Japan's Lost Generation

The evils of Google's Image search on blog bandwidth

No, you won't find any more images of the Bleach anime or manga on this blog.

Not anymore anyway.

So if you got here by one of the various Google image search engines, sorry but I had to strip all references to images from my blog.

Why did I have to do this?

As much as I love google as a search tool, for some reason, two postage stamp size images of the Bleach anime that I used in an article series about anime and manga back in November or 2004 are being zeroed in on by Google.

This month of April, I started seeing a spike in the hits to my blog. Thanks to Typepad that hosts my blog, I have a bunch of neat tools on tap; one of these shows me who has been accessing my blog and from where. When it's a search engine, like google image search, I can see what key words were used to arrive at my site. A handy thing to see if your topics are getting notice on the web.

Anyway, I start seeing 300 to 500 hits A DAY and they are all coming from Google.com's various image search servers from around the world. And they are all pretty much like this.

'Great! ', you say; you are getting people to your website.

Not so.

Google image search is directing everyone to this one archive of my blog which in turn loads the entire J-Pop entry section, images and all.

I did a help ticket with the Typepad staff (awesome folks! They responded in hours and always had something constructive and helpful to add) and they suggested I rename the images or delete them althogether. They suggested that with either of those changes, Google's image servers would update and no longer point to my blog's two tiny thumb stamped sized images of Bleach.

Not so.

I first changed the name for two weeks and the traffic to my site from the image searches INCREASED. Then I panicked as my tiny bandwidth for my basic Typepad blog service for the whole month was eaten up in 5 days! Five days of Google directing searches for Bleach images to my blog.

Then I deleted the images. Still no difference— 85% off all access to my blog are searches for these specific two images of the Bleach anime that WERE 100 by 100 pixels in size.

Amazing isn't it?

Then I go to the Google search engine and type in “Bleach”. My former images are the number three result! ACK!

Now I realize that Bleach is experiencing a rapidly growing fanbase as the anime goes into season two on Japanese TV. It's one of my favorite anime series at the moment. However—

I was forced to upgrade my blog service with Typepad up to their medium service just to accommodate the bandwidth jump (and not get hosed with overage bandwidth fees). SO here I am paying DOUBLE what I used to and two days before the end of the month my bandwidth usage is up to 98%. That's 98% for my NEW increased bandwidth account.

Oh, I did update my blog and put a graphic banner up and change the layout some, but I am still miffed that the Google servers are STILL directing people to my blog for nonexisteant images and STILL sucking away my bandwidth.

The point of a blog is to get visitors. I know this. But what the Google image servers are doing to my blog is akin to hotlinking to the images. People going to my blog this way are only interested in one thing: an image of Bleach. Surely not my pithy analysis of Japan's social problems. If people were coming via normal google search and viewing my site, that would be fantastic. But this is not that.

Not at all.

Yes, Google can be a love/hate thing.

I love Google for research, but when you are the receiving end of a Google raid on a buried image in your blog with their viking longships and pointy swords, that love- well...

I hate you Google image search!

Update your servers! Where is that Google dance you hear about?

Right now, the only dancing Google is doing is on the future grave of my soon to be canceled blog account... if Google keeps this assault on my blog up.

There I've said it.

Here's hoping they have a clue.

Sorry, just feeling a bit ranty today about this.

Q & A Series PT IV: Buddhist Insight to Internet Suicide Pacts and the Hikikomori

Recently, I was asked a series of questions by a person researching the phenomenon of suicide in Japanese society. I'd like to share that discussion over the next several blog entries for the benefit of others. I'll call the individual 'E' in this blog.

Michael Dziesinski

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E's Question:
I am interested particularly in any Buddhist insight, as this is the my area of research. I am drawing my own conclusion on Buddhist influence on suicide, of course, but am interested in any connection you may see in your own work.

My Answer:

As for linkages with hikikomori, both groups on one level are obviously dissatisfied with their lot in life. In some cases, both are a cry for outside intervention.

