Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
Voice of Japanese Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal)
Shoko Hayashi Barnes
University of Southern California
Author Note
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Shoko H. Barnes,
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism,
University of Southern California, 3502 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089.
E-mail: shbarnes@usc.edu
Phone: 213.538.2335
1
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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Abstract
Japanese Hikikomori could be translated into English as individuals having social
withdrawal. However, when American or British interviewers question the Hikikomori
life-style, they cannot find an appropriate translation in English and resort to the Japanese
term. Hikikomori always feel that they are dropouts from Japanese society so that they
become speechless in Japanese society. Thus, Hikikomori should be considered social
phenomenon and analyzed from communication studies perspectives in this paper.
When we create the term, Hikikomori who are not same as normal people, the
negative inherent in language leads to the establishment of hierarchies. In this paper, first,
testimonies from Hikikomori and those who have dealt with Hikikomori will be analyzed
based on Kenneth Burke's logology to discover how the term, Hikikomori has created the
social phenomenon in Japan and to discover Hikikomori's motivational systems. Second,
both civic and private organizations will be examined to reveal how they understand
Hikikomori's motivational system and support Hikikomori's civic engagement as their
long-term goal.
Keywords: social withdrawal, Japanese Hikikomori, civic engagement, logology
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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VOICE OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
Japanese Hikikomori could be translated into English as individuals having social
withdrawal. However, when American or British interviewers question the Hikikomori
life-style, they cannot find an appropriate translation in English and resort to the Japanese
term. It is an unusual case for western society, but some similar cases have been found in
Asian countries, particularly South Korea (Saito, my tans. 2003, p. 112). In trying to
define the term the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan created the following
criteria, released in 2003:
(1) Life-style is being at home. (2) Cannot / don’t participate in social activities such
as going to school or being employed. (3) For more than six months the above cases
have continued. (4) Except those who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or mental
retardation severer than a moderate degree (IQ 55~50). (5) Except those who
maintain a close relationship with others (e.g. friends) excluding family members.
(Ito, Yoshida, Kobayashi, Noguchi, Tamura & Kanai, my trans.)
Tamaki Saito, psychiatrist who is one of the authority figures of Hikikomori researcher
notes, “it is possible that there are a million Hikikomori in Japan including both reported
and unreported cases” (my trans. 2003, p. 56). The following is his observation of
Hikikomori from his decades of clinical experience:
Not only do Hikikomori withdraw themselves from society but also from their
families. … They tend to stay at their own rooms and sleep or do nothing during
the day. Their life pattern is irregular and they tend to get up in the evening and
watch TV or play video games all night. Only when they eat or go to bathroom,
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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they might come out of their rooms and see their family. They hardly go out of
the house and don’t let anyone clean their rooms or open the blinds, so that
they’re almost buried with books, videos, DVDs, CDs, and trash. (Saito, my trans.
2003, p. 49)
Hikikomori are neither employees nor homemakers and their parents care for them
even if they are over 18 years old. Most Hikikomori are late teenagers and twenties,
however, the number of thirties doesn’t decrease and nearly 10% of them are more than
36 years old (Ito et al., trans. 2003). That is why American and British interviewers don’t
understand Hikikomori. Saito (2003) indicates “… in American or British society,
children are supposed to leave from their parents’ home and live as ‘independent
individuals’ when they are grown up. This is an obvious premise in American or British
society” (my trans. p.105). In Japan there is a similar notion but the reality is that
Japanese parents take care of their Hikikomori children. Hikikomori recognize the
pressure from Japanese society therefore, “Hikikomori’s minds are often full of
frustration and misery, so that sever feeling of emptiness and desperate anger urge their
unwanted violence. The more they struggle, the more they cling to their pride that ‘I can
pull myself together by my own ability some day.’ As a result, they are unlikely to
consider visiting a treatment agency” (Saito, my trans. 2003 pp. 49-50). Most
importantly, Saito emphasizes that “their conditions should not be interpreted as ‘apathy’
or ‘autism’” (Saito, my trans. 2003 p. 50). Even though Hikikomori appear to be apathy
or autism, communication refusal of apathy means the lack of desire for communication
which is completely different than Hikikomori’s communication refusal because it means
desperate adoration of communication (Saito, my trans. 2003 p. 50). Saito clearly notes
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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that Hikikomori’s pathology does not go beyond psychoneurosis and their sound
communication ability is an ultimate proof of that (Saito, my trans. 2003 p. 50). He
argues as follows:
People who met Hikikomori all say, “I don’t understand why such a vigorous,
cheerful and normal person can’t work.” … When they are interviewed by mass
media, they are quite eloquent. Why is that? This is because their communication
roles are clearly set up as interviewees. However, once they go into the real world,
they will struggle with figuring out what kind of social roles they should take, and
start losing their words. If they were not given their specific roles, they would be
weighed down with anxiousness that they’re not worth anything. (Saito, my trans.
