Japan's Lost Generation

Wired Magazine OP-ED about Hikikomori possibly caught in the 3-11 earthquake.

Psychiatrist Paul Ballas has written an Op-Ed piece for the Wired science section of Wired Magazine Onine.

You can read it here: Op-Ed: Psychiatric Disorder Could Complicate Japan Quake Recovery

First, I want to state that I'm a long time reader of Wired Magazine. A great deal of the material they produce is at the very least, though provoking. Though the print magazine suffers the curse of any paper publication in this instant digital age with a lot of the print magazine material feeling dated when it hits your door. Still, it is a great tech industry magazine. Kudos.

As for the article itself, I think the comments do a fair job criticizing the relevancy of resurrecting the hikikomori topic in the aftermath of the 3-11 earthquake in Japan. So I won't say much more on that aspect of the article. My only complaint here is why revive the 'one million missing' hikikomori fallacy reported back in 2001? That alone shows poor background research into the issue.

My issue is with Ballas' framing of hikikomori as a mental health issue.

I admire Paul Ballas' work and efforts to understand individuals labeled as 'hikikomori', more people should look at this issue with a serious eye. However, I've always felt that hikikomori is a social issue amongst the younger generation, one that is a by-product of globalization clashing with young people transitioning into adulthood. Since hikikomori is a word coined in Japan, focus in the media has been on it as Japan-specific phenomena. However, a cursory search of the Internet reveals similar reclusive social withdrawal behavior in Korea, China, and even the United States.

The 'hikikomori' label has always seemed to me a catch-all term for people who have dropped out of society. To be sure, there are some youth with mental health problems, but there is tendency in the sphere of western medicine to medicalize any behaviors outside the societal norm as a mental illness. Add to that the trend for health care providers to to apply prescription drugs to solve the problem, and you have a mess. From my research the more successful approach to the acute social withdrawal is to remove the person from the stagnant home environment and put them into a group situation with peers in the same state. This type of socialization and reintroduction into greater society seems like a much more productive approach than labeling kids with some mental health condition and drugging them into a stupor.

I still maintain that the majority of youth so-labeled as hikikomori are not mentally ill but socially isolated and in need of a third party intervention to bring them back into functionality in everyday society.

~M.D.

A Hikikomori film- Left Handed, "Tobira no Muko"

English director Laurence Thrush and executive producer Takao Saiki released "Tobira no Muko" (Left handed) back in 2009 and the film now is due for an official release in Japan. The film stars a former hikikomori who attended Apple Tree school in Saitama prefecture for troubled youth unwilling or unable to attend school. The film depicts the main character's descent into social withdrawal and the various factors that contribute to his state as a hikikomori.

You can read about the film in greater detail on the English website for the film: Tobira no Muko

And here is a subtitled Youtube trailer for the film:

~M.D.

Hikikomori Article in the New York Times

There was an article in the New York Times in 2006 about hikikomori. Even though the Gray Lady is now behind a pay-wall, you should still be able to view the article.

Shutting Themselves In

By MAGGIE JONES

Published: January 15, 2006

~M.D.

CBC Article on Hikikomori

Back in 2010, I was interviewed about my previous research on hikikomori. The reporter and I sat for about an hour in the Shibuya Starbucks chatting about shut-ins in Japan. I tried to give him a broad picture of the issue and how it was portrayed in the media. I even said several times what I was stating was not my opinion but what others had said or how it was generally perceived. What he finally put to print is somewhat out of context and not the gist of what I was trying to tell him, but what's in print is done.

Hanging out with Japan's 'lost generation' - CBC NEWS

Its a good article and appears to be well researched. It was my understanding at the time of the interview that the piece was to be longer and in the main publication. Its a shame he had to shorten the length, but I think he did the best he could with the space he was given.

Personally, I dislike the usage of "pressure cooker" applied to the Japanese school system. I was telling the reporter this is how other people portray Japanese education, its not my viewpoint.

If forced to use sound bite imagery, I would prefer to think of the educational track in a Japan as a highway with too few off-ramps into adult life. Once you take an exit from the college track, there is no way to get back on the road. With globalization, options for adult re-education and re-skilling has become a common strategy in other nations in the labor market. The ability to go back to school and get a college degree/re-skill as an adult and be accepted into the labor force within a new career is a viable option in many globalized labor markets. Some stigma may still hold for those trying for employment in the most elite of corporations, however.

In Japan, globalization has caused many companies to downsize and resort to a contract-for-hire work force they can jettison at any time to stay profitable. However, unlike globalized corporations in other countries, many big Japanese companies still prefer to hire fresh 20-something college graduates as their regular employees with full benefits. The remainder of their work force are 'outside hires', contract workers: freeters.

Contract workers may have gone back to school as an adult or have worked for several years learning the same skills in the industry as regular hires. However, that on-the-job work-experience by contract hires is not considered valid on a job application by Japanese corporations. So re-skilling and adult education in Japan means, even if you can get hired into a middle class labor position, most likely you will be a contract worker with no real chance to become a full time employee at the "big" corporations the rest of your working life. You are relegated to a precarious working class existence in society with little job stability.

This is why there is a growing population of aged 30+ freeters (contract workers) in the Japanese work force. Freeters and NEET are basically the same group of Japanese workers either in contract employment (and show up in data as freeter) or unemployed after a stint working (and are classified in labor data as NEET) . Collectively, this marginalized population of Freeters and NEET are rapidly becoming Japan's new working class with no viable path to a mainstream middle class career. Many of these 30-something freeters want to start families or be bread-winners, but lack the job stability to settle down into family roles with any confidence.

~M.D.

Still Around

Sorry to let this blog go inactive if anybody but dissertation service spammers read it.  Again just a note to those folks- I personally approve comments so your link-spam will never make it to the front page of my blog. Go elsewhere.

But it has made me realize I need to freshen this blog up.  I'll do my best to do so.  I currently live in Tokyo and I'm doing my PhD dissertation research so maybe I can talk about that process here.  

Cheers,

M.D.