My current thinking is that hikikomori are mentally healthy people who feel so pressured by society that they socially withdraw. ‘Socially’ is the key concept here: they are in duress and so they seek to remove themselves from the source of the pain. However, once they do so, they ‘wither on the vine’ developmentally due to the absence of social interaction. Drawn outside of their environment and with proper patience and care, they recover to become functional adults.

The point I’m making here is while some hikikomori may have at some point contemplated suicide, or even done so once trapped within their isolation, most seem to have a strong will to live and are normal mentally, they are just unsure how to ‘fix themselves’ and so are trapped in a catch-22 of isolation.

I do touch on the connection with Durkheim’s work on suicide and anomie in this post:
http://towakudai.blogs.com/my_weblog/2005/04/q_a_about_hikik_2.html

I think his theory may be one of the better tracks you can take on the rash of suicides in Japan’s media spotlight right now. Durkheim posits that in times of social upheaval with an underlying weak social order, such as drastic economic change, the number of suicides increases because to people lack the firm self-identity that society provides for us.

Buddhist influence, but more specifically, the warrior cult of the Bushidoh code’s seppuku / hara-kiri in the face of shame or dishonor in Japan may be responsible for romanticizing suicide in the modern day, and perhaps lowering the social barriers as a taboo act. The Buddhist concept of rinne, transmigration of the soul, may also play a part in such a decision of self-destruction, but I can’t say with any authority. I would guess that the historical context of suicide in Japanese culture plays some role in the contemporary internet suicide pacts.

I would also guess that these people in the internet suicide pacts are forming in-groups over a measurable period of time which in turn exchange ideas and plans on committing the act of suicide together. As an in-group, that the dynamic of the internet suicide pact is going to be typically Japanese in structure, re-enforcing and re-affirming in nature that ‘this is the right thing to do’.

To see where my reasoning is going here, I suggest you look into Japanese charismatic cults such as Aum Shinrikyo, Pana Wave or even the Japanese Red Army. Again this is conjecture, but you may find one or two charismatic figures at the center of each suicide pact that act as the catalyst for the rest of the group who follow them through to the ultimately grim conclusion.

Thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from you.
—E

Glad to be of service.

Michael Dziesinski

Q & A Series PT III: Religious Influences on Internet Suicide Pacts and the Hikikomori

Recently, I was asked a series of questions by a person researching the phenomenon of suicide in Japanese society. I'd like to share that discussion over the next several blog entries for the benefit of others. I'll call the individual 'E' in this blog.

Michael Dziesinski

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E's Question:

Do you see any religious influences, or a lack thereof in this phenomenon (hikikomori and suicide)?

My Answer:

The ‘komori’ part of the word ‘hikikomori’ is taken from the verb ‘komoru’ which means ‘to retire’, ‘to go into retreat’, and is a reference to the old practice by Buddhist monks of going into retreat to find their inner selves.

Psychologist Saito Tamaki coined this word for acute social withdraw about seven years ago, so any linkage there with actual Buddhist practice is dubious at best.

To be honest, in my years of living in Japan and even meeting and interacting with Buddhist and Shinto clergy, I never got the sense of overt religious influence in Japanese life on a spiritual level for most people.

Oh, there was a few that I did meet with whom I was absolutely stunned by their religiosity, Mount Koya comes to mind (Koya images), but on the whole, the personal impression I get is that religion in the western sense of the term does not apply to Japanese daily life. ‘Religious influence’ in Japanese life seems to operate at a purely functional level— Shinto ceremonies for births and weddings (more), Buddhist for funerals and memorials, and festivals throughout the year that are remembrances of the ‘old days’ as much as commercial events.

On the other hand, it would not be fair to conclude that the lack of ‘strong faith’ is cause for these social problems. In some ways, the social cohesion of the group, amae, on/giri and various other aspects of Japanese culture would appear to make unnecessary the need for the unifying sense of community and self-defining role that religion serves in the west.

Being ostracized in Japanese society (it even has a specific term in Japanese, Mura Hachibu) and rejected by the group in events such as bullying or the media stigma for a behavior, is when the crisis for identity manifests when you are 'outside' the 80% of mainstream Japanese culture.