2003 p. 50)
Hikikomori always feel that they are dropouts from Japanese society so that they become
speechless in Japanese society. Thus, Hikikomori should be considered social
phenomenon and analyzed from communication studies perspectives in this paper.
When we create the term, Hikikomori who are not same as normal people, the
negative inherent in language leads to the establishment of hierarchies. Hikikomori
realize Japanese social hierarchy and “refuse to be labeled as Hikikomori” (Saito, my
trans. 2007 p.74). Moreover, they are struggling with their perfection, so that they “cling
to their unrealistic goals that people around them might think such as to become a writer
or to become a musician” (Saito, my trans. 2007 p. 74). The negative, hierarchy, and
perfection are primary concepts of Kenneth Burke’s logology which is “Burke’s term for
his effort to discover how language works or to discover motivational systems and
orientations through the examination of words” (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001, p. 204). In
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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this paper, first, testimonies from Hikikomori and those who have dealt with Hikikomori
will be analyzed based on Burke’s logology to discover how the term, Hikikomori has
created the social phenomenon in Japan and to discover Hikikomori’s motivational
systems. Second, both civic and private organizations will be examined to reveal how
they understand Hikikomori’s motivational system and support Hikikomori’s civic
engagement as their long-term goal.
Kenneth Burke’s Logology
Hikikomori has been difficult for psychiatrists to treat, but if Hikikomori’s
communication refusal means their adoration for communication as Saito argues,
research from communication perspectives could be effective in explaining this
complicated social phenomenon. The negative, hierarchy, and perfection are primary
themes repetitively emerging in testimonies from Hikikomori and those who have dealt
with them. Thus, Burke’s logology should be reviewed before analyzing these
testimonies. Burke begins to explore the negative by examining strictly linguistic
meaning of sheer motion and nature. In this view, “A tree, for example, is a tree; in no
way can it be ‘not a tree.’ The only way something can ‘not be’ something in nature is for
it to ‘be’ something else” (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001, p. 205). Thus, Burke argues that
“… man (sic) must spontaneously recognize that his (sic) word for a thing is not that
thing” (Burke, 1966 p. 461). When it comes to defining Hikikomori by Japanese Ministry
of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2003, the negative was used for three out of five
definitions of the term, Hikikomori:
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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(2) Cannot / don’t [emphasis added] participate in social activities such as going to
school or being employed. (4) Except those who [emphasis added] are diagnosed
with schizophrenia or mental retardation severer than a moderate degree (IQ 55~50).
(5) Except those who [emphasis added] maintain a close relationship with others
(e.g. friends) excluding family members. (Ito et al., my trans.)
As Burke notes, “The notion of the negative was added to the natural world as a product
of language, making it ‘the ultimate test of symbolicity”’ (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001, p.
205). The explicit meaning of Hikikomori itself consists in 60% of negatives, which
leaves more room to be defined as whatever else. Thus, the symbolic meaning of
Hikikomri can be created with overflowing negatives. The definition of Hikikomori has
been reflecting social meanings such as psycho killers created by media since a 17-yearold Hikikomori boy committed a bus-jack case, killed one of the passengers and injured
several of them with a knife in 2000. Since then, countless Japanese TV dramas have
portrayed Hikikomori as the abnormal because “moral action arises as a consequence of
the hortatory, judgmental uses of the negative that are possible in language” so that “the
negative allows for the establishment of commands or admonitions that govern the
actions of individuals—the ‘thou-shalt-not’s’ or the ‘don’ts’” (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001,
p. 205). Even though Japanese government specifically defined Hikikomori as people
except those who diagnosed with schizophrenia or mental retardation three years later
than the bus-jack case, the power of the negative in language continues to determine
moral action in Japanese society based on conceptions of right or wrong behavior.
