People need to understand, that being a shut-in is a _result_ and not a choice. The stigma around hikikomori is still the *wrong* assumption that these people are just good-for-nothing lazy slobs and they _choose_ to live like this, that this is a deliberate failure on their part. And also that the solution of this situation is squarely on their shoulders, and if they can't pull themselves out of this by their own hair, it's also their failure, because they are weak. This is wrong and incredibly damaging. Once someone is in such a deep hole in their lives, you don't solve it by handing them a shovel! Their entire way of going about this is wrong. I understand, that many people have the best of intentions and they are genuinely trying to help, but treating the symptom will *not* cure the disease. Trying to ease the public perception of hikikomori by calling it something else, or trying to force them into social situations and work programs is _not_ helping. That's just spraying a flea while completely ignoring the elephant in the room. Sure, it might ease the conscience of people that "I did something to help them", but it's just gonna make things worse in the long run. It just enforces the belief that hikikomori should be able to just shake it off and start adulting again by themselves "if only they'd try". "Hey, we even changed the terminology and gave you social events, WHY ARE YOU NOT GETTING BETTER?!". It's like calling an open fracture an "unconnected bone" and putting flowers on it. It's not gonna help. The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is one. That's where the Japanese system fails miserably. Even after so many years mental health is still taboo in Japan. Having personal hardships, psychological issues and disorders, just label them "crazy" and "disturbed" and "evil" and sweep it under the rug. Assuming that succumbing to depression, PTSD, anxiety and a whole host of disorders is just a reflection on the strength of one's character, a personal failure, a stigma, is just wrong. Assuming that people can just "power through" anything if they "just want it hard enough" and failing to do so is because they are "weak, pitiful and lazy" is why this problem even exists. This sort of "social Darwinism" is what lead to this state of things. Modern medicine has already recognized and learned to treat - and often cure - most of these disorders and help the victims get some sense order and normalcy back in their lives. With proper treatment and therapy most of these people *can* be helped, they can learn to handle these issues and get back to work, having friends and live in society. But not without help. A LOT of help. The solution has to start with the individual. Recognizing, that being a shut-in is simply the natural result of a long string of failure, abuse and suffering. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. We need to examine each individual, when this started and what led up to them being unable to function in society. The process, the individual events, traumas, etc. Only by going back, ripping off the bandaids and finally properly cleaning and treating those wounds can these people begin to heal. NOT by forcibly pushing such a damaged person back into society to be beaten again and then blaming them for it. What needed here is a proper mental health infrastructure with properly trained, experienced specialist, setting up programs and initiatives. Treat the disease, not the symptom!
All Japanese Psychiatrists do is give them tons of Antidepressants and Anxiolytics with 3-minute consultations. Patients suffer harsh side effects of these drugs and they're gonna be almost wrecked. No one cares about their original mental suffering. People just say "Jikosekinin (It's a keyword of Japanese society today. It literally means personal responsibility, but actually means "It's just your own fault, so don't blame society and never rely on others")" to them. Then, people just abandon them or treat them as targets of endless labeling and scorn. This is the real Japanese society.
@@Denis-gk8dj Did you even read what I wrote? No, I said hikikomori is a _symptom_ of many underlying conditions and issues. It's the _result_ of so many untreated problems, traumas and social issues, both individual and societal. Solving a problem, treating a disease, it's all semantics. What needs to happen, first and foremost, is for Japan to admit they have a huge mental health crisis on their hands, and to start dealing with it.
This is not entirely unique to Japan although it might be developed by different social constructs. We have an epidemic of young people from middle school into their 30s that get stuck at home in the bedrooms afraid to reenter society. Going to the store can be their greatest achievement for the month. These children are not stupid, they just somehow got derailed from healthy lifestyles. We have all changed our interactions as families and communities and I think this contributes greatly.
IMHO, Hikikomori didn't fail as people. Given how toxic work culture is in Japan, I would say it's the other way around, Japan failed for them. The whole world has failed for them. Living to be a slave of your job is not life, robots should take care of such things, human's job should be only to direct robots.
I've read that hikikomori may have been bullied at school and stay home to avoid bullying they experienced because they were different and didn't fit into the highly conformist requirements of Japan society. Whether autism spectrum or such I don't know. Could be simply too soft and unable to fend for themselves in a competitive society.
@@ultimobile Or maybe Japanese and Korean societies are way too higly competitive beyond what is humanly tolerable, thus karoshi (death by overworking) exists in those countries. Also toxic working culture is clearly not working. Working hard should give high productivity as a result, but their productivity is less than ideal and so the motivations to work are the same as for monotonous machines. People work well when their leaders motivate them towards great goals and even if the work is hard when the goals are clear, companies thrive because workers know clearly what the mission and the vision is and can focus on making things work, thus they become more productive and innovative. However, when companies are zombies, the workers work mechanically and mindlessly, work is monotone. It becomes excruciating to do hard work and do it in vain! Market punishes such companies, they go bankrupt and they deserve it for not innovating! Now I must clarify, protecting culture and traditions is OK as long as that doesn't create such a toxic working culture because that implies priorities are wrong. Prioritizing culture and traditions above human life and jobs is simply insane. But the additional problem comes from govt not allowing zombie companies to follow the natural cycle of the market and keeping them alive artificially. That created 30 years of economical stagnation and unemployement! That's at least 3 generations of people who couldn't get a job and thus 3 generations of hikikomori! Now why such a large ammount of people didn't just organize themselves to create new companies and thus become self employed and create more jobs? Perhaps due to how bad the working culture is there. They don't have anything as good as silicon valley, working culture is completely risk averse due to how the economy was managed since the 80s bubble. Also , many of the concepts in their working culture are just wrong. For example, they think customers are god, that won't always work. Paraphrasing Richard Branson: "Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers" is a much better philosophy. Another example is efficiency. Pharaphrasing Elon Musk: "Many times the mistake is optimizing a part or a process that should not even exist in the first place!"
Japan has managed to "achieve" a remarkable cultural synthesis: collectivism without the warmth and comradeship of collectivism; and individualism without the psychological self-sufficiency and boldness of individualism. People are "bred" to be collectivist, but when they enter society (school), they find it cold and oppressive. A real individualist might be confident enough to "tough it out," but most Japanese are not psychologically prepared for individualism.
There is some truth to this, but you've framed it in a purely psychological fashion which makes it inaccurate. You are framing this 'cultural synthesis' as some individual will of a Japanese citizen, this is not the case for any citizen of any nation. The 'cultural synthesis' within collectivism and within individualism happen IN THE AGGREGATE THROUGH SOCIAL RELATIONS; not purely through disparate individual psychology. To put it crudely: history and economics matter more in this case than the abstract thoughts of a hikikomori or a well-adjusted salaryman. There is obviously a relation between what an individual feels and how their nation is organised, but to speak of social ills purely from the basis of 'comradeship', 'psychological self-sufficiency' and 'boldness' is flat-out myopic. You are missing the point. Japan's economic trajectory changed deeply after the Meiji / Taisho era. What you call a lack of 'bold individualism' is really a lack of sovereignity and independance at the national scale. Japan, for a short time, borrowed from and improved its Western influences, but it fell into the trap of being a stooge for Western imperialism. The country started warring with its neighbors based on a perceived cultural superiority, mimicking the British Empire's political model. They used their industrial progress for destructive, one-sided conquest in the region and abused the cheap labor from that conquest. The Japanese 'nationalism' of this era was a lie: it was based on taking advantage of China's political transition out of the Warlord-Era and the fall of the Qing. Japan's nationalism, arguably to this day, is not primarily based on the innate strength of the working Japanese citizen. That build up of industry in the early 1900s was motivated by war as its primary means to accelerate industrial production. National living standards were determined by the conquest, subjugation and destruction of neighboring nations. Fast forward to the end of WWII where Tokyo is fire bombed during Operation Meetinghouse, literal scars on the land and buildings the citizenry of Tokyo can still point to today. Fast forward to Japan eating two nukes when they've virtually surrendered (you could easily argue the bombs were dropped purely to intimidate the Soviet Union, by the way). A nation which only knows how to conduct war does not get a 'happy ending'. Some would even say the US and British elite from the get-go intended to use Japan as a battering ram to weaken all the nations in the area, but that's a topic for a different UA-cam video. Once you understand the real dynamic between the war machine and the Japanese citizen's prosperity at home, you can see how that underpinning of economic subjugation regardless of cost carries through to the modern malaise of being over-worked, depressed and alienated from other people. You must take a better look at the geopolitical history of Japan to understand the floundering state of its populace. We all know about Japan's wartime history in some respects, but I would suggest reading about the Kanto Massacre or even the Mukden Incident to understand the real (read: duplicitous and oppressive) underpinings of Japan's 'prosperous' national image during this period. It is difficult to understand post-war Japan without understanding how it got to this modern malaise in the first place. You might even find that analysing a country's 'war machine' has useful applications to a lot of Western nations as well...
@@NewData-ly4ck i believe deep inside the japanese people wishes to be more individualistic. But sadly they seem to be afraid of going away from the norm. They need a cultural revolution where its seen as okay to deviate from the collectivist culture of their people. To live even a little bit for themselves.
I work in a Japanese company with Japanese bosses. I'm lucky the local employees outnumber the Japanese managers and put a huge boundary with our bosses, they absolutely did try to be strict and pressure us to come to work even while sick, but we said no and applied for medical leaves. Two of the bosses come in to work while sick and infected half of the local employees and we shamed them for doing so. My point is Japanese work culture is so toxic that if I were to work in Japan, I probably would have ended up a hermit as well.
Often those who have deep interests in managerial roles tend to be narcissistic/psychopathic control freaks. It's a phenomenon observed everywhere and not just Japan. But with how strict Japanese society is, I can't imagine how much worse it most likely is as it would only serve to enable those micromanaging types that much more. You can especially find a lot of psychopaths within executive positions in the business field. I have known many of them. They can ruin your life if you're not careful. I actually just quit my last job because my boss was threatening me after I declined coming into the office due to covid (I was still working online btw. She was turning irate just because she wouldn't be able to physically see me doing the work for a few days).
Thank you for your continued work in highlighting the complexities of people's experiences in Japan. It seems that this "phenomena" is so often mischaracterized and misunderstood, to the point where their disinterest in knowing the truth is obvious. They seem more interested in judging than helping. But you are always empathetic and interested in unpacking the truth. You have rare, precious qualities, and a lot of people are very grateful for what you do.
Parents not seeking help for their child because they'd feel ashamed having to tell another person about their child not being 'normal' is something that's common around the world unfortunately. My mother didn't get me help for my ASD and only brought me to psychologists because my school told them to. When I found out about my condition, I confronted her about it and she told me: "How would you feel that you have to tell people you have an Autistic child?" Of course I felt hurt hearing that - even ashamed of my condition. Since then, after having a chat with my uncle who has a special needs child, my mother learned that her actions did more harm than good and is now very supportive of me. When I got the help I needed, she was there when I needed her.
Thank you for sharing this video! This is the perception I often encounter when people frequently ask about hikikomori in Japan, that they are a burden to society or that they are lazy. There is definitely a lot of layers to it...work culture, mental health, and so forth. The stigma and the negative image of having a mental illness or another form of diagnosis is a huge blow. There is a reason why people don't share it so openly with others.
Why have societies in Japan and western countries become so dehumanized? We reject the plight of people and only care about "productivity numbers" and "financial quotas" as if that makes our lives better. It's sad that for many the only issue here is that hikikomori don't work.
Perhaps because local communities with 'deep bonds' matter less, are less common, and generally hold less power in the larger society of a country/nation. As scientists (or whoever) say, 'humans are social creatures.' Which basically means we have evolved as a species to be more or less part of a social group (whether a village, a tribe, or a band.) But when, let's say something like the invention of the cellphone, becomes commonplace, then functions within your social group lessen/decrease. Meaning, you might not have an errand boy, which everyone in a village may know, passing around messages. Less 'deep' contact could mean that one human invests less attention towards another human. Conflict is a part of reality/life, and having less 'deep bonds' is good in the sense that you can avoid conflict. Conflict may get in the way of development, like if a businessman has plans to build something but the builders 'get in the way of those plans' because they can leverage their 'deep bonds' to sway a businessman from doing what he wants to do. So, for productivity, it's probably commonly seen better to be less intertwined with other humans, or have a system where you can do stuff/get the stuff you want without interference. Maybe productivity numbers matter more because stuff like that help society function/thrive by helping provide electricity, food, etc. (Ideally at least.) While on the other hand, social relations are more bendable/malleable, and so, it is maybe the responsibility of individuals to form communities, strengthen communities, or help themselves or others somehow within a broader society. Education is very important in providing people gateways, tools, hints, keys, etc. in many modern societies. Education just means learning, usually in an organized way or through an institution. There are many things to learn about, so, rigid education is not necessary beneficial in empowering an individual.