Until that time, most Japanese people are comfortably nested in a definition of self-identity based upon the interrelationships with those in-groups and out-groups around them.

Q & A Series PT II: Internet Suicide Pacts and the Hikikomori

Recently, I was asked a series of questions by a person researching the phenomenon of suicide in Japanese society. I'd like to share that discussion over the next several blog entries for the benefit of others. I'll call the individual 'E' in this blog.

Michael Dziesinski

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E's Question:
I just had a few questions for you on the topic, since you seem to be the expert. How do you think this pertains to suicide in general, and more specifically the 'internet suicide pacts'?

My Answer:
Well, one obvious similarity between the hikikomori topic and Internet suicide pacts is the treatment by the media.

The general approach by the Japanese media is one of sensationalizing the issue in what seems to be part of an underlying agenda of the establishment/elites towards any behavior pattern that could be deemed outside of the acceptable mainstream. That is, deviant behavior from the long defined and accepted norm is labeled as non-mainstream and so to be shunned.

The media presents issues such as parasite singles, hikikomori, freeta, and suicide pacts in such an extreme black and white manner using the most alarming examples, that the consuming public naturally attaches a stigma to those who behave in such a way. The public ostracizes the deviant behavior, forcing those offenders outside of social acceptance; akin, metaphorically, to cutting off a growing cancer in society to keep the main body healthy. This pattern of ostracism to prevent social change seems to have historical precedence.

The problem with this pattern of ‘media defines issue/public reacts’ is that the original societal problem that caused these Japanese people to become hikikomori, to refuse to work, to live overseas, to commit suicide is never seriously addressed within public discourse. The end effect is symptomized and even medicalized by the institutions, but the inherent catalysts for these behaviors don’t seem to be actively recognized by Japan’s social institutions.

My guess is that to do so, to undertake such an evaluation of Japan’s existing social institutions, would reveal that they are long overdue for an overhaul to bring them into the 21st century. These people falling through the cracks are dissatisfied with their role in Japanese society and are reacting in varying ways to the stresses of a social construct they feel trapped in without any release:

Weber’s Iron Cage

Foucault’s Panopticon

Giddens’ Juggernaut

Whatever you call it, the fact is that Japanese society, without the economic miracle and life employment of the 1980s and 1990s, presents serious problems for those young people reaching adulthood in the coming years:

What will their self-identity be based upon?

Where will their country be on the world stage in the future?

What is it to be ‘Japanese’?

Q & A Series PT I: Gender & Hikikomori new research paper posted on my Blog

Recently, I was asked a series of questions by a person researching the phenomenon of suicide in Japanese society. I'd like to share that discussion over the next several blog entries for the benefit of others. I'll call the individual 'E' in this blog.

Michael Dziesinski

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

E's Question:

I just finished reading your paper, which I found quite interesting by the way. I'll be quoting some of your passages, so I again I need to express my gratitude for your work.

My Answer:

Well thank you again. Glad to be of help.

Just bear in mind that the paper was written a couple years ago and is, in effect, a literature review for my Master’s Thesis. I have hinted at some of my findings from my field research on hikikomori in my blog, but I must admit that until I get my thesis published, there are a few things I am keeping close to my vest in the interest of keeping my research unique; nothing likely to impact your topic, mostly unique field data and some working theories.

I will be posting a newer paper I wrote last semester that investigates the gender aspect of hikikomori in the next few days. You might find some of the initial intro material similar but the second half of the paper looks at the hikikomori issue in the wider context of the freeta and parasite single phenomenon also concurrently going on in Japan.

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As per this conversation, if you look at the right column of this blog, Japan's Lost Generation under Research Files you will see a new paper added. Or you click here: Hikikomori as a Genedered Issue to get it.

Anti-Japanese Sentiments in China continues with a drilling dispute

Well, it looks like the national tension between Japan and China is not dying down. The tensions caused by the original textbook debate has maintained it's momentum in China and is being furthered by a dispute over gas drilling rights between the two countries.

