What is Hikikomori and why is it being discussed these days in Japan?

In India, people often talk jokingly about taking sannyas or going to the Himalayas, and in reality many people leave their homes and take sannyas and usually go to remote places like the Himalayas to do penance. Living apart from society has a different meaning in Japan. These days, a new name survey is being discussed, in which 1.5 million workers living alone in Japan live alone, who is named Hikokomori. With this investigation, the mental health and social condition of these people have become a matter of concern.

how old are people
What is surprising is that the people living alone in this government survey are neither old nor vacuous, but they are regular workers. People who live a lonely life like this are called hikikomori in Japan, meaning people who ignore social contact and are lost in their own lives.

when did this word come into use
In Japan, the term hikikomori emerged in the 1990s to describe young adults who isolated themselves from society for a long time. The exact causes of hikikomori are not known, but it is thought to be a process of pressure and stress in modern Japanese society.

How did it start
It wasn’t until the 1990s that Japan experienced rapid changes in society, including a recession driven by personal achievement. It is said that this is why Hikikomori was started. Which is considered such a widespread condition in Japan, where young people are cut off from society a lot.

A person reaches the hikokomori stage due to factors such as loneliness, stress, pressure. (Representative photo: Pixabay)

what are they doing
Hikikomori confine themselves to their homes or bedrooms for long periods of time. And this time it’s not for a few days but for several months or years and they avoid social interaction and don’t even talk to their family members. In Japan, people are believed to react to pressures and stresses related to compliance with academic achievement, career achievement, or social practices.

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related to mental problems
Hikikomori is commonly associated with restlessness, depression, and frustration resulting from an overload of daily demands. It is a major social problem in Japan because it leads to a decrease in social abilities and skills. Job opportunities are fewer and there are long-term health issues.

It is believed that the main factor behind this problem is the pressures generated by Japanese culture. (Representative photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Is Japanese culture also responsible
We can also say that the culture of Japan is somewhat responsible for this. There is a lot of insistence on discipline among the people here. There are many cultural limitations on people, due to which there is also a kind of invisible pressure on people to be bound by the rules, which is considered a kind of extreme in other countries. Apart from this, long working hours in work culture, taking time off is not considered culturally good is also included in this. Psychologists need to study the contribution of these factors to the cause of stress.

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Various measures have also been tried to solve this problem, including counseling, support groups, etc. The peculiarity of this survey is that 20% of people who found hikikomori there explained the reason to Covid-19. Loneliness is a big problem in modern culture. This problem was already acute in Western countries and was well underscored by the Covid-19 pandemic. In India, too, there is an increase in the problems of loneliness, hopelessness and depression.

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Tags: health, Japan, Mental Health, research, world