The concept of the negative inherent in language leads to the establishment of
hierarchies constructed on the basis of numerous negatives and commandments such as
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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law, moral and social rules, and rights (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001, p. 205). Hikikomori
are left out from Japanese social hierarchy since they are negatives and dropouts from
school, workplace, and society. Although Foss, Foss & Trapp (2001) describe Burke’s
notion of perfection that “each member of a hierarchy strives to achieve the perfection
represented by the top of hierarchy” (p. 206), in highly hierarchical society, even
dropouts from a hierarchy feel pressure to stay members of it. Moreover, this type of
pressure leads to creating dropouts such as Hikikomori. Japanese hierarchical society
creates tremendous guilt for both Hikikomori and those who have dealt with them due to
Japanese perfection as a collectivistic society. Based on Burke’s logology, testimonies
from Hikikomori and those how have dealt with them should be analyzed to reveal their
negatives, hierarchy, perfection and guilt.
Analysis of Testimonies1
Testimonies from Hikikomori
Title: Restart from 28 years old
Five years have passed since I worked at a major bank and developed computer
technology there. Due to interpersonal stress and technostress, I couldn’t go to work
and then withdrew myself from society. My irregular life style without seeing
anyone and various setbacks led my mentality to the worst.
Email from my friend whom I’ve known for 15 years said what I didn’t want to
hear. “It’s not good enough to just get older,” she said but she also said, “Already 28
but still 28” (Mike, my trans.).
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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Mike2 was on the top of hierarchy working at a major bank as a system engineer. Once he
or she failed to stay on the top of hierarchy due to the stress from social interaction and
loss of confidence in his or her expertise, Mike became Hikikomori for five years. Why
couldn’t Mike find another opportunity to work at any other places? Either-or fallacy of
reasoning to stay as Hikikomori comes from moral judgment of society. Once Mike was
categorized by himself or herself (possibly in his or her mind) and by society as
Hikikomori, his or her mind was full of guilt, which was why Mike did not want to hear
that “it’s not good enough to just get older.” (Mike, my trans.) In Mike’s case, however,
his or her friend literally broke the dichotomy (either-or fallacy) for Mike by saying,
“Already 28 but still 28.” Different perspectives of the same age presented outside of
negatives gave room to see the second chance for Mike to get out of Hikikomori
situation.
Testimonies from those who have dealt with Hikikomori
Title: Parents whose oldest son committed suicide from school refusal
Our oldest son, Manabu (15 years old as of February 4, 2000) committed suicide in
his room in the early morning of the day when the entrance exam of a private high
school in southern Kyoto was held. Since the fall of 8th grade, he began to be absent
from school gradually and at the end of September of 9th grade, he completely
refused to go to school. He didn’t seem to be bullied but the entire 8th grade classes
were chaotic, which the numbers of school refusals and visitors to school nurse’s
office told us according to our research after our son passed away.
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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Although the strict guidance of students under the obedience to school
regulations and orders became tightened, it didn’t solve the chaotic situation and
many students who lost confidence and deepened self-denial were left out. Parents
also didn’t have enough understanding of the situation and force their children to go
to school and have higher education due to faith in school and diplomaism
(Kinoshita, my trans).
Kinoshita as a Hikikomori parent points out the disorder of school hierarchical system
and tries to deal with her guilt of her son’s suicide by representing her son as a scapegoat.
This is one way to redeem guilt that Burke describes “victimage” as a part of guiltredemption cycle (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2001, p. 211). Burke calls the other way to
redeem guilt “mortification” and countless of Hikikomori sacrifices their social lives to
torture themselves to redeem their guilt through mortification. Blaming school system or
hierarchical society seems to be a typical way for Hikikomori’s parents to make sense of
Hikikomori behaviors and redeem their guilt for not saving their children from the suffer
of Hikikomori. Yet, some parents seek help outside of too intimately interrelated
Hikikomori-Parents relationship. In the next section, both civic and private organizations
will be examined to reveal how they understand Hikikomori’s motivational system and
support Hikikomori’s civic engagement3 as their long-term goal.
Support for Hikikomori’s Civic Engagement
Several civic and private organizations have attempted to encourage Hikikomori and
their parents to start communicating with the third person individually or share their own
experiences among Hikikomori or among their parents online.