According to this excellent analysis in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Acrimony grows in East Asia”

— the bigger issue here may be China, in part, flexing its newfound economic muscle in the region. Also according to the article, China is ᡢecoming further emboldened because the communist nation is finding that Japan's traditional allies like the United States do not want to get involved in the China-Japan dispute and are only issuing travel advisories for it's own citizens traveling in China.

Also complicating matters is that the United States is pushing Japan to take a more active defensive role in the region as the U.S. plans to pull its 30,000 troops out of Okinawa and only leave a small contingent near Tokyo.

Are we seeing a shift in political-economic power in East Asia?

China does appear to be trying to make some diplomatic effort to dampen the anti-japanese rallies, as reported by the BBC:

China warns against Japan Rallies

As I said before, I'm interested in this crisis between Japan and its neighbors as far as it will effect Japan in the coming years— I hold NO OPINION on the issue proper, just the effects it will leave in it's wake.

Framed in those terms, the question is: what role does Japan's younger generation have to look forward to for their own country of Japan and so their self-identity, if there is a drastic shift in political-economic power towards China in the coming decades?

How will the next generation of Japanese deal with those outside Asia seeing China as a near-hegemonic force in Asia, while China continues a policy of suppression of Japanese interest based upon issues from the past?

I'm guessing that we may well see hints to the possible future dynamics in East Asia based upon whether or not the friction between China and Japan calms down or builds to a fever pitch in the coming days.

Image copyright Getty Images.

Follow-up to post on Anti-Japanese sentiments

It appears that the anti-Japanese sentiments in China has given Japan's Ambassador cause to call on the Chinese government to protect Japanese citizens currently in China. It does seem the issue is intensifying:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/10/china.japan.protest.media/

And because some seem to think I'm oversimplifying the issue, here is an editorial from the Japan Times on political and economic aspects of the anti-japanese sentiment and why its 'dangerous to hold Japan back' in the future using Japan's actions in the past as a 'club':

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050411tp.htm

As I said in the last post, I'm gathering the news here and providing analysis, I'm not trying to sell you on any point of view, so personal attacks are not welcome.

All I'm asking is to consider how this geopolitical mess will impact the next generation of adults in Japan who will be running the show in the next few decades.

Obviously this is a hot issue which is why I'm getting some of the feedback I am, but I would prefer NOT to wade into the political area, but keep it an academic inquiry.

Anti-Japanese Sentiments Heat Up in China and Korea

I wonder at times what type of relationship Japan's young generation will have with Japan's Asian neighbors when those young people reach the age where they are setting policy decisions as Japan's leaders.

Though nearly two generations have passed since the events of WWII, China and Korea still harbors resentment towards Japan for its aggressions in WWII reflected in the current events of today; Some memories die hard and are passed from parent to child. Complicating matters is the fact that China is quickly becoming the economic hedgemon of Asia, overshadowing “Japan Inc.'s” economic miracle in the 1990's.

How will Japan's new working class of the 21st century deal with a rising tide of anti-Japanese sentiment in Asia?

And do they even know the reasons why China and Korea are so hostile to Japan?

Just to illustrate how much China and Korea STILL hold intense national animosity towards Japan today from the actions of Imperial Japan in the 1930s, three issues have flared up in the past few weeks sparking intense anti-Japanese resentment in those two countries.

I normally wouldn't comment on this sort of thing in my blog, but the Japanese textbook issue does pertain to the current young generation in Japan. My purpose here is to just bring the reader up to speed on the issue of anti-Japanese sentiment flaring up in Asia, not really take one side or the other in the disputes. I would only like to consider the effect it is having on Japan's Lost Generation.

The Japan Middle School Textbook Issue

The newest rekindled debate arose when a new edition of textbooks for Japanese school nationwide were approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education this week. The accusations from China and Korea are that the Japanese publisher of the Japanese middle school textbooks are guilty of 'whitewashing' Japan's role in WWII as an aggressor nation: the textbooks barely mentions the Nanking Massacre, Comfort Women, or the annexation of Korea.