Human nature, unrestrained by morality. People are saying it's capitalism, mimicking the exact same people who clamored endlessly for the disavowal and divestment of morals -- particularly those born of the Christianity that provided such moral restraints. Relevantly, the main, historical opponent of capitalism was an inherently atheistic ideology/economic system. You can make a lot of money if you don't love your neighbor, let alone care for his wellbeing as he lives and works alongside you. Just so happens that that inhumane, self-serving pursuit of personal gain writ large is what leads a society to where we are right now -- not a conveniently demonized economic system.
They're not victims of anything other than themselves. And if their parents love them, then it's the responsibility of the parent to sit down with their child from youth and teach them how to deal with life. And one thing I learned from my parents and what I've taught my own children is that the world doesn't owe you anything - you want something you earn it and if you don't want it taken you stand your ground.
@@The_Phoenix_Saga Which is why that is a problem. What if their parents aren't helping at all? Shouting at them saying "You have no future!" "You're useless!" "You have nothing to contribute in this household!" Who's gonna help them? What if it triggers something tragic?
@@jamilgonzaga7081 Sounds like my worthless father. Guess what - proved him wrong to spite him and I look back and think that instead of coddling, being made to face advertisity did me wonders as it showed me how the world really is.
I was a bit of a shut in for a decade because I lived in the countryside (US) as a housewife. I still maintained a household and my children, but I always had anxiety + depression & trauma, since I was a child, and being away from people for so long made me scared of them -- that I wasn't good enough, socially, work wise, physically, just everything. I've spent the last 5 years building myself back up, and like someone else said, it's a thousand steps. Dental work, dermatology, beauty, style, losing weight, forcing myself to talk to people, convincing myself to walk in a store, therapy, on and on and on. I had the benefit of my husband's help financially, and the fact I've never been completely cut off, since there were times I was forced over the years to interact, like for school and Doctors appointments. I genuinely cannot imagine how hard it would be if you're completely cut off from society and that society think you're evil for it. And to boot, I was actually a very social person before that decade. Things just aligned badly for me to get to where I was. So imagine being someone who has never been really been social. I have a lot of empathy for them.
Hikikkomori's issues with society probably wouldn't like to be addressed by society because Japan highly values being seen as being perfect. It would take the Japanese to acknowledge their faults, which would take admitting that each person has their own faults. In Japan where having a different hair color or looking slightly different is seen as intolerable, or they have the "nail that sticks out gets hammered" perspective, Japanese wouldn't like to admit it. I've been a shut-in in the U.S., and I can't imagine the difficulty in Japan! :/
Issues of perception get trumped by high-quality working oppurtunities. That would be the path forward for any nation with poor labor /social participation from certain demographics.
The final message of the video is perfect. Understanding how a person got to that state in the first place, can than, also help with finding a solution to caters to their specific situation. If anyone knows the anime Relife, then you might recall that they presented an interesting solution for Arata that involved changing his perspective and moving on from a difficulty in his life. I love that anime. Its message still holds up.
Just like with rescued dogs, there has to be an abundance of love/ compassion instead of harshness...an abundance of love/ compassion current Japanese society is unable to generate, although certain individuals might
Just my opinion, but I think one of the reasons for becoming hikikomori is experiencing major trauma. From school or work bullying, to being publicly humiliated, to being betrayed by someone they trusted, to feeling unable to reach high expectations of self and others, etc. Hikikomori is being broken by society, its demands and pressures, then being labeled negatively.
I rarely leave my apartment as well. I survived 27 years in the military often driving to work stomach sick at the thought many days. As soon as I retired though, with a steady pension, suddenly I stopped going outside. If it wasn't for grocery or the occasional doctor appointment I would almost never leave. I am assuming Hikikomori also have many untreated personality disorders, like Schizoid or one of the tougher ones.
...you're so not alone to go through this after military life....My uncle, if it wasn't for his wife, would have ended up like you after he retired. She was the one who kept him socially active; otherwise, he found fewer and fewer reasons to go outside. How are you doing these days? Are you from Newfound Land..?
It’s crazy to me that Japanese are so much about unity and the group but if you have a problem it’s yours, solve it yourself. Where’s the help from the group?
Few only really care... When they just need a little encouragement! Sigh. They are in a darker place than we know. I feel for them. The guys who are understanding of them and patient with them are heroes!
Basically, the country only sees them as tools, companies would rather have no one, and others would rather be alone than interact with them. If they leave their house, they are just villainized and shamed for likely getting screwed earlier in life and not doing something others are denying them to do or making beyond difficult. The shame is Japans. Japan is unbelievably lucky that they are so peaceful about essentially forced solitary confinement or death.
I'm a foreigner currently living in Osaka, and I'm interested in helping こもりびと / ひきこもり if I can. Nobita-san, do you have any idea where I could start to look for ways to help? I am able to speak and read some Japanese and am very motivated to try!
the number of people like this in america is very high, but no one talks about it - although the govt has acknowledged there are millions of people who no longer work or look for work - i fear the total number of american hikikomori is in the millions
Because they were forced to by US capitalism that excluded them from getting a job. The difference is that in Japan it is due to mental illness despite that there are more job opportunities. US has always been a declining economy under the facade that majority of people are living well due to money made by corporations, politicians, the famous, and wealthy. For 90% of people, US is a depressing, open air mental asylum. I rather be hikkimori in Japan than live in an illusion, fake world of people wearing masks like in the US. US seems like all people are actors acting a script that their government gave them to live life.
It is definitely an international issue, you can see in many countries. I would say the Japanese (and South Koreans) have it worse because of their declining rate of birth on top of the increasing number of elderly people. Not to mention the terrible work/home balance and the constant pressure society puts on people. I don't blame people for shutting in. I mean I know we have problems of our own in the US but that's a different kind of hell, atleast everyone else doesn't have to worry about paying healthcare bills.
Autism is probably one of the reasons. How many resources are there for autistic people in Japan? Is it possible for them to get a diagnosis and some therapy? I think autism and anxiety mixed together is what makes them. A club where they can get together with each other for emotional support without judgement would be a great first step. Then after they get used to talking with each other get them involved in the community.
Probably only discrimination. Disobeying social convention means social suicide in Japan, which precedes real suicide. And their culture is happy to keep it this way because that is the way it has always been.
Yeah, I'm autistic, and essentially am that but non-Japanese outside Japan. I've tried getting jobs, but keeping them is the struggle. For my last, I survived only 3 days, due to stupid mutual misunderstandings/mismatches of social-cues. Luckily, I'm in good enough relations with my family, and they support me. Still, my parents are old and 1 almost died last year, so I'm trying to re-integrate into society with a job, but I just can't seem to hold down a job. I feel like a failure. It sucks to keep losing jobs due to worthless squabbles (ex. mess with the timing of phrases in the oath-taking ceremony, therefore not trustworthy enough to keep the job).
And how many in USA pay for those resources? When they dole out food stamps, what kind of non-hikikomori climbs up the the banana tree to gather some food? You wanna tell Chiquita to "get out of America and back to your home" where they start another Banana Wars, "outside of America"? You gonna drag people "not in America" into Guantanmo Bay if they don't conform to US rules-based oredr? Learn there how not to be hikikomori.
Very enlightening video about Hikikomori phenomenon, Nobita-san. Thank you so much for all the informations shared about this relevant and growing issue. Its interesting that more and more people are noticing that the toxic work culture contributes a lot to the raise of numbers of hikikomori as well.
I can see why it would be quite difficult to try re-introduce people who feel like society has only ever abused them and wants to over work them until they pass. I have heard from a few people I talk to who live in Japan of their seniors quitting work and isolating because they dislike the social pressures and feel as though they are a tool and not a person, and then they feel like they are traitors because they feel that way. I can't really see this getting better by any significant margin until Japanese culture embraces a greater degree of individuality instead of everything fits in the square hole. Maybe trying to get them into language teaching foreigners through conversation practice or learning foreign languages for translation because other cultures tend to be more independent and accepting of peoples individual traits. These fields also allow a greater level of independent freedom and control and not as much need to go outside to support themselves.
I don't know if individualism is going to solve the problem of hikikomori. There's a loneliness epidemic in the west as well, which I would attribute to the meaning crisis devastating the entire industrialized world. People need something outside of themselves that they want to see flourish to give there life meaning. A meaningless person has no answer to the questions 1) What would die for? and 2) How much of an impact do you have on that thing? In industrialized society's, kids cost a fortune, so people don't desire to have kids, and so they don't get married, and then they never form any of the secondary relationships from those two life milestones. And when a person's needs are mostly met, and they are living a mundane life, it's hard for them to see the need for religion, so they never form those human connections either. And then there's the internet which provides highly impersonal human interactions through the form of comment sections, which are a profoundly shallow way to communicate with others.
@@DoubtX I think some of this is a bit off of what I was talking about, and I also think its a bit to black and white from the concept of the human state relative to this situation. Individuality should not supplant collectivism, but should be added as a component to improve upon it. Maybe this person is incredibly efficient at their job but starts breaking down when doing to many hours? Maybe this person's learning style is different to the standard so a more relaxed approach is utilized. The degree to which the west has it is toxic and a negative, but a middle ground can exist. As for the other stuff... I don't believe people require something outside of themselves to be satisfied or justified with their existence otherwise monks would not be a thing, and they succeed in their own life metrics much better then most 'normal' people. I do however believe that religion is probably one of the easiest methods to achieve this, albeit not the solution for all people. I think money plays a part but is not a major factor determining whether have children or not otherwise poor people would not be having children at the same or higher rates then rich city liberals. Marriage in itself occurs less now because there is only negatives for men and it is not any different from dating with how easy it is to get divorced in modern society. The internet definitely has issues which is why at times I think it would be a good idea for it to be ID locked but, but that it is ultimately a terrible idea as it would cause major issues with black mail, threats and freedom of speech.
One of the potential solutions i see is government should incentivize the employment of hikkimori in both public and private sectors. Employers will not hire or retain hikkimori people unless there is an incentive from the government. I think this would be a good start, maybe not sure as i dont live in Japan.
In the US, we have a similar problem, except that here it's the homeless. People fall out of society not by shutting in, but by being thrown out into the street. The same pressures apply - no way to get back in, shame and abuse heaped on them by others, and the constant idea that they are somehow at fault for their situation, when really it's the whole society that has caused it.
If Japanese companies themselves are unwilling to assist, I think it would be in the interest of western corporations to hire a lot of these highly skilled people as remote workers. That would serve as a nice stepping stone position.
First off, 'remote work' is not crucial to a nation's productive output. It's either a sham for middle-manager, overly-educated do-nothings or a company's excuse to find cheap labor. To work remotely is becoming the definition of a low-skill, overworked job...that's exactly the situation that leads to hikikomori! The entire video is about how Hikikomori are people aged out of the workforce who feel like they do not contribute to society...you want them to join an even more alienating workforce and contribute to a foreign nation's society. Completely missing the point! Second, suggesting that Western corporations swoop in and take advantage of Japan's weak labor situation is dishonest. These are still Japanese people with an understanding of Japanese culture. Transitioning them into IT drones for multinational corporations (at best) who want cheaper labor is nowhere close to an effective, macro-level solution. You want a demographic of depressed people with no social contact to stay at home and work? Respectfully, you do not understand the phonomena the video is discussing. The answer is physical work, with real social contact and meaningful goals. All the exact opposite of what 'remote work' provides.
@@LeafDew USA has done remote work since 1968, with petrodollar they print money to buy goods from remote child labor. This work cannot make equitable income if you do the work in USA to amount enough slaary to buy the goods you're producing. Because in USA such conditions that US consumerism can fund, are abjectly illegal.