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One of the Japanese Non-Profit Organizations (NPO) called New Start offers a
unique approach to support Hikikomori. They call it “Visit to Open up your Family”
(“Support Program,” my trans.). They send “Rental Older Sister or Rental Older Brother
who is “between 20’s and 30’s like meddling neighbor sisters and brothers that we barely
see anymore nowadays” to Hikikomori’s house individually “in order to encourage
Hikikomori to have opportunities to be involved with broader social network outside of
their limited human relationships” (“Support Program,” my trans.). The purpose of this
support program is to stop treating Hikimori issues as their own family’s problems and
encouraging Hikikomori and their families to ask for the third person’s help. One of the
Rental Older Sisters, Atsuko Hirano testifies, “Start with writing letters to Hikikomori,
and then call them, and finally visit them. Some Hikikomori strongly refuse interaction at
the beginning. I believe in ‘Yes inside of saying No’ and continue to approach them
patiently so that 90% of them could see me in person within six months” (“Support
Program,” my trans.). Hikikomori’s mortification by staying at home without any social
interaction outside of their home is torture because they don’t have any physical and
mental reasons to stay away from social interaction. For their ages, they’re supposed to
go to school or work, yet they’re afraid of social interaction due to their negative
experiences. That is why Hikikomori feel guilt. This guilt won’t be redeemed by
mortification, which Hikikomori know as one of the Hikikomori confesses, “Isn’t ok for
Hikikomori to just withdraw themselves from society? I know that’s not good but haven’t
had guts and energy to take an action yet… I want to stay as it is for a while, which is my
true feeling…” (Wono, 2008). Continuous efforts to communicate with Hikikomori are
required to assist them to face realities.
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Tomohiro Fuse who was Hikikomori for five years and now works as a Rental Older
Brother shares his own experience in the New Start’s website:
When I visit young Hikikomori, I often think ‘they’re exactly how I was.’ Based on
my own experience, I can interact with them frankly without hiding anything uncool
or undesirable. Between us, Hikikomori, I often tell them what they don’t want to
hear. I think there are things you realize by yourself and things others make you
realize. The latter seems to happen more. (“Support Program,” my trans.)
Successful stories from Rental Older Siblings are encouraging and giving Hikikomori
someone to whom they can look up. It is obvious that New Start specially using the word
“Older” siblings reflects Japanese age hierarchy. Senior-junior relationships from
Confucianism has played so important role in Japanese society that it must be easier for
younger Hikikomori to ask for older former Hikikomori’s advice than vice versa. New
Start’s approach to Hikikomori’s motives considers Japanese cultural trammels such as
hierarchy and guilt.
The downside of this support program is to cost Hikikomori’s family about
“minimum $3000 for Rental Older Sister or Older Brother’s three-month visit” even
though it is run by NPO (“Support Program,” my trans.). Nobody knows when to have a
successful visit and it could cost $6000 to have the first successful visit half a year later.
There is a possibility for parents to be in financial straits a year later. Although the
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare didn’t research Hikikomori family’s financial
situation in 2003, their 2007 research about NEET people (Not in Education,
Employment, or Training) shows interesting findings: “49.5% of NEET have Hikikomori
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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experience. When NEET were asked about their family financial situations, 47.1%
answered ‘average,’ 28.0% answered ‘somewhat difficult,’ 10.8% answered ‘somewhat
easy,’ 8.9% answered ‘very difficult,’ and only 3.3% answered ‘easy’” (“Survey
Results,” my trans.). Given that, it is reasonable to assume that Hikikomori families are in
the middle class.