The idea being that young Japanese have no knowledge of their country’s true historical involvement in those WWII events (and so are doomed to repeat the mistakes of their grandfather's generation). The thinking put forth by the articles below by Chinese and Korean sources are that these textbooks are ultranationalist and right wing in their presentation. These textbooks, cleansed of ugly historical events, will shape the way young Japanese view the world not by what they say, so much as what the textbooks don't say to the young reader by omission.

The fear in China and Korea is that the cleansed textbooks may create a jingoistic generation of Japanese who might once again try to establish militaristic Japan in hegemonic role in Asia.

The most heated response from the Japan side is that the textbook writers don’t want young Japanese growing up to feel depressed or ashamed of their country:

http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179790.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4415147.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4416593.stm
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5660053&cKey=1112763920000
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=1&story_id=32764


China moves to block a greater role for Japan in the UN

The second and related issue spurring ant-Japanese sentiment is China's bid to stop Japan's inclusion in the UN Security Council. With anti-Japanese riots and the boycotting of Japanese goods in China in recent days due to the textbook issue, China finds it hard to satisfy the nationalist fervor at home against the Japanese while trying to come across as globalist in the eyes of the UN. Japanese products like Asahi Beer have been pulled from the shelves in China and protesters assemble outside of Japanese embassies:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GD07Ad06.html
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/04/05/chinese_campaign_to_block_japan_from_un/
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200504%5CFOR20050405b.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503300041.html

The Korean/Japanese territorial dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima

The third issue is the heated territorial dispute over a small chunk of rocks that Japan calls Takeshima and Korea calls Dokdo in the Sea of Japan that both Japan and South Korea claim to be their national territory. To understand the bitterness of this dispute you need to understand the history between Japan and Korea in the 20th century. The articles that follow offer a much more detailed description of the history behind this, but suffice to say the annexation of Korea 1910-1945 by Imperial Japan left behind many bad feelings on both sides.

And this issue has heated up beyond civilian action to the point that both governments have taken overt steps to prove they have rightful claim to these islands. The Japanese Self Defense Forces have apparently flown over the islands and there exists plans by the South Korean military to fire on anyone who nears the islands.

Again, the new Japanese middle-school textbooks tie into this issue as well, as the textbooks claim that the disputed islands belong in fact to Japan.

This dispute sparked a wave of violent protests across South Korea in Mid-March and the textbook issue this week has only intensified the issue. Anti-Japanese protests in Seoul have even reportedly involved an old Korean women cutting her pinky off, people stabbing themselves to death, or setting themselves on fire outside the Japanese embassies in Korea in protest:

The most interesting link—
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=86689

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/18/200503180025.asp
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/03/30/japan-southkorea050330.html
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2005040704878
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504060021.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050406-06432300-bc-skorea-japan-analysis.xml
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aY5airJkwb4A&refer=asia
http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179725.html
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/04/07/200504070013.asp
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/18/200503180025.asp
http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179725.html
http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=4/6/2005&section_id=5&newsid=17895&spcl=no

Image Sources:
Image 1: People's Daily Online
Image 2: Kim Dong-hoon / The Korea Herald
Image 3: CBC News

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 6

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:

I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 6:
In your research, one of your graph shows that 20% of the sufferers are 30 or more. Did they become recluses at that age or did they choose the seclusion much earlier, as teenagers?

Hikikomori in their late twenties or thirties most likely became withdrawn in their high school years and because the hikikomori issue has only come to be recently recognized in Japanese society, these individuals languished in their rooms for years or even decades. So I conjecture that the hikikomori phenomenon is one of the young, ranging from junior high school to the first years of college, when the expectations and pressures of society upon the role of a person as they enter society at large is most acutely felt.

Another thing, I don’t know if hikikomori ‘chose’ seclusion as much as the pressures of parents, school and society more or less DRIVE them to isolation to maintain a sense of identity (remember that most hikikomori are only socially inept, not mentally ill).

I hope you can answer these few questions, so I could have a more acute idea of the phenomenon. Thank you for considering my request. I hope you’ll have a nice day, V. G.

I hope my answers helped.

