More on female hikikomori.

When I did my field research on hikikomori at Takeyama Gakko, TG, conversations with the staff indicated they often encountered the following attitudes by Japanese families when it came to their children:

When young Japanese men refuse to go outside, be active, mingle with friends, or find a job, then Japanese parents become anxious and worried about their male child. In the longer term hikikomori cases, the fact that the young man doesn’t seek gainful employment upon reaching eighteen to twenty years of age really alarms parents as the young man is obviously not fulfilling his culturally defined role in Japanese society.

In contrast, interviews with the Takeyama staff about the 'female hikikomori' seem to indicate that parents with daughters are less likely to seek out intervention or aid for their hikikomori daughters as they may not see the behavior of a withdrawn girl as overly alarming. Neo-Confucian values still influence Post WWII society in Japan and the gender roles of men and women are still much more distinct in Japan today than in Western society; Shyness can be seen as a feminine trait in Japan, and a girl who hides in her room and refuses to leave the house is not necessarily acting too far outside of the expected social norms. It's when that child starts to get physical that parents seