Japan's Lost Generation

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 2

I was contacted via email by someone interested in the topic of hikikomori and posed me several excellent questions. I thought I’d post the questions and my answers to the blog as the answers might prove useful to others looking into the hikikomori issue. I’ll be posting the questions and answers over several blog entries.

Michael Dziesinski

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Hi M. Dziesinski, I am writing an essay on hikikomori, and as you worked on the subject, I would like to ask you a few questions about that:

I apologize for this late response. I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 2:
Do the withdrawn communicate with the society through the internet?

Some do. But it is not a frequent occurrence. It has changed recently, but I suspect that is because of what I think is a ‘copycat’ phenomenon: young people fed up with their lives emulate true hikikomori but continue to communicate with the outside world on some level. Though at some point, these people become ‘true hikikomori’ inadvertently when the social stigma of the condition settles in.

However, true withdrawal is complete social isolation to the point that the person begins to become developmentally and socially stunted in his/her personal growth as they lack any human interaction. After several months or years, such withdrawn people stagnate mentally, though I would argue that this is not a mental illness as I have observed withdrawn people, who after several years of hikikomori behavior, soak up new interactions and learning like a sponge. Once out of the isolated environment and with guided help, they normalize quite quickly— within six months to a year.

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 1

I was contacted via email by someone interested in the topic of hikikomori and posed me several excellent questions. I thought I’d post the questions and my answers to the blog as the answers might prove useful to others looking into the hikikomori issue. I’ll be posting the questions and answers over several blog entries.

Michael Dziesinski

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi M. Dziesinski, I am writing an essay on hikikomori, and as you worked on the subject, I would like to ask you a few questions about that:

My apologies. My spam filter must have caught your previous emails. I also apologize for this late response. I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 1:
I know that both of hikikomori and otaku can read manga or play video games all day. But what’s the different between the two of them? Can’t the otaku be qualified as a hikikomori?

Not really.

First, otaku are people who are extreme fans who immerse themselves into their hobby to the point of alienating people, but they must maintain networks of communication with other ‘otaku’ in order to feed their habit. While ordering products on the web is becoming more common in Japan, otaku still must venture outside to support their interest in a particular hobby; they have to go out and interact with other people and they thrive on others knowing about their interest.

Second, while the behavior of otaku and hikikomori reading manga and playing video games on the surface may seem similar, their motivations are very different.

From my own direct experience in my field research, hikikomori read manga and play video games in part as activities which allow them to AVOID interaction with people and the possible shame and scorn they anticipate receiving in such interactions. It doesn’t matter if it’s a manga, a TV show, or a videogame- the purpose they do these activities is to take their mind off and mask the real problem in their lives; the pain of human interaction. I had one female hikikomori tell me that after several months she became bored with these activities and began to simply stare blankly at the wall for hours. Others might carve words in their room’s walls like “why?” or “who am I?” The point being, that unlike otaku, such activities are not an end unto themselves for hikikomori.

Apologies

I must apologize for the long absence on my blog, but as of Feb 14th I became a published author and had to set up up a website for it. My book, Secrets of Japan, is horror roleplaying set in modern day Japan, blending H.P Lovecraft's mythos with traditional Japanese supernatural beasts such as Tengu, Oni and Kitsune. Hence the month long blog vacation while I furiously built my book's website. Also, due to the book's success, I've been asked to write some articles for other books and publications.

If you'd like to see what I've been doing: http://www.secretsofjapan.com

It's very different from what I do here on the blog, but then I wrote this book four years ago through a small publishing company, so it took considerable time before it saw the light of day. I was in a different head space four years ago, but I do enjoy fiction writing so I'd like to publish some genre fiction as my next project after my thesis.

In the coming weeks as I get over the fact I've finally gotten a book out after waiting four years, I'll get back to the business of Japan's Lost Generation. I've seen the latest media blitz on the so-called 'internet suicide epidemic' in Japan, and I'd like to deconstruct this phenom; right off the bat, I'll say how remarkably similar the media buzz on this 'epidemic' is to the hikikomori problem back in 2000-2001.