Best,

Michael Dziesinski

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 5

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:

I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 5:
Can you tell me why the phenomenon mostly concern teenagers and adults from 20 to 30? Why can’t it also concern older people? Can a person who is more than 30 become a recluse?

Actually, it does affect older people from time to time such as a salaryman who has lost his job or some such, but the majority who become hikikomori seem to be young people who are trying to rectify their direct personal experiences in society with the built-in hypocrisy that is inherent in a functional adult society.

The Japanese call it tatemae/honne, outside face/inner desires, but I would also say that George Herbert Mead’s essay ‘The Self’ is a more detailed assessment of the problem with hikikomori. Using Mead’s theoretical framework, hikikomori are unable to successfully integrate the individual and deeply personal desires of “I” with the more pluralistic “Me” that is defined by its role in society existent inside the mind of every individual.

Young people have not yet solidified these two halves of consciousness and won’t until they reach full maturity after many natural setbacks and disappointments that life metes out as the ‘reality’ of society settles in.

By contrast, working adults, dealing with the contradictions of daily life, have a hardened shell and are able to cope with the stresses that Mead’s two conceptions of ‘self‘ place on an individual. Therefore, undue stress on a young person can fracture these two ‘selves’, as an attempt is made to find ‘one truth’ to society; one which can never be found. The “I” remains and seeks separation from a ‘Me’ that causes anguish.

One solution is isolation, however suicide may be another extreme example which falls in line with Emile Durkheim’s theories in his 1897 work SUICIDE on the effects of upheavals in society on the individual. The ten year economic malaise in Japan and the end of lifetime employment for incoming 21st century company employees may be one reason many youth are questioning their lot in life and choosing social withdraw or suicide over the alternative of years of schooling with no reward at the end and no answers by society at large.

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 4

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:

I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 4:
Do you know whether hikikomori can reach out of their isolation by themselves, without professional help, or not? And if they can, how do they do?

Usually, this does not happen as long as the hikikomori remains in the environment that brought on the onset of the withdrawal: An unforgiving school system, parents who are too soft in their discipline, middle income families who can afford to ‘allow’ their child to go into isolation, a society that stigmatizes any perceived sickness so the family feels the pressure to hide their ‘sick’ member from the community.

Change these factors and pull the youth out of the environment in a measured way and they can begin to recover from the stagnation that isolation has wrought. However, not much can be expected if the child is left in the smothering shadow of an overly acquiescent mother, which is often the case with male hikikomori (look up ‘amae’).

While they can’t often reach out themselves due to the environment, ‘professional help’, IE psychologists or doctors, aren’t necessarily needed: some of the most effective support groups for hikikomori are volunteer or private schools as they don’t try to medicate hikikomori, but treat the malady like the social problem that it appears to be. Remove a hikikomori from his isolated environment, socialize him through peer interaction, and most respond favorably.

Q & A about Hikikomori Part 3

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:

I hope you will find these answers helpful (and that I got them to you in time).

Question 3:
Do you think hikikomori suffer from their isolation?

I believe that it is pain dealing with society that drives them into their isolation in the first place and because that pain is never dealt with, it festers inside them as they avoid it, ignore it, deny it, and hide from it.

That anguish builds over the time of their isolation and with no solutions to their social problem, they ‘over analyze’ the their problem in their heads as ‘what if?’ scenarios:

‘What if I had done this differently?’
‘What if I didn't let that group bully me?’

However, since they are in complete isolation, they are never able to act on their ‘solutions’ as they are still gripped by fear of the outside and the consequences of those very same ‘what if?“ questions they constantly ask themselves. The thing to bear in mind is in my research, the majority of hikikomori are NOT mentally ill, but are suffering from social anxiety or trauma. They are completely lucid and mentally acute; now imagine that you, a healthy and sane person, is put in isolation in a prison or mental institution: their rooms act in much the same way, as an isolation chamber where they are only left with their thoughts on how they came to be in the room alone. In such a state, you are going to become angry, frustrated, go into denial and yet retain cogent self awareness of your own situation as you are sane and lucid.

So yes, hikikomori suffer from their isolation as only a self-aware individual can.