To overcome Hikikomori family’s financial straits, civic media4 might be one of the
best possibilities. Hikikomori Support Navi (Navigation)’s website offers free contents
such as “Definition of Hikikomori in their website, Hikikomori experience notes, Simple
judgment tests about your degree of Hikikomori, Support movie about experts’ advices
and Hikikomori experience stories, Pictorial books of jobs, and Database of Support
Organization” (“Free Contents” my trans.). In addition, they offer non-free contents such
as “Hikikomori type check (by checking your type, you can find your progress of
improvement), Counseling via email, Bulletin boards: Free board / Support board /
Friend’s board / Group board / Conference board, Your personal data: Self board /
Family board, Full Hikikomori experience notes, Full support movie, and Advices to get
employed” (“Free Contents,” my trans.). On the free board (bulletin board), “only
Hikikomori or their families who paid for non-free contents can write and read to interact
with each other and the manager of this website oversees inappropriate messages”
(“Hikikomori Support Navi,” my trans.). Since this website was launched in 2004, there
have been 5429 threads on the free board. This board functions as personal blogs where
Hikikomoroi speak to themselves. Especially in recent years, most of threads don’t have
any responses from others even though some of them explicitly say “Someone… please
become my friend…” (Toshi, 2009, October 30) or “Help…” (Toshi, 2009, November
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
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14). Online (almost one-way) communication has been more successful, which could be
proved by the comparison with the number of threads, 226 on the support board
(counseling room) where “the site users share their issues and try to find a solution
among them. People offering advices will receive points based on “usability” from those
who disclosed their issues. There is a possibility for those who received enough points to
obtain the certificate of “Hikikomori net supporter” certified by National Hikikomori
KHJ Parents Group” (“Hikikomori Support Navi,” my trans.). None of member became a
“gold” member who earned 800 points and only a few members became a “silver”
member who earned 100 points and a “bronze” 50 points. (“Support Board,” my trans.)
This website hasn’t had enough members to function as a medium for Hikikomori’s
social interaction since 2006. Members began to discuss reasoning of membership to this
website:
“As the title of my message says, two years passed since this website was launched.
Meanwhile many people became members and graduated from this website. The
word, Hikikomori has gradually disappeared on the board. Some of us mentioned
that compared to the past advices and the membership fees, the cost performance has
decreased.” (Triangle, 2006, my trans.)
Even though Hikikomori Support Navi is the online support program, becoming a
member costs as follows:
Individual member: $10 per month. Annual membership is $100. One ID will be
provided.
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Family member: $20 per month. Annual membership is $200. Two IDs will be
provided as one for Parents and the other for their child. (“Hikikomori Support
Navi,” my trans.)
Although the low cost of membership is required for the online support in Hikikomori
Support Navi compared to New Start’s Rental Older Siblings, in 2010 only one member
has continued to post his comments on the free board. Furthermore, the friend’s board
(small group), functioning “as one-on-one bulletin board or group-member-only bulletin
board when members find their friend met on the free board or group board etc,” proves
that asking for becoming friends has died down since 2006 (“Hikikomori Support Navi,”
my trans.). There are only 36 posts to ask for becoming friends and only one post in 2008
was the last one on the friend’s board (“Hikikomori Support Navi,” my trans.).
As a civic medium, the concept of the support board is innovative since it encourages
current Hikikomori to support each other as civic engagement in their own online
community. Once Hikikomori starts helping others regarding the same issues they share,
they’ll be rewarded based on “usability” of the solutions, which leads to becoming a
“Hikikomori net supporter” certified by National Hikikomori KHJ Parents Group.
Making the most of their bitter experiences, former and current Hikikomori can find a
space for civic engagement through the support board. In conclusion, reasons why the
concept of the support board wasn’t successful in Japanese online community should be
discussed in relation to analysis based on Burke’s logology.
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Conclusion
Some expected issues for Hikikomori Support Navi should be discussed. First, their
online support can be utilized as civic media only when Hikikomori made the first step
forward meaning they decided to seek help from others. This can be the most difficult
step for Hikiomori or their parents to make. That’s why NPO such as New Start has
made endless effort patiently for unexpected outcomes. Second, it is difficult to make
productive results based on user-oriented system. There is nobody who has training of
dealing with Hikikomori and makes productive advices on a regular basis. Hence,
posting messages on the free board were more popular than online interaction on the
support board so that communication stays mostly one way.
Civic media could be a key to solve Hikikomori issues since culturally Japanese
people tend to be hesitant about self-disclosure especially negative issues for the facesaving purpose. Yet, how could we encourage Hikikomori to make the first step to seek
for help outside of their own family without burdening parents with financial struggles?