I think I might be one Since I lost my job I only leave my home if it's absolutely necessary It's been almost a year now and the reason why is because I'm so damn tired of failure I mean why try if the whole universe seems to want you to fail😢
Japanese society is very hard on people with mid-level jobs and below... If the quality requirement is 50, then you're always expected to deliver 60, even 70 because the competition is tough for that level of jobs On the other hand, for high-level / high-skilled jobs,, If the quality requirement is 90, it's okay to occasionally deliver 85,, or even 80 since there is only few in the market that can deliver 90 anyway...
@Nobita, I could be wrong but it sounds like a form of depression. I just had an idea that may help. The gentleman that was going to industry asking for employment help for the suffering; perhaps when they say no they could sponsor someone to enter into a chess tournament. I think it would be a small donation and huge winnings for everyone involved. It would give the players motivation, confidence, human interaction without words and bring them all together. In time they will feel belonging and self worth. I believe that many people will be supportive of their champions. These players don't have to speak much. Their minds speak for them. Everyone loves a gifted chess player. It could work up to a very huge event. Lots of vendors and street food. Merch. Nobita tshirts. Who knows how many smiles and healed hearts. All the best Nobita.✌️
In response to a cold comment I saw earlier that has thankfully gone now. In many cases, this isn't about people who have made a conscious decision to drop out of society. It's a complex situation where many of them have mentally challenging situations including agoraphobia, social anxiety, hypersensitivity and depression etc. All the individual cases require different kinds of help. Those who were bullied in the school and workplace will find life discouraging through the kind of trauma they have experienced. Society has plenty compassion-less sociopaths that lack basic empathy and psychological understanding, and many recluses have been victims to them. Those people have the strength to pick up the weak, but seem to prefer kicking down. The true sociopaths understand the situation but have the type of brain chemistry that just can't help but exploit the weak (they do well in politics). They too have their issues and are an entirely different problem! Unfortunately they are the ones who create so many of the recluses. Thanks for sharing this Nobita san. I hope it inspires more people to have the compassion and desire to help people rather than make their situation worse.
This is the dark side...I think not only in Japan, even though there it extremely tough to work, but to the economical structures in general. It is all about career, money and productivity for the competition of the " market" Seems that the "market" is far more important than human life in general. Its somehow tragic that in the end an inhuman and even insane world was created... and not a single human beeing can take something with him to the afterlife... the loneliness phenomenon is in almost every country. Seems the " work hard and sucsseed" is a lie. Japan is struggeling with birthrates and high living costs that are hard to afford... even when they work hard around the clock.
This mirrors a lot of Autistic experiences so much I have to wonder how much overlap there is (personally I’m inclined to believe that the vast majority of hikikomori are actually Autistic (especially given Japan’s unfortunate history regarding utter lack of awareness or understanding of Autism, and atrocious treatment of many of the few Autistic people who managed to get a proper diagnosis).
When you think you could be a potential danger in the future, this is how you get depression. Don't harm yourself and more importantly, forgive yourself.
there is a lot of things push people to become shut ins. depression, anxiety, hopelessness, these are only a few factors that contributed and there is many more. the proud nature of Japanese people often prevents parents or family members to seek help instead of the shut ins because they needed help. in western countries and Europe the parents would just kick out the shut ins but they most likely become homeless or worse. the shut ins are not a lost cause, to be honest they only need encouragement and given a purpose to keep going in their lives. it will takes a lot of efforts from the family, community, and government but i think Japan could solve this problem.
I'd blame a toxic japanese work culture for a lot of it. I mean the social expectations are if your boss goes out for drinks after work you go with him in Japan and that's just messed up it forces japanese people to literally spend far more hours than we're required to in the united states working, and BTW my nation overworks too but it's overworking has to do with how hard it is to make ends meet in the united states and not expectations that people go out drinking with their boss after work.
Encourage them to engage and leave comments in social medias so it wouldn't be harder for them when they meet actual people. And they need someone who's bright, energetic, and talkative around them.
I don't think changing the name will solve anything. It's not the name itself causing the stigma against hikikomori. The term "prostitute" was changed to "sex worker" because of the stigma. But "sex worker" didn't suddenly became a respectable profession and it can also be used as an insult. In my opinion changing the name is just a superficial action, so that people can pat themselves on the back thinking they've helped.
Hikikomori is also present in the west. We just call them N.E.E.T. (Not in Education, Employment or Training.) And i find it perfectly justified to be a Hikikomori/NEET, when the economy is at another all time low and working gets you only to work but not to improve. Nowadays you factually only have the choice between; Working AND getting nothing. Or: Doing nothing but at least having some freedom. Most people made the second choice when they could. The Mental illness pandemic plays it's part too.
😳 One of the first problem is that it’s viewed as a problem for other people. 😕 These people who have shut out the world are more than likely acutely aware of the problems they created for others. 😬 Unfortunately that’s probably part of the reason why!!!! It’s one thing to be miserable alone but a whole other thing to make everyone else life miserable.
Are there any online chat services trying to target hikikomori? I've found that with people who are very introverted or depressed, they tend to find it easier to start talking to people through an online chat where they don't have to start out being face to face with the other person, but can exert some control over the interaction. So maybe if the mental health services had an online chat service and advertised it to let hikikomori know that they can reach out to get help without having to physically meet with a counselor, you could start treating their issues from there and then work towards getting them out of the house and start meeting with people.
I think, we should change the society, and I mean we as a world wide change. Also change the economic system, which is deeply connected to the work based society which cause many of these problems, stress, scuicide, hikikomori and many more.
That doesn't explain people who left society because of a bad work environment. Also many people are just demotivated to see that hard work doesn't mean a better life anymore. So they just decide to live life on easy mode.
Like flocking to be butchered as labor cattle is NO kind of autism? Society doesn't produce these diagnostic categories for the purposes of finding out who doens't GET to do work. That's what college is for, your penance to do debt-based consumerism before you GET to participate in soceity and steal jobs from the elderly. Constant cycle of shifting more and more people out of the market you need to CREATE jobs for, because "private business is so good at creating jobs".
Perhaps certain people have not been kind to them. Rather than continue to put themselves into seriously toxic situations, they retreat for the sake of their sanity. The working world has nothing to offer them, except for chronic stress, bullying, and mental breakdowns.
I believe that autism spectrum creates a higher risk for hikkikomori but there are autistic people living normally. So it may be a mismatch of abilities and job opportunities. For example, working in a loud factory aggravated my sensory issues and led me to burnout in less than a year. I did better working 13 hour days 2 on 2 off than I do working 5 days a week (which I hate). But frankly employers in general are almost completely inflexible about what they want.
If you're not making active efforts into resolving your societal issues. Obviously the problems are going to consist. The birthrate isn't going to be solved by asking nicely or government promotion campaigns. Its about dealing with the actual causes and building robust and effective changes. Improved working conditions. No pressure for workers to PRETEND to work until their boss dismisses them. Just let people go home to their families when they're just wasting resources like electric simply to keep up a busy appearance. This is exactly the same with Hikkikomori. They become recluse because there is no place for them in the current Japan. Evolve.
This generation will be sure to find out the hard way, unfortunately. It sounds cold, but there is simply no helping anyone not prepared to help themselves. This isn't a very pleasant world when it comes down to it- it gives you nothing and demands everything you're willing to let it take.
Some gen x in this situation have already found themselves facing homelessness and in some extreme cases starvation. They know it as the 80 50 problem.
i wish i coud help them but i think my Japanese will not be too advanced. its really sad that there are solutions we can do but the culture and society is overwhelming :( I think the government should publicly announce hikkimori's are not evil, lazy or a burden, and it'll at least give hope to them and let people help them
The approach is quite "wrong" by the Japanese Government regarding this "Hikikomori" it is and always "Making use for the Work Force" or "Contribute (economically) to the Society". It's all about the Money and the person that become "Hikikomori" is just another digit on the statistic graphs. Both The Japanese Government and their peoples never sees them "Human Being" in the first place and time they become a "Hikikomori". Both The Japanese Government and their peoples sees them as either "caged beasts", "useless", "lazy" and "broken human". Japan is quite slow intellectually, Intelligently, emotionally as a Country, Society and Civilizations to finally realized this late and react that "Hikikomori" issues is a severe serious society issues that will consumes their country from the inside just like how a late stage of cancer are. It need more than "Government" campaign, program etc. to handles the "Hikikomori" issues, it needs the participation's of anything sentient and breathing Human Being to tackle the issue. Japan is Lucky that their country is suffering from youth that too traumatized to the society that make them "Hikikomori" compares the rest of the world where the Youths is turn into radicalized thirst for rabid violence that soon turn into murderous frenzy for anything that triggers to project their dissatisfaction's of their current predicament causes by society, economically, politically shifts.
Because they were forced to by US capitalism that excluded them from getting a job. The difference is that in Japan it is due to mental illness despite that there are more job opportunities. US has always been a declining economy under the facade that majority of people are living well due to money made by corporations, politicians, the famous, and wealthy. For 90% of people, US is a depressing, open air mental asylum. I rather be hikkimori in Japan than live in an illusion, fake world of people wearing masks like in the US. US seems like all people are actors acting a script that their government gave them to live life and pay taxes to corporations, the Israeli and Saudi lobby, and military industrial complex. This is why US is land of serial killers, mass shooters, pedos, mentally and physically ill people.
Hearing about the worsening situation makes be draw parallels to the recent ending of Boku no Hero Academia; If we truly want to make a society for everyone, everyone needs to step up for their part. It feels like the biggest thing is that the average Japanese citizen isn’t even willing to help out of the public face, and that’s a contributing factor to the situation.
I work from home in Spain, making a little over USD$150K, and I don't like going out of my house. I get my food and groceries delivered, I bought a new commercial treadmill and I have my own professional gym at home. I was asked by a Japanese friend if I saw myself as a hikikomori and I told her that I didn't, but looking at this I really don't know. I'm not depressed, as far as I know, I just don't like people. The majority are stupid. I can spend hours reading manga or watching anime. I only allow my family, close friends and the cleaning lady to come in my house.
im not even kidding but have them watch gurren lagann. as a kind of shut in myself i easily woulda had super depression if it wasnt for that. im not kidding that show is dam inspiring
Or play Persona 3. That game inspired me to really start living. Because you'll look up and it's over. Its all about the memories you make. And if I'm going to die one day, then I will follow my heart until then.
Fiction can definitely inspire people, but Gurren Lagann and all those anime and games targeted toward young men. It won't do anything to a kissless, virgin 40 years old man. He is already far too deep. Or a guy in his late twenties that dropped out of work because of the social pressure. This is why isekai as a genre became so popular, people wants cheap escapism where they can redo their lives instead.
A Hikikomori is not simply a' super depressed' person without motivation, they have also lost the means to find work or be hired. That entails a lack of social exchange and economic oppurtunity; it's not simply about being sad and feeling anxious. If life were simply a matter of thinking abstractly and 'being inspired' everyone would be successful.
Being a Hikikomori is not as bad as you think. I always wanted to be an Hikikomori But i was not able to as I am too broke to do so nor do I have any parents support.
No one should be seen as "weak" because they can't keep up with the pressures their fellow man places on their shoulders. People are constantly breaking people, yet shame them when they need help to cope with the many inhuman tasks demanded of them. No one should be made fun of, nor turned away with the thoughts of looking weak when they need help.
Hikikomori is depression. Well, I had depression and it left me with only a little fire in me but I knew that fire was there. I lost my voice during that time and I had panic attacks if my thoughts congregate on a certain topic. There are three things that go me out of it. One is I came to know there is medication that can give me a bottom where I can not fall further. I ended up taking very small dosage of that drug for a short time. I don't believe in taking mood altering drug because if I rely on it, I am that drug and I would no longer be me. I like to experience life for myself no matter how hard. But the drug gave me confidence that I can control the situation and that was what mattered. Second, I had a complex situation and there is only one very narrow way out. I gave my self permission to take the way out and I worked on changing my circumstances. Third, I had to take a leap of faith. I had faith in the people I love and I believe there is a chance that people around me would change once I change my circumstances. All worked out as I believed it could. Though I still paid a very very big price for the journey. Good luck Hikikomori people of Japan. You are not alone.
