hikikomori cartoon

What does it look like to be socially withdrawn?


For some people, it may just mean being introverted, being shy or socially awkward. For others, it may even mean being more of an "indoor" person, not having any reason to leave the comforts of their homes.

In Japan, this condition of social withdrawal is quite severe in terms of number and intensity that they even have a term for it - "hikikomori", or acute social withdrawal. This can also refer to the people affected by the condition itself, people who stay within the confines of their homes, hardly seeing the light of day as they live most of their life indoors. Dubbed as the "missing million", as of 2010, 700,000 individuals are in a state of hikikomori, with roughly 1.6 million people on the verge of becoming shut-ins.

There are various causes for hikikomori, from psychological effects to living environments. Click on the labels below each image to learn more about potential factors leading to this condition.

As hikikomori hardly interact with society, they are highly dependent on others for their survival. For this reason, they become a financial burden to their families.

hikikomori cartoon
graph of the age gap in Japan

The chart above depicts the increasing age gap in Japan between the young and old.

As hikikomori age, so do their caretakers. Eventually, there will be no one left to provide the hikikomori support, and they will be at a fairly old age themselves. When that time comes, it will be even more difficult for them to change their lifestyle.

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Of course, there are people out there who want to remedy this issue. Services like "Rent-a-sister" or communal rehabilitation programs for hikikomori aim to return these social recluses back into society as fully functional adults.

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