Parents cannot afford paying more to take care of their children since Hikikomori don’t
work and their parents have already been supporting them financially. It’ll be a
tremendously long way for them to reach social and civic engagement. Thus, Japanese
society needs more community-based solutions supported by the government. The
population of children has been decreasing and Japanese society has Hikikomori and
NEET who are completely detached from social and civic engagement. On September
11, 2009, the former prime minster, Hatoyama answered regarding one of the questions
raised in the congress and promised that the government would attempt to create a social
system to support Hikikomori and create more opportunities for them to engage in social
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17
life again (“Prime Minister, Hatoyama” my trans.) but there hasn’t been any report
published by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare since their 2007 guideline for
supporting and assessing Hikikomori. In the future research, Japanese government
should research Hikikomori family’s financial situations and provide assessments of
each NPO providing Hikikomori cares.
Hikikomori hasn’t been recognized as social phenomenon even though their guilt
comes from Japanese social hierarchy. Once Hikikomori are diagnosed as mental illness,
they don’t need to feel guilt so that they won’t be stuck in the guilt-redemption cycle.
The only person, micmac who has continued to stay at the Hikikomori Support Navi
until 2010 as a former Hikikomori has stated that he was diagnosed as schizophrenia
over and over in many of his advices on the support board (“Support board,” my trans.).
Hikikomori do not have severe mental illness according to the definition from Japanese
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2003. Yet, those who have severe mental
illness might have to withdraw themselves from society due to their illness and call
themselves Hikikomori. As a result, Hikikomori might have been intimidated by
micmac, and decided to leave from Hikikomori Support Navi in order to avoid being
categorized as mentally ill person. Hikikomori Support Navi did not accommodate the
complexity of the term, Hikikomori. Although the concept of it is embedded in the belief
in natural healing ability of civic engagement, its simple design wasn’t appropriate to
solve the complex social phenomenon. The term, Hikikomori itself defined from
negatives creates more chaotic room for anyone to define Hikikomori. In this sense,
rhetorical analysis of Hikikomori’s testimonies in Burke’s logology is crucial to
understand Hikikomori as social phenomenon.
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Support Program. Retrieved from http://www.new-start-jp.org/3point.php
Survey Results. Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/houdou/2007/06/h0628-1a.html
Toshi. (2009, Ocotber 30). Re: Please… [Web board message]. Retrieved from
https://www.hikikomori-navi.com/guest/hsn_free_board.cgi
Toshi. (2009, November 14). Re: Help… [Web board message]. Retrieved from
https://www.hikikomori-navi.com/guest/hsn_free_board.cgi
Triangle. (2006, February 12). Re. Two years passed since this website was launched…
[Web board message]. Retrieved from https://www.hikikomorinavi.com/guest/hsn_support_board.cgi
Wano. (2008, June 9). Re: Hikikomori [Web board message]. Retrieved from
https://www.hikikomori-navi.com/guest/hsn_support_board.cgi
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
20
Footnotes
1
All of Hikikomori testimonies in this paper refer to the website for members of
Hikikomori Support Navi where membership dues are required for writing any
comments, so that their comments should have more credibility than ones in the free
websites.
2
Mike can be male if it’s an English name. If it’s written in Roman letters, it can be a
typical name with a different pronunciation (Mi-keh) for a cat in Japan. User names can
be anything so that it’s difficult to determine gender.
3
As Hikikomori can be translated as “Social” Withdrawal, the first step for their long-
term goal, civic engagement is “social” engagement. Saito (2003) defines “social
engagement” for Hikikomori as “to have interpersonal relationships outside of family
members” (p. 48). Although in general, social engagement has broader meanings such as
employment or school attendance, Hikikomori should be distinguished from NEET (Not
in Education, Employment, or Training) who have interpersonal relationships with their
friends to go out. Civic engagement in this paper has two different paths. First, former
Hikikomori could go through the first step of social engagement, the general meaning of
social engagement (employment or school attendance), and finally engage in some
organizations to support current Hikikomori. Second, through civic media, current
Hikikomori support each other by sharing issues and advices as civic engagement in their
own online community.
4
Civic Media is defined by Henry Jenkins as “any use of any technology for the purposes
of increasing civic engagement and public participation, enabling the exchange of
Running head: VOICES OF JAPANESE HIKIKOMORI (SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL)
21
meaningful information, fostering social connectivity, constructing critical perspectives,
insuring transparency and accountability, or strengthening citizen agency” (2010, July 5).
Hikikomori Support Navi might not encourage everyone’s public participation due to
sensitivity of the Hikikomori issue. Instead, people who are professionally engaged in
this issue such as researchers, psychiatrists and educators are encouraged to participate on
their conference board.