People don't just become Hikikomori for no reason and there are many things that can lead to it. Countries not trying to fix the underlying problems first is like trying to put a tiny bandaid on a severed arm and wondering why it's not healing.
I have always struggled with this. I have solitary tendencies but also am part of a social species. I get along with most people and can make soem friends but i often become recluse by mistake
They seem like the type of people who'd be very trustworthy and reliable employees. Maybe, maybe not, but if Japan needs more reliable workers, this could be a solution.
In my case, my wife took my kids from me back to Japan, my son 16 and he starts to turn himself to be Hikikomori while my wife know that problem she still pay her attention to my daughter more ( she is 7 years old) and leave my son with the computer. I just came to visit them and I was shocked because only one way to recover him is being a family don’t separate family off. Unfortunately my wife just said to me like this “ so many couples not living together and have happiness just send money to me” that’s it!!! And I said to her please stick together for our kids but she said again stah with is not fun and we talk in different ideas which lead to the arguments. actually my personality is super compromise to anyone but her attitude just gone too far. now i can see only young lad wearing only his underwear flowing from the second floor to the first floor when he is hungry and move bagk to 2nd floor again to sit jnfront of the PC when he is tired sleep the rhe loops keep gojng like this 24 hours a day nothing seem to stop the underwear boy anymore. i was extremely suffering 😢.
As an ex hikkikomoi(one year), what made me break out of my hikkikomori phase was moving out of my apartment and living with my mother, I hated it so much I decided to go look for a job. It turned out I really hated dealing with other people, family included. So if I go look for a job, at least I don't have to deal with anyone when I am at home. And since I have money, I can stay hikkikomori at my apartment for as long as I want, I don't own the world anything. It is my freedom as long as I spend my own money
hikikomori all around the world, let me say you.. you re not alone, im brazilian and im feel just like you.. im 36 years old, i have a degree. but my country is passing through a bankrupt crisis , political and social.. due this the salary does not support the basics to live a good life.. i have financial support of my parents and relatives, on the contrary i gonna die.. is sad.
@notafortnitegamer for starters mexico is very similar in its expectations for people to keep up a certain amount of work and social standing as to not embarrass the family and falling bellow that will get you scrutinize heavily especially if there are peers that are in better position as you and families are usually pretty vocal about it. This biggest differences I'd say is that overall mexican society can be a bit crueler in its disregard to those that it deems as failures or outliers which in advertantly also ends up feeding into the rampant crime in mexico as people try to find external forms of acceptance.
The problem is that japanese society is too collectivist. There's no space for individualism. I think that's kind of a coward behaviour, like, "as long as I fit with the rest I'm fine". Bullshit. You're just forcing yourself to fit. There is nothing to be proud about that.
At its core, this is just people who need a psychotherapy support framework, like all the other people who have developed passive self-harming behavior patterns as the result of terrible experiences. The government needs to educate the wider society that people in this situation need professional help, support from people who are trained in psychotherapy and the surrounding fields.
'More' effort isn't what's needed. A definitive plan with actual outcomes is needed. Neither the CDP nor the LDP care about economic reform; political parties in the G7 do not cater to working people's interests. They are there to manage the expectations and goals of international financiers.
My friend is a hikikomori. He worked for a major company, but he couldn’t cope with the pressures of work , he marriage failed , he no longer sees his Children. And he lives with his elderly father. He told me would jump infront of a train but he is too much of a coward.
He wants to go back to society but he is so scared of how people will treat him. I told him he will always have me and my family . Even my boss offered a backroom Job for him. But he isn’t too keen on
I hope the best for your friend and that he can see his real worth one day. There are many people in the world who will look down on him. Those types of people usually don't even like themselves, hence why they lash out. But one day when he begins to reach out he will find there are more people like you than he thought. Please let him know there are people out in the world who wouldn't judge him, and would be honored to have a friend like him.
you should tell him to not to dive into society, dont tell him to go find a job. tell him to make his own space by opening a small shop about something he still loves to do. this way people will come to him less personal and also the important point; let him prove that he can gain sense of achievement on daily basis.
Imagine living in an individualist society that worships appearance so much and ignoring everything about mental health. Everyone's smiling but nobody really cares, loved ones leaving, working under pressure everyday, feeling depression, living an empty life while watching other people thriving, life is cold and alone and empty while you slowly aging wasting away your health and time to do things that have no meaning anymore. In this situations being a hikkikomori is the best coping mechanism you can do.
I honestly think japanese government needs to give this different approach, instead of fixing the persons (hikkikomori), they need to fix the system itself, the fastest solution will be reviving asian family culture which is difficult in current capitalist world and american controlled media. Individualism and greed, isn't a good match for asian working ethos and social pressure, if mixed together they created the situations japan have today.
@@havefuntazarasu5367 the younger society is totally different and more understanding. I’m 49 and so is my boss. We won’t pressure him hence we have always said come when you are ready . He knows as my bosses daughter was one and he knows the mental anguish and pain they go through.
I have ADHD, BPD and autism and I didn’t get diagnosed by the Japanese health care system. I went to a US naval doctor who was brilliant. He knew straight away something was wrong.
Many old people in Japan tell you to grow up , smile and get on with your life. How can you when you feel like you have failed everyone around you!! It’s an awful society and they don’t allow for failure as it is a sign of weakness. Which I am glad the youth are starting to rebel against and about bloody time too!
That mainstream society can only understand the hikikomori phenomenon through the lens of unemployment figures and productivity loss speaks to it's inhumanity, the very thing that created the conditions for the phenomenon in the first place.
If they'd tried acting this way a century ago, they'd have starved. It's about time people stopped giving them excuses.
And I'm not saying it from a position of privilege - I was brought up with the fact that if I wanted anything, I had to earn it.
As such they either want to be helped or they don't. If the latter, there is no need to have them waste anyone else's time.
When sociopathy and psychopathy became the norm in modern society some demographics couldn't handle the toxic environment due to the usual factors like bullying and the horrendous hustle culture so none of this should come as a surprise. People can't be expected to function as machines without there being consequences.
@@The_Phoenix_Saga There's a reason why self-deletion rates are high in Japan. We could stop giving them excuses not knowing that when pressured enough, they only know one way out.
No one owes someone else care, affection, or even acknowledgement. Life is a personal journey that each individual must come to terms with themselves.
@@The_Phoenix_Sagaright... The boot straps rationale. There are over a million hikikomori in Japan alone, and this dummy thinks bootstrapping will solve this ever growing problem.
The government wants them to get back to work but Japan's work environment is too harsh for people who are healthy and social let alone Hikikomori.
Plus having to state mental illness or personal struggles in interviews is more than a little uncomfortable.
On top of that Japan is not the most sensitive though it is trying.
There is the saying like the same pressure that turns someone into a diamond can turn another into dust, most Hikikomori will turn dust with very little pressure.
A Hikikomori doesn't often go outside, doesn't ride the subway or a bike or car, they don't friends, they don't talk much, they don't eat at restaurants, they don't party or dance, they don't garden, they don't go shopping for fun, they usually don't have a lot of money, they don't usually get haircuts, some have poor hygiene, no intimate relationships, etc.
Now think of all of those things and how they pertain to getting and keeping work, that's not one step it's a thousand.
They could be 40 and not know how to schedule an appointment or work out a conflict, they need to be raised essentially because that was so neglected.
I saw Japan had a few groups/social appointments with some voluntary work/learning with transportation, honestly the best thing I've seen so far.
I truly believe that if you can catch up a Hikikomori no matter the age they will naturally tend towards leading productive lives in most cases.
They basically need surrogate parents.
Indeed
er, arwn't parents part of their pronlem?
perhaps being parents (of a pet) + coach.
@@stephanc6138 i thought it's not the issue, since since kids japanese have taught to be independence, and many of hikikomori in japan is not someone that won't face off reality, but they just got tired from society. At least that i know hikkikomori have enough money to extend their life till where the time is coming for looking other job. But in some case they just looking easier job than before
@@stephanc6138 yes their real parents could be part of their current problem, I'm not talking about the problem I'm talking about the solution.
You can call it a coach if you want but they would be filling in missing gaps that parents, friends and family would have taught them.
No, I would strongly advise against pets for hikikomori.
Oh come on. No one is going to hold someone's hand and walk them step by step through life no matter what country they're from.
As somebody who basically became a shut-in and recovered from it (at least mildly), I have a very high appreciation of people who try to understand hikikomori and see their worth as people. Hikikomori can have many reasons for becoming shut-ins, and for some it can be the effects of things like autism that made it hard to feel connected with people around them in real life, that then reflects negatively with their self-worth, and then have a hard time to see the worth of connecting more with other people. I think a lot of hikikomori are people who are inherently sensitive to the opinions about things around them, who then just never have the right environment to foster that into things that are socially normative, like work or art, and, not seeing a way out, retreat into their homes. I hope that in the future people can reconsider that just because some people are sensitive, that they don't then see it as an immovable feature that will never change, but as something that can be discussed with - then leading to better results when it's realised that if put in the right environment, those people can see worth in themselves and start to participate socially again.
I think, in a way, having shut-ins interact with old people like at Nijiiro can be an effective way for them to see worth in social interaction again. Lots of hikikomori now interact online a lot, and can become even more cynical viewing a lot of social interactions through the internet because emotions seem to run so high all the time, and social interaction can feel commoditized or fake. Getting those people to interact with others who live generally slower, more relaxed lives and see worth in more tangible, as opposed to virtual things could help them see the more realistic aspects to social interaction, although this all will of course differ from person to person. Apologies for the long comment.
Well said, totally agree... I just hope that the old people are not dogmatic and judgemental about the habits of hikikomori, because older generations might not be able to fully understand the unique troubles of our generation... It's not that they have to comprehend it completely, but a kind and relaxed tone goes a long way.
Interesting read, with good points, I would say! Thank you for your longform! ^_^
It is also a question of finding meaning outside of the social models of "expected success". The part about the social stigma hikikomori face (and societal expectations for that matter) reminds me of that scene in the movie "Fight Club" where Tyler is saying "you are not your job, or how much money you have in the bank".
I think this particular crisis is, at its core, a question of perception. How society sees these individuals, how the individuals perceive themselves in relation to society.
@ryoki_PH you do make a good point regarding perception and meaning. I hope you found meaning.
I would bet big money on the majority of hikis being autistic, not least cos autistic people are best equipped to tolerate that lifestyle.
I’m also a shut-in in the last 2-3 years, but for a mix of health conditions (endometriosis, fibromyalgia and UCTD) so I really feels for hikikomori people, because I’m also scared about society, how people perceive me not understanding my diseases or because I’m 35, single woman living with my mother and I’m currently incapable of working or being self sufficient. I’m trying my best to recover, but even if I’m suppose to rest, I feel uncomfortable doing so, I’m not being productive, I’m not earning a living, I feel like a burden. But inside of me I know I have the right of keep living my life, trying to enjoy the time I have without feeling constantly ashamed.
A society with really high expectations where failure is not tolerated.
A collectivist society where "the nail that sticks gets the hammer".
Public image (tatemae) being above everything else.
Brutal (almost psychotic) work culture where excellence and self-sacrifice for the company is key.
People getting gradually desensitized over the course of their lives to the plights of other because of the above reasons.
Rigid hierarchical structures that don't allow for "outside the box" thinking.
Refusal of social entities (companies) to give people a chance.
Social stigma.
These are some of the social issues I can identify in this video that are part of the problem. Thank you, Nobita-san, for these insightful videos.
So well said..
I agree with this statement. Japan needed to rebuild after WWII and people sacrificed much for Japan to become successful. We all have paid a price to chase stability and a respected position in society, Japan is such a intense example of what modern life has become, no real friends, isolation and to top it off- after making all the “right” moves to enhance our careers- many of us do not obtain even the money we want at the end of our careers.
If I don't have a job, i would probably be a hikikomori too. However, I don't feel like i'm shutting myself from society. I just don't have any interests to talk to people or socialize.
The last part is true for me as well. I can’t focus on others, instead I can atleast focus on myself
Same here, now i see people as problems i don't need to deal with.
Kinda on the same boat. Thanks to having a job, I haven't become a hikikomori. Plus if I did become a hikikomori, my parents will kick me out. As an introvert with social anxiety, I don't enjoy people, especially those that I don't know.
But here you are talking to people and in a way socializing even if it’s through social medias. If you didn’t have this, maybe you’ll be more interested by talking and socializing in real life.
@@Devi_Seona BINGO! It boggles my mind every single day to see how many people all over the world have become antisocial socialites on the great destructor of civilizations: the internet
If even the normies say Japanese society is insanely hard, can you blame the Hikikomori?
"normies" = "normal"? lol what a cute and funny shortening of the word lol XD (maybe it was also to not be offensive though? Either way, still fun.)
@@sunshine1110 It's a common word. Used by those who don't engage in social interactions or those with niche interests to refer to everyone else. Like "You got a girlfriend? You normie."
@@DKNguyen3.1415 In my experience it's also a word used mainly to describe people who place excessive confidence in crowd consensus, in other words those who do not examine life very deeply. A milder form of philosophical zombie, stooge for the powerful, or naive quaint thinker.
@@YadraVoat I'm always suspicious of definitions that needlessly elevate oneself while degenerating others. Overvaluing crowd consensus is one thing but to go so far as to imply that just because one is not mainstream means they're better is quite another. It's literally just the opposite extreme on the other side of the coin. Anybody who calls someone else a normie with that definition sounds like a narcissist to me. Like cranks who treat their persecution as an indicator of their unrecognized brilliance like with Galileo or the like.
I've never heard it used in the way you mention though. Only ever as a self-deprecating way to refer to other people who would normally be described as well-adjusted individuals.
@@YadraVoat I'm always suspicious of definitions that needlessly elevate oneself while degenerating others. Overvaluing crowd consensus is one thing but to go so far as to imply that just because one is not mainstream means they're better is quite another. It's literally just the opposite extreme on the other side of the coin. Anybody who calls someone else a normie with that definition sounds like they suffer from narcissism to me. Like cranks who claim that their persecution is an automatic indicator of their unrecognized brilliance like with Galileo or the like.
I've never heard it used in the way you mention though. Only ever as a self-deprecating way to refer to other people who would normally be described as well-adjusted individuals.
Nobitasan many thanks for enlighten the issue.
Thanks for watching!
As someone who's been on the other side, I know what it's like to feel rejected, when nothing goes your way, constant stress, no understanding, and no one to openly talk to. You might feel emotionally drained because you help so many people, yet no one helps you. You're there for everyone, but no one is there for you. Broken souls, find self-confident and solace in your hobbies and take it step by step, and please don’t take every piece of advice from your loved ones as criticism or a fight. Likewise, if you have someone like that at home, help them, and show understanding because they have been destroyed by society, cast aside. It's not a shame to ask for help!
I'm in that ecact situation, but am ready to walk away from everything.
@@ColKorn1965 If you can afford it, I’d advise you to go for it. A new environment can refresh your mind;happiness isn’t always where home is.
I became a shut in shortly before the pandemic started due to career failure and stress, and continued being a shut in afterwards. Only gradually have I been able to improve (I have a part time job, I participate in a few hobbies). One of the biggest barriers I find is that work is almost always an all-or-nothing proposition, at least in the USA where a lot of social support depends on income, where you either don’t make enough money to do much but keep social benefits, or you work a LOT and it’s the complete center of your life. It is hard to gradually reintegrate into society because at some point the cliff comes up: put work back in the center, or stay in poverty anyways. For someone who became a hikkikomori over work issues, it’s better to be poor… But if you’re saying “well you have to pay rent and here’s that burden you could never lift again”, I look at it and feel despair. I’m doing pretty good but I know what happened last time I tried to have a “normal” life.
yeah i was already pretty bad but then covid hit and ive never really recovered since then. i actually barely leave the house and find little point in doing so.
I appreciate your work, Nobita!
I appreciate you taking your time to watch it!
Your videos are a must-watch! Of course!
that's why there are so many Isekai anime, anime studios know what they want, they want to escape from this world.
I wonder if many Hikkikomori worry about being a burden because they are "KY" or "not fitting in enough"?
In the West this happens too. But there is also a common understanding: it's normal sometimes to be separated from your culture.
"My pace" is an okay way to live. And then you can do what you can from there.
I said it before and I say it again: hikikomori is a misnomer. It's *not* a diagnosis, it's a _symptom_ of often several underlying disorders and problems.
Total withdrawal from society is _caused_ by a whole host of issues. Depression, anxiety, phobias, unprocessed trauma, issues fitting in, and so on. Trying to fix just the social withdrawal without treating the underlying conditions by pushing these people back into society will not work and in most cases make things much worse. It's like trying to force someone with a broken leg to run a marathon. Not only will it cause pain and suffering to the victim, but the added failure will push them deeper into their mental prison.
The whole mentality around hikikomori has to change. Hikikomori is _not_ a welfare issue, it's a mental health issue. People need to understand, that being a shut-in is a _result_ and not a choice. The stigma around hikikomori is still the *wrong* assumption that these people are just good-for-nothing lazy slobs and they _choose_ to live like this, that this is a deliberate failure on their part. And also that the solution of this situation is squarely on their shoulders, and if they can't pull themselves out of this by their own hair, it's also their failure, because they are weak. This is wrong and incredibly damaging. Once someone is in such a deep hole in their lives, you don't solve it by handing them a shovel!
Their entire way of going about this is wrong. I understand, that many people have the best of intentions and they are genuinely trying to help, but treating the symptom will *not* cure the disease. Trying to ease the public perception of hikikomori by calling it something else, or trying to force them into social situations and work programs is _not_ helping. That's just spraying a flea while completely ignoring the elephant in the room. Sure, it might ease the conscience of people that "I did something to help them", but it's just gonna make things worse in the long run. It just enforces the belief that hikikomori should be able to just shake it off and start adulting again by themselves "if only they'd try". "Hey, we even changed the terminology and gave you social events, WHY ARE YOU NOT GETTING BETTER?!". It's like calling an open fracture an "unconnected bone" and putting flowers on it. It's not gonna help.
The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is one. That's where the Japanese system fails miserably. Even after so many years mental health is still taboo in Japan. Having personal hardships, psychological issues and disorders, just label them "crazy" and "disturbed" and "evil" and sweep it under the rug. Assuming that succumbing to depression, PTSD, anxiety and a whole host of disorders is just a reflection on the strength of one's character, a personal failure, a stigma, is just wrong. Assuming that people can just "power through" anything if they "just want it hard enough" and failing to do so is because they are "weak, pitiful and lazy" is why this problem even exists. This sort of "social Darwinism" is what lead to this state of things. Modern medicine has already recognized and learned to treat - and often cure - most of these disorders and help the victims get some sense order and normalcy back in their lives. With proper treatment and therapy most of these people *can* be helped, they can learn to handle these issues and get back to work, having friends and live in society. But not without help. A LOT of help.
The solution has to start with the individual. Recognizing, that being a shut-in is simply the natural result of a long string of failure, abuse and suffering. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. We need to examine each individual, when this started and what led up to them being unable to function in society. The process, the individual events, traumas, etc. Only by going back, ripping off the bandaids and finally properly cleaning and treating those wounds can these people begin to heal. NOT by forcibly pushing such a damaged person back into society to be beaten again and then blaming them for it. What needed here is a proper mental health infrastructure with properly trained, experienced specialist, setting up programs and initiatives. Treat the disease, not the symptom!
This is wonderfully worded
All Japanese Psychiatrists do is give them tons of Antidepressants and Anxiolytics with 3-minute consultations. Patients suffer harsh side effects of these drugs and they're gonna be almost wrecked. No one cares about their original mental suffering. People just say "Jikosekinin (It's a keyword of Japanese society today. It literally means personal responsibility, but actually means "It's just your own fault, so don't blame society and never rely on others")" to them. Then, people just abandon them or treat them as targets of endless labeling and scorn. This is the real Japanese society.
what desease? are you really saying that hikikomori is disease?
@@Denis-gk8dj Did you even read what I wrote? No, I said hikikomori is a _symptom_ of many underlying conditions and issues. It's the _result_ of so many untreated problems, traumas and social issues, both individual and societal. Solving a problem, treating a disease, it's all semantics. What needs to happen, first and foremost, is for Japan to admit they have a huge mental health crisis on their hands, and to start dealing with it.
@@Playbahnosh i read your comment and in the end you said "Treat the disease, not the symptom!"
This is not entirely unique to Japan although it might be developed by different social constructs. We have an epidemic of young people from middle school into their 30s that get stuck at home in the bedrooms afraid to reenter society. Going to the store can be their greatest achievement for the month. These children are not stupid, they just somehow got derailed from healthy lifestyles. We have all changed our interactions as families and communities and I think this contributes greatly.
IMHO, Hikikomori didn't fail as people. Given how toxic work culture is in Japan, I would say it's the other way around, Japan failed for them. The whole world has failed for them. Living to be a slave of your job is not life, robots should take care of such things, human's job should be only to direct robots.
I've read that hikikomori may have been bullied at school and stay home to avoid bullying they experienced because they were different and didn't fit into the highly conformist requirements of Japan society. Whether autism spectrum or such I don't know. Could be simply too soft and unable to fend for themselves in a competitive society.
@@ultimobile Or maybe Japanese and Korean societies are way too higly competitive beyond what is humanly tolerable, thus karoshi (death by overworking) exists in those countries. Also toxic working culture is clearly not working. Working hard should give high productivity as a result, but their productivity is less than ideal and so the motivations to work are the same as for monotonous machines. People work well when their leaders motivate them towards great goals and even if the work is hard when the goals are clear, companies thrive because workers know clearly what the mission and the vision is and can focus on making things work, thus they become more productive and innovative. However, when companies are zombies, the workers work mechanically and mindlessly, work is monotone. It becomes excruciating to do hard work and do it in vain! Market punishes such companies, they go bankrupt and they deserve it for not innovating! Now I must clarify, protecting culture and traditions is OK as long as that doesn't create such a toxic working culture because that implies priorities are wrong. Prioritizing culture and traditions above human life and jobs is simply insane.
But the additional problem comes from govt not allowing zombie companies to follow the natural cycle of the market and keeping them alive artificially. That created 30 years of economical stagnation and unemployement! That's at least 3 generations of people who couldn't get a job and thus 3 generations of hikikomori! Now why such a large ammount of people didn't just organize themselves to create new companies and thus become self employed and create more jobs? Perhaps due to how bad the working culture is there. They don't have anything as good as silicon valley, working culture is completely risk averse due to how the economy was managed since the 80s bubble. Also , many of the concepts in their working culture are just wrong. For example, they think customers are god, that won't always work. Paraphrasing Richard Branson: "Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers" is a much better philosophy. Another example is efficiency. Pharaphrasing Elon Musk: "Many times the mistake is optimizing a part or a process that should not even exist in the first place!"
Japan has managed to "achieve" a remarkable cultural synthesis: collectivism without the warmth and comradeship of collectivism; and individualism without the psychological self-sufficiency and boldness of individualism. People are "bred" to be collectivist, but when they enter society (school), they find it cold and oppressive. A real individualist might be confident enough to "tough it out," but most Japanese are not psychologically prepared for individualism.
So yeah, that begs the question about them being friendly, courteous and helping is genuine.
There is some truth to this, but you've framed it in a purely psychological fashion which makes it inaccurate. You are framing this 'cultural synthesis' as some individual will of a Japanese citizen, this is not the case for any citizen of any nation. The 'cultural synthesis' within collectivism and within individualism happen IN THE AGGREGATE THROUGH SOCIAL RELATIONS; not purely through disparate individual psychology.
To put it crudely: history and economics matter more in this case than the abstract thoughts of a hikikomori or a well-adjusted salaryman. There is obviously a relation between what an individual feels and how their nation is organised, but to speak of social ills purely from the basis of 'comradeship', 'psychological self-sufficiency' and 'boldness' is flat-out myopic.
You are missing the point.
Japan's economic trajectory changed deeply after the Meiji / Taisho era. What you call a lack of 'bold individualism' is really a lack of sovereignity and independance at the national scale. Japan, for a short time, borrowed from and improved its Western influences, but it fell into the trap of being a stooge for Western imperialism.
The country started warring with its neighbors based on a perceived cultural superiority, mimicking the British Empire's political model. They used their industrial progress for destructive, one-sided conquest in the region and abused the cheap labor from that conquest. The Japanese 'nationalism' of this era was a lie: it was based on taking advantage of China's political transition out of the Warlord-Era and the fall of the Qing. Japan's nationalism, arguably to this day, is not primarily based on the innate strength of the working Japanese citizen. That build up of industry in the early 1900s was motivated by war as its primary means to accelerate industrial production. National living standards were determined by the conquest, subjugation and destruction of neighboring nations.
Fast forward to the end of WWII where Tokyo is fire bombed during Operation Meetinghouse, literal scars on the land and buildings the citizenry of Tokyo can still point to today. Fast forward to Japan eating two nukes when they've virtually surrendered (you could easily argue the bombs were dropped purely to intimidate the Soviet Union, by the way). A nation which only knows how to conduct war does not get a 'happy ending'. Some would even say the US and British elite from the get-go intended to use Japan as a battering ram to weaken all the nations in the area, but that's a topic for a different UA-cam video.
Once you understand the real dynamic between the war machine and the Japanese citizen's prosperity at home, you can see how that underpinning of economic subjugation regardless of cost carries through to the modern malaise of being over-worked, depressed and alienated from other people.
You must take a better look at the geopolitical history of Japan to understand the floundering state of its populace. We all know about Japan's wartime history in some respects, but I would suggest reading about the Kanto Massacre or even the Mukden Incident to understand the real (read: duplicitous and oppressive) underpinings of Japan's 'prosperous' national image during this period.
It is difficult to understand post-war Japan without understanding how it got to this modern malaise in the first place.
You might even find that analysing a country's 'war machine' has useful applications to a lot of Western nations as well...
True. Couldn't have said it better myself. Kinda interesting how in anime they have strong individualism though.
@@NewData-ly4ck Anime is fantasy, so it makes complete sense it has something real society hasn't.
@@NewData-ly4ck i believe deep inside the japanese people wishes to be more individualistic. But sadly they seem to be afraid of going away from the norm. They need a cultural revolution where its seen as okay to deviate from the collectivist culture of their people. To live even a little bit for themselves.
Hikkikomori is always such an interesting topic, thanks for the video! Good work!
I work in a Japanese company with Japanese bosses. I'm lucky the local employees outnumber the Japanese managers and put a huge boundary with our bosses, they absolutely did try to be strict and pressure us to come to work even while sick, but we said no and applied for medical leaves. Two of the bosses come in to work while sick and infected half of the local employees and we shamed them for doing so. My point is Japanese work culture is so toxic that if I were to work in Japan, I probably would have ended up a hermit as well.
Often those who have deep interests in managerial roles tend to be narcissistic/psychopathic control freaks. It's a phenomenon observed everywhere and not just Japan. But with how strict Japanese society is, I can't imagine how much worse it most likely is as it would only serve to enable those micromanaging types that much more.
You can especially find a lot of psychopaths within executive positions in the business field. I have known many of them. They can ruin your life if you're not careful. I actually just quit my last job because my boss was threatening me after I declined coming into the office due to covid (I was still working online btw. She was turning irate just because she wouldn't be able to physically see me doing the work for a few days).
What next? Japanese employers would deny the existence of microbes?
Thank you for your continued work in highlighting the complexities of people's experiences in Japan. It seems that this "phenomena" is so often mischaracterized and misunderstood, to the point where their disinterest in knowing the truth is obvious. They seem more interested in judging than helping.
But you are always empathetic and interested in unpacking the truth. You have rare, precious qualities, and a lot of people are very grateful for what you do.
In my original country: Rwanda, I know cases of Hikikomori. It’s not just a Japanese phenomenon
Oh??? That is so interesting to hear!
Parents not seeking help for their child because they'd feel ashamed having to tell another person about their child not being 'normal' is something that's common around the world unfortunately. My mother didn't get me help for my ASD and only brought me to psychologists because my school told them to. When I found out about my condition, I confronted her about it and she told me: "How would you feel that you have to tell people you have an Autistic child?" Of course I felt hurt hearing that - even ashamed of my condition. Since then, after having a chat with my uncle who has a special needs child, my mother learned that her actions did more harm than good and is now very supportive of me. When I got the help I needed, she was there when I needed her.
Thank you for sharing this video! This is the perception I often encounter when people frequently ask about hikikomori in Japan, that they are a burden to society or that they are lazy. There is definitely a lot of layers to it...work culture, mental health, and so forth. The stigma and the negative image of having a mental illness or another form of diagnosis is a huge blow. There is a reason why people don't share it so openly with others.
Why have societies in Japan and western countries become so dehumanized? We reject the plight of people and only care about "productivity numbers" and "financial quotas" as if that makes our lives better. It's sad that for many the only issue here is that hikikomori don't work.
Perhaps because local communities with 'deep bonds' matter less, are less common, and generally hold less power in the larger society of a country/nation. As scientists (or whoever) say, 'humans are social creatures.' Which basically means we have evolved as a species to be more or less part of a social group (whether a village, a tribe, or a band.) But when, let's say something like the invention of the cellphone, becomes commonplace, then functions within your social group lessen/decrease. Meaning, you might not have an errand boy, which everyone in a village may know, passing around messages. Less 'deep' contact could mean that one human invests less attention towards another human.
Conflict is a part of reality/life, and having less 'deep bonds' is good in the sense that you can avoid conflict. Conflict may get in the way of development, like if a businessman has plans to build something but the builders 'get in the way of those plans' because they can leverage their 'deep bonds' to sway a businessman from doing what he wants to do. So, for productivity, it's probably commonly seen better to be less intertwined with other humans, or have a system where you can do stuff/get the stuff you want without interference.
Maybe productivity numbers matter more because stuff like that help society function/thrive by helping provide electricity, food, etc. (Ideally at least.) While on the other hand, social relations are more bendable/malleable, and so, it is maybe the responsibility of individuals to form communities, strengthen communities, or help themselves or others somehow within a broader society.
Education is very important in providing people gateways, tools, hints, keys, etc. in many modern societies.
Education just means learning, usually in an organized way or through an institution. There are many things to learn about, so, rigid education is not necessary beneficial in empowering an individual.
Capitalism baby
Capitalism~
Cold blooded materialism and lack of faith, imo. Reducing man into a resource that is meant to be exploited.
Human nature, unrestrained by morality. People are saying it's capitalism, mimicking the exact same people who clamored endlessly for the disavowal and divestment of morals -- particularly those born of the Christianity that provided such moral restraints. Relevantly, the main, historical opponent of capitalism was an inherently atheistic ideology/economic system.
You can make a lot of money if you don't love your neighbor, let alone care for his wellbeing as he lives and works alongside you. Just so happens that that inhumane, self-serving pursuit of personal gain writ large is what leads a society to where we are right now -- not a conveniently demonized economic system.
I see them as victims. They have parents who love them, they too are victims. It's just a sad situation, I wonder if it will ever resolve.
They're not victims of anything other than themselves. And if their parents love them, then it's the responsibility of the parent to sit down with their child from youth and teach them how to deal with life.
And one thing I learned from my parents and what I've taught my own children is that the world doesn't owe you anything - you want something you earn it and if you don't want it taken you stand your ground.
you cant solve the problem as long as you view them as victims. they are vulnerable part of society that needed help.
There are hikikomori in developed countries and homeless people in developing countries.
@@The_Phoenix_Saga Which is why that is a problem. What if their parents aren't helping at all? Shouting at them saying "You have no future!" "You're useless!" "You have nothing to contribute in this household!" Who's gonna help them? What if it triggers something tragic?
@@jamilgonzaga7081 Sounds like my worthless father. Guess what - proved him wrong to spite him and I look back and think that instead of coddling, being made to face advertisity did me wonders as it showed me how the world really is.
I was a bit of a shut in for a decade because I lived in the countryside (US) as a housewife. I still maintained a household and my children, but I always had anxiety + depression & trauma, since I was a child, and being away from people for so long made me scared of them -- that I wasn't good enough, socially, work wise, physically, just everything. I've spent the last 5 years building myself back up, and like someone else said, it's a thousand steps. Dental work, dermatology, beauty, style, losing weight, forcing myself to talk to people, convincing myself to walk in a store, therapy, on and on and on. I had the benefit of my husband's help financially, and the fact I've never been completely cut off, since there were times I was forced over the years to interact, like for school and Doctors appointments. I genuinely cannot imagine how hard it would be if you're completely cut off from society and that society think you're evil for it. And to boot, I was actually a very social person before that decade. Things just aligned badly for me to get to where I was. So imagine being someone who has never been really been social. I have a lot of empathy for them.
Hikikkomori's issues with society probably wouldn't like to be addressed by society because Japan highly values being seen as being perfect. It would take the Japanese to acknowledge their faults, which would take admitting that each person has their own faults.
In Japan where having a different hair color or looking slightly different is seen as intolerable, or they have the "nail that sticks out gets hammered" perspective, Japanese wouldn't like to admit it. I've been a shut-in in the U.S., and I can't imagine the difficulty in Japan! :/
Issues of perception get trumped by high-quality working oppurtunities. That would be the path forward for any nation with poor labor /social participation from certain demographics.
If that were the case, Westerners like you wouldn't have known the Japanese term "hikikomori" lol.
Being a shut in or having similar issues in US is not easier.
The final message of the video is perfect. Understanding how a person got to that state in the first place, can than, also help with finding a solution to caters to their specific situation. If anyone knows the anime Relife, then you might recall that they presented an interesting solution for Arata that involved changing his perspective and moving on from a difficulty in his life. I love that anime. Its message still holds up.
Just like with rescued dogs, there has to be an abundance of love/ compassion instead of harshness...an abundance of love/ compassion current Japanese society is unable to generate, although certain individuals might
Just my opinion, but I think one of the reasons for becoming hikikomori is experiencing major trauma. From school or work bullying, to being publicly humiliated, to being betrayed by someone they trusted, to feeling unable to reach high expectations of self and others, etc. Hikikomori is being broken by society, its demands and pressures, then being labeled negatively.
I rarely leave my apartment as well. I survived 27 years in the military often driving to work stomach sick at the thought many days. As soon as I retired though, with a steady pension, suddenly I stopped going outside. If it wasn't for grocery or the occasional doctor appointment I would almost never leave. I am assuming Hikikomori also have many untreated personality disorders, like Schizoid or one of the tougher ones.
...you're so not alone to go through this after military life....My uncle, if it wasn't for his wife, would have ended up like you after he retired. She was the one who kept him socially active; otherwise, he found fewer and fewer reasons to go outside. How are you doing these days? Are you from Newfound Land..?
It’s crazy to me that Japanese are so much about unity and the group but if you have a problem it’s yours, solve it yourself. Where’s the help from the group?
Few only really care... When they just need a little encouragement! Sigh.
They are in a darker place than we know. I feel for them.
The guys who are understanding of them and patient with them are heroes!
Indeed 😊
Basically, the country only sees them as tools, companies would rather have no one, and others would rather be alone than interact with them. If they leave their house, they are just villainized and shamed for likely getting screwed earlier in life and not doing something others are denying them to do or making beyond difficult. The shame is Japans.
Japan is unbelievably lucky that they are so peaceful about essentially forced solitary confinement or death.
a sad situation, thanks for shining a light on it Nobita
I'm a foreigner currently living in Osaka, and I'm interested in helping こもりびと / ひきこもり if I can. Nobita-san, do you have any idea where I could start to look for ways to help? I am able to speak and read some Japanese and am very motivated to try!
the number of people like this in america is very high, but no one talks about it - although the govt has acknowledged there are millions of people who no longer work or look for work - i fear the total number of american hikikomori is in the millions
hello. yes
Because they were forced to by US capitalism that excluded them from getting a job. The difference is that in Japan it is due to mental illness despite that there are more job opportunities. US has always been a declining economy under the facade that majority of people are living well due to money made by corporations, politicians, the famous, and wealthy. For 90% of people, US is a depressing, open air mental asylum. I rather be hikkimori in Japan than live in an illusion, fake world of people wearing masks like in the US. US seems like all people are actors acting a script that their government gave them to live life.
It is definitely an international issue, you can see in many countries. I would say the Japanese (and South Koreans) have it worse because of their declining rate of birth on top of the increasing number of elderly people. Not to mention the terrible work/home balance and the constant pressure society puts on people. I don't blame people for shutting in. I mean I know we have problems of our own in the US but that's a different kind of hell, atleast everyone else doesn't have to worry about paying healthcare bills.
Autism is probably one of the reasons. How many resources are there for autistic people in Japan? Is it possible for them to get a diagnosis and some therapy? I think autism and anxiety mixed together is what makes them. A club where they can get together with each other for emotional support without judgement would be a great first step. Then after they get used to talking with each other get them involved in the community.
Probably only discrimination. Disobeying social convention means social suicide in Japan, which precedes real suicide.
And their culture is happy to keep it this way because that is the way it has always been.
Yeah, I'm autistic, and essentially am that but non-Japanese outside Japan. I've tried getting jobs, but keeping them is the struggle. For my last, I survived only 3 days, due to stupid mutual misunderstandings/mismatches of social-cues. Luckily, I'm in good enough relations with my family, and they support me. Still, my parents are old and 1 almost died last year, so I'm trying to re-integrate into society with a job, but I just can't seem to hold down a job. I feel like a failure. It sucks to keep losing jobs due to worthless squabbles (ex. mess with the timing of phrases in the oath-taking ceremony, therefore not trustworthy enough to keep the job).
And how many in USA pay for those resources? When they dole out food stamps, what kind of non-hikikomori climbs up the the banana tree to gather some food?
You wanna tell Chiquita to "get out of America and back to your home" where they start another Banana Wars, "outside of America"? You gonna drag people "not in America" into Guantanmo Bay if they don't conform to US rules-based oredr? Learn there how not to be hikikomori.
@@N192K001I can’t even get job interviews.
Very enlightening video about Hikikomori phenomenon, Nobita-san. Thank you so much for all the informations shared about this relevant and growing issue. Its interesting that more and more people are noticing that the toxic work culture contributes a lot to the raise of numbers of hikikomori as well.
I can see why it would be quite difficult to try re-introduce people who feel like society has only ever abused them and wants to over work them until they pass.
I have heard from a few people I talk to who live in Japan of their seniors quitting work and isolating because they dislike the social pressures and feel as though they are a tool and not a person, and then they feel like they are traitors because they feel that way.
I can't really see this getting better by any significant margin until Japanese culture embraces a greater degree of individuality instead of everything fits in the square hole.
Maybe trying to get them into language teaching foreigners through conversation practice or learning foreign languages for translation because other cultures tend to be more independent and accepting of peoples individual traits. These fields also allow a greater level of independent freedom and control and not as much need to go outside to support themselves.
I don't know if individualism is going to solve the problem of hikikomori. There's a loneliness epidemic in the west as well, which I would attribute to the meaning crisis devastating the entire industrialized world. People need something outside of themselves that they want to see flourish to give there life meaning. A meaningless person has no answer to the questions 1) What would die for? and 2) How much of an impact do you have on that thing?
In industrialized society's, kids cost a fortune, so people don't desire to have kids, and so they don't get married, and then they never form any of the secondary relationships from those two life milestones. And when a person's needs are mostly met, and they are living a mundane life, it's hard for them to see the need for religion, so they never form those human connections either. And then there's the internet which provides highly impersonal human interactions through the form of comment sections, which are a profoundly shallow way to communicate with others.
@@DoubtX I think some of this is a bit off of what I was talking about, and I also think its a bit to black and white from the concept of the human state relative to this situation.
Individuality should not supplant collectivism, but should be added as a component to improve upon it. Maybe this person is incredibly efficient at their job but starts breaking down when doing to many hours? Maybe this person's learning style is different to the standard so a more relaxed approach is utilized. The degree to which the west has it is toxic and a negative, but a middle ground can exist.
As for the other stuff...
I don't believe people require something outside of themselves to be satisfied or justified with their existence otherwise monks would not be a thing, and they succeed in their own life metrics much better then most 'normal' people. I do however believe that religion is probably one of the easiest methods to achieve this, albeit not the solution for all people.
I think money plays a part but is not a major factor determining whether have children or not otherwise poor people would not be having children at the same or higher rates then rich city liberals.
Marriage in itself occurs less now because there is only negatives for men and it is not any different from dating with how easy it is to get divorced in modern society.
The internet definitely has issues which is why at times I think it would be a good idea for it to be ID locked but, but that it is ultimately a terrible idea as it would cause major issues with black mail, threats and freedom of speech.
One of the potential solutions i see is government should incentivize the employment of hikkimori in both public and private sectors. Employers will not hire or retain hikkimori people unless there is an incentive from the government. I think this would be a good start, maybe not sure as i dont live in Japan.
Informative as always!
In the US, we have a similar problem, except that here it's the homeless. People fall out of society not by shutting in, but by being thrown out into the street. The same pressures apply - no way to get back in, shame and abuse heaped on them by others, and the constant idea that they are somehow at fault for their situation, when really it's the whole society that has caused it.
If Japanese companies themselves are unwilling to assist, I think it would be in the interest of western corporations to hire a lot of these highly skilled people as remote workers. That would serve as a nice stepping stone position.
The problem is they're not highly skilled.
First off, 'remote work' is not crucial to a nation's productive output. It's either a sham for middle-manager, overly-educated do-nothings or a company's excuse to find cheap labor. To work remotely is becoming the definition of a low-skill, overworked job...that's exactly the situation that leads to hikikomori!
The entire video is about how Hikikomori are people aged out of the workforce who feel like they do not contribute to society...you want them to join an even more alienating workforce and contribute to a foreign nation's society. Completely missing the point!
Second, suggesting that Western corporations swoop in and take advantage of Japan's weak labor situation is dishonest. These are still Japanese people with an understanding of Japanese culture. Transitioning them into IT drones for multinational corporations (at best) who want cheaper labor is nowhere close to an effective, macro-level solution.
You want a demographic of depressed people with no social contact to stay at home and work?
Respectfully, you do not understand the phonomena the video is discussing.
The answer is physical work, with real social contact and meaningful goals. All the exact opposite of what 'remote work' provides.
@@LeafDew USA has done remote work since 1968, with petrodollar they print money to buy goods from remote child labor. This work cannot make equitable income if you do the work in USA to amount enough slaary to buy the goods you're producing.
Because in USA such conditions that US consumerism can fund, are abjectly illegal.
High quality content!!
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. J Krishnamurti
Great work, Nobita! Very interesting topic. I to question why people become Hikikomori, not just the Japanese but all people.
I think I might be one
Since I lost my job I only leave my home if it's absolutely necessary It's been almost a year now and the reason why is because I'm so damn tired of failure
I mean why try if the whole universe seems to want you to fail😢
Japanese society is very hard on people with mid-level jobs and below...
If the quality requirement is 50, then you're always expected to deliver 60, even 70
because the competition is tough for that level of jobs
On the other hand, for high-level / high-skilled jobs,,
If the quality requirement is 90, it's okay to occasionally deliver 85,, or even 80
since there is only few in the market that can deliver 90 anyway...
@Nobita, I could be wrong but it sounds like a form of depression. I just had an idea that may help. The gentleman that was going to industry asking for employment help for the suffering; perhaps when they say no they could sponsor someone to enter into a chess tournament. I think it would be a small donation and huge winnings for everyone involved. It would give the players motivation, confidence, human interaction without words and bring them all together. In time they will feel belonging and self worth. I believe that many people will be supportive of their champions. These players don't have to speak much. Their minds speak for them. Everyone loves a gifted chess player. It could work up to a very huge event. Lots of vendors and street food. Merch. Nobita tshirts. Who knows how many smiles and healed hearts. All the best Nobita.✌️
In response to a cold comment I saw earlier that has thankfully gone now.
In many cases, this isn't about people who have made a conscious decision to drop out of society. It's a complex situation where many of them have mentally challenging situations including agoraphobia, social anxiety, hypersensitivity and depression etc. All the individual cases require different kinds of help. Those who were bullied in the school and workplace will find life discouraging through the kind of trauma they have experienced. Society has plenty compassion-less sociopaths that lack basic empathy and psychological understanding, and many recluses have been victims to them. Those people have the strength to pick up the weak, but seem to prefer kicking down. The true sociopaths understand the situation but have the type of brain chemistry that just can't help but exploit the weak (they do well in politics). They too have their issues and are an entirely different problem! Unfortunately they are the ones who create so many of the recluses.
Thanks for sharing this Nobita san. I hope it inspires more people to have the compassion and desire to help people rather than make their situation worse.
This is the dark side...I think not only in Japan, even though there it extremely tough to work, but to the economical structures in general. It is all about career, money and productivity for the competition of the " market" Seems that the "market" is far more important than human life in general. Its somehow tragic that in the end an inhuman and even insane world was created... and not a single human beeing can take something with him to the afterlife... the loneliness phenomenon is in almost every country. Seems the " work hard and sucsseed" is a lie. Japan is struggeling with birthrates and high living costs that are hard to afford... even when they work hard around the clock.
Man that is so tough struggling keep it up.
This mirrors a lot of Autistic experiences so much I have to wonder how much overlap there is (personally I’m inclined to believe that the vast majority of hikikomori are actually Autistic (especially given Japan’s unfortunate history regarding utter lack of awareness or understanding of Autism, and atrocious treatment of many of the few Autistic people who managed to get a proper diagnosis).
Ganbare Japan! you guys are great keep pushing forward you can do it.
It is sad that hikikomori believe they might snap and hurt somebody(4:04). I can see why they struggle to seek help.
When you think you could be a potential danger in the future, this is how you get depression.
Don't harm yourself and more importantly, forgive yourself.
there is a lot of things push people to become shut ins. depression, anxiety, hopelessness, these are only a few factors that contributed and there is many more.
the proud nature of Japanese people often prevents parents or family members to seek help instead of the shut ins because they needed help. in western countries and Europe the parents would just kick out the shut ins but they most likely become homeless or worse.
the shut ins are not a lost cause, to be honest they only need encouragement and given a purpose to keep going in their lives. it will takes a lot of efforts from the family, community, and government but i think Japan could solve this problem.
I'd blame a toxic japanese work culture for a lot of it. I mean the social expectations are if your boss goes out for drinks after work you go with him in Japan and that's just messed up it forces japanese people to literally spend far more hours than we're required to in the united states working, and BTW my nation overworks too but it's overworking has to do with how hard it is to make ends meet in the united states and not expectations that people go out drinking with their boss after work.
mouse utopia has begun
if it was utopia there wouldn't be any of these people
Encourage them to engage and leave comments in social medias so it wouldn't be harder for them when they meet actual people.
And they need someone who's bright, energetic, and talkative around them.
I also become hikikomori each time I get tired of work and quit.
If society doesn't care about hikis, why should they care about society?
I don't think changing the name will solve anything. It's not the name itself causing the stigma against hikikomori. The term "prostitute" was changed to "sex worker" because of the stigma. But "sex worker" didn't suddenly became a respectable profession and it can also be used as an insult. In my opinion changing the name is just a superficial action, so that people can pat themselves on the back thinking they've helped.
Hikikomori is also present in the west.
We just call them N.E.E.T. (Not in Education, Employment or Training.)
And i find it perfectly justified to be a Hikikomori/NEET, when the economy is at another all time low and working gets you only to work but not to improve.
Nowadays you factually only have the choice between;
Working AND getting nothing.
Or:
Doing nothing but at least having some freedom.
Most people made the second choice when they could.
The Mental illness pandemic plays it's part too.
NEET and Hikikomori are two different things, neets are still able to leave their house.
😳 One of the first problem is that it’s viewed as a problem for other people. 😕 These people who have shut out the world are more than likely acutely aware of the problems they created for others. 😬 Unfortunately that’s probably part of the reason why!!!! It’s one thing to be miserable alone but a whole other thing to make everyone else life miserable.
Are there any online chat services trying to target hikikomori?
I've found that with people who are very introverted or depressed, they tend to find it easier to start talking to people through an online chat where they don't have to start out being face to face with the other person, but can exert some control over the interaction.
So maybe if the mental health services had an online chat service and advertised it to let hikikomori know that they can reach out to get help without having to physically meet with a counselor, you could start treating their issues from there and then work towards getting them out of the house and start meeting with people.
I'd say that nowadays, they turn to A.I chatbots....
I think, we should change the society, and I mean we as a world wide change. Also change the economic system, which is deeply connected to the work based society which cause many of these problems, stress, scuicide, hikikomori and many more.
When your politicians said 'bullying is ok', then hikikomori is also ok indirectly...
It is possible some might, just might, have some form of autism?
That doesn't explain people who left society because of a bad work environment. Also many people are just demotivated to see that hard work doesn't mean a better life anymore. So they just decide to live life on easy mode.
Even as someone with autism, that’s simply not true. Usually, it’s something deeper than that
Like flocking to be butchered as labor cattle is NO kind of autism?
Society doesn't produce these diagnostic categories for the purposes of finding out who doens't GET to do work. That's what college is for, your penance to do debt-based consumerism before you GET to participate in soceity and steal jobs from the elderly.
Constant cycle of shifting more and more people out of the market you need to CREATE jobs for, because "private business is so good at creating jobs".
Perhaps certain people have not been kind to them. Rather than continue to put themselves into seriously toxic situations, they retreat for the sake of their sanity. The working world has nothing to offer them, except for chronic stress, bullying, and mental breakdowns.
I believe that autism spectrum creates a higher risk for hikkikomori but there are autistic people living normally. So it may be a mismatch of abilities and job opportunities. For example, working in a loud factory aggravated my sensory issues and led me to burnout in less than a year. I did better working 13 hour days 2 on 2 off than I do working 5 days a week (which I hate). But frankly employers in general are almost completely inflexible about what they want.
If you're not making active efforts into resolving your societal issues. Obviously the problems are going to consist.
The birthrate isn't going to be solved by asking nicely or government promotion campaigns. Its about dealing with the actual causes and building robust and effective changes. Improved working conditions. No pressure for workers to PRETEND to work until their boss dismisses them. Just let people go home to their families when they're just wasting resources like electric simply to keep up a busy appearance.
This is exactly the same with Hikkikomori. They become recluse because there is no place for them in the current Japan. Evolve.
What happens when their parents pass away?
This generation will be sure to find out the hard way, unfortunately.
It sounds cold, but there is simply no helping anyone not prepared to help themselves. This isn't a very pleasant world when it comes down to it- it gives you nothing and demands everything you're willing to let it take.
Some gen x in this situation have already found themselves facing homelessness and in some extreme cases starvation. They know it as the 80 50 problem.
They will continue not doing crime like countless Americans raised by their grandparents.
Unless they have friends or other family members willing to take them in, I suppose they're on their own.
@@MrKillswitch88 I've seen a doc about this, forgot the name. But it was all about the 80-50 issue. It was so sad, truly heartbreaking.
i wish i coud help them but i think my Japanese will not be too advanced. its really sad that there are solutions we can do but the culture and society is overwhelming :( I think the government should publicly announce hikkimori's are not evil, lazy or a burden, and it'll at least give hope to them and let people help them
The approach is quite "wrong" by the Japanese Government regarding this "Hikikomori"
it is and always "Making use for the Work Force" or "Contribute (economically) to the Society".
It's all about the Money and the person that become "Hikikomori" is just another digit on the statistic graphs.
Both The Japanese Government and their peoples never sees them "Human Being" in the first place and time they become a "Hikikomori".
Both The Japanese Government and their peoples sees them as either "caged beasts", "useless", "lazy" and "broken human".
Japan is quite slow intellectually, Intelligently, emotionally as a Country, Society and Civilizations to finally realized this late and react that "Hikikomori" issues is a severe serious society issues that will consumes their country from the inside just like how a late stage of cancer are.
It need more than "Government" campaign, program etc. to handles the "Hikikomori" issues, it needs the participation's of anything sentient and breathing Human Being to tackle the issue.
Japan is Lucky that their country is suffering from youth that too traumatized to the society that make them "Hikikomori" compares the rest of the world where the Youths is turn into radicalized thirst for rabid violence that soon turn into murderous frenzy for anything that triggers to project their dissatisfaction's of their current predicament causes by society, economically, politically shifts.
Because they were forced to by US capitalism that excluded them from getting a job. The difference is that in Japan it is due to mental illness despite that there are more job opportunities. US has always been a declining economy under the facade that majority of people are living well due to money made by corporations, politicians, the famous, and wealthy. For 90% of people, US is a depressing, open air mental asylum. I rather be hikkimori in Japan than live in an illusion, fake world of people wearing masks like in the US. US seems like all people are actors acting a script that their government gave them to live life and pay taxes to corporations, the Israeli and Saudi lobby, and military industrial complex. This is why US is land of serial killers, mass shooters, pedos, mentally and physically ill people.
Hearing about the worsening situation makes be draw parallels to the recent ending of Boku no Hero Academia;
If we truly want to make a society for everyone, everyone needs to step up for their part. It feels like the biggest thing is that the average Japanese citizen isn’t even willing to help out of the public face, and that’s a contributing factor to the situation.
I work from home in Spain, making a little over USD$150K, and I don't like going out of my house. I get my food and groceries delivered, I bought a new commercial treadmill and I have my own professional gym at home. I was asked by a Japanese friend if I saw myself as a hikikomori and I told her that I didn't, but looking at this I really don't know. I'm not depressed, as far as I know, I just don't like people. The majority are stupid. I can spend hours reading manga or watching anime. I only allow my family, close friends and the cleaning lady to come in my house.
im not even kidding but have them watch gurren lagann. as a kind of shut in myself i easily woulda had super depression if it wasnt for that. im not kidding that show is dam inspiring
but this is not be long last, just short term effect
Or play Persona 3. That game inspired me to really start living. Because you'll look up and it's over. Its all about the memories you make. And if I'm going to die one day, then I will follow my heart until then.
Fiction can definitely inspire people, but Gurren Lagann and all those anime and games targeted toward young men. It won't do anything to a kissless, virgin 40 years old man. He is already far too deep. Or a guy in his late twenties that dropped out of work because of the social pressure.
This is why isekai as a genre became so popular, people wants cheap escapism where they can redo their lives instead.
A Hikikomori is not simply a' super depressed' person without motivation, they have also lost the means to find work or be hired. That entails a lack of social exchange and economic oppurtunity; it's not simply about being sad and feeling anxious.
If life were simply a matter of thinking abstractly and 'being inspired' everyone would be successful.
@@ResZCreator considering im in a situation where most people woulda killed themselfs by now nah
Being a Hikikomori is not as bad as you think. I always wanted to be an Hikikomori But i was not able to as I am too broke to do so nor do I have any parents support.
Changing the definition won't change anything. Also my image of a Hikikomori will always be a guy locked in his room.
No one should be seen as "weak" because they can't keep up with the pressures their fellow man places on their shoulders. People are constantly breaking people, yet shame them when they need help to cope with the many inhuman tasks demanded of them. No one should be made fun of, nor turned away with the thoughts of looking weak when they need help.
Hikikomori is depression. Well, I had depression and it left me with only a little fire in me but I knew that fire was there. I lost my voice during that time and I had panic attacks if my thoughts congregate on a certain topic. There are three things that go me out of it. One is I came to know there is medication that can give me a bottom where I can not fall further. I ended up taking very small dosage of that drug for a short time. I don't believe in taking mood altering drug because if I rely on it, I am that drug and I would no longer be me. I like to experience life for myself no matter how hard. But the drug gave me confidence that I can control the situation and that was what mattered. Second, I had a complex situation and there is only one very narrow way out. I gave my self permission to take the way out and I worked on changing my circumstances. Third, I had to take a leap of faith. I had faith in the people I love and I believe there is a chance that people around me would change once I change my circumstances. All worked out as I believed it could. Though I still paid a very very big price for the journey. Good luck Hikikomori people of Japan. You are not alone.
They should just become streamers.
They would be perfect. They're pretty much already working 24/7.
Because there's no adventure or frontier to explore. Its all the same every day.
yep it's all meaningless and on top of that exhausting and lacks finanical incentives
People don't just become Hikikomori for no reason and there are many things that can lead to it. Countries not trying to fix the underlying problems first is like trying to put a tiny bandaid on a severed arm and wondering why it's not healing.
I have always struggled with this. I have solitary tendencies but also am part of a social species. I get along with most people and can make soem friends but i often become recluse by mistake
They seem like the type of people who'd be very trustworthy and reliable employees. Maybe, maybe not, but if Japan needs more reliable workers, this could be a solution.
In my case, my wife took my kids from me back to Japan, my son 16 and he starts to turn himself to be Hikikomori while my wife know that problem she still pay her attention to my daughter more ( she is 7 years old) and leave my son with the computer. I just came to visit them and I was shocked because only one way to recover him is being a family don’t separate family off. Unfortunately my wife just said to me like this “ so many couples not living together and have happiness just send money to me” that’s it!!! And I said to her please stick together for our kids but she said again stah with is not fun and we talk in different ideas which lead to the arguments. actually my personality is super compromise to anyone but her attitude just gone too far. now i can see only young lad wearing only his underwear flowing from the second floor to the first floor when he is hungry and move bagk to 2nd floor again to sit jnfront of the PC when he is tired sleep the rhe loops keep gojng like this 24 hours a day nothing seem to stop the underwear boy anymore. i was extremely suffering 😢.
As an ex hikkikomoi(one year), what made me break out of my hikkikomori phase was moving out of my apartment and living with my mother, I hated it so much I decided to go look for a job. It turned out I really hated dealing with other people, family included. So if I go look for a job, at least I don't have to deal with anyone when I am at home. And since I have money, I can stay hikkikomori at my apartment for as long as I want, I don't own the world anything. It is my freedom as long as I spend my own money
Weak men like you should be ashamed. Hatred is all you have. It's not the world's fault it's you.
Im a proud hikikomori
hikikomori all around the world, let me say you.. you re not alone, im brazilian and im feel just like you.. im 36 years old, i have a degree. but my country is passing through a bankrupt crisis , political and social.. due this the salary does not support the basics to live a good life.. i have financial support of my parents and relatives, on the contrary i gonna die.. is sad.
Its no surprise since japan work culture its so "dense", and there is no way around that in a near future.
I'd like to know more about hikikimori who actually has a job but is just working at home using a computer and internet.
Japan should also address their relationships and attitudes in society and the workplace. Most people describe it as toxic.
i feel this mexican society is very similar
What are some differences and similarities you’ve noticed between the Japanese and Mexican hikormori
@notafortnitegamer for starters mexico is very similar in its expectations for people to keep up a certain amount of work and social standing as to not embarrass the family and falling bellow that will get you scrutinize heavily especially if there are peers that are in better position as you and families are usually pretty vocal about it. This biggest differences I'd say is that overall mexican society can be a bit crueler in its disregard to those that it deems as failures or outliers which in advertantly also ends up feeding into the rampant crime in mexico as people try to find external forms of acceptance.
it's a problem in every "developed" country which runs on hyper capitalism
The problem is that japanese society is too collectivist. There's no space for individualism. I think that's kind of a coward behaviour, like, "as long as I fit with the rest I'm fine". Bullshit. You're just forcing yourself to fit. There is nothing to be proud about that.
4:45
This lady is covered in feathers I'm afraid she might be a bird
"i wish i were a bird"
At its core, this is just people who need a psychotherapy support framework, like all the other people who have developed passive self-harming behavior patterns as the result of terrible experiences.
The government needs to educate the wider society that people in this situation need professional help, support from people who are trained in psychotherapy and the surrounding fields.
KATOU REI SAN!!!! HISASHIBURI!!!!!!!
Lost in rainy clouds, refusing to rain down. The soil is waiting, to grow new life.
I would imagine that the members of the Constitutional Democratic Party would like to put (more) effort in helping out people that are Hikikomori.
'More' effort isn't what's needed. A definitive plan with actual outcomes is needed. Neither the CDP nor the LDP care about economic reform; political parties in the G7 do not cater to working people's interests. They are there to manage the expectations and goals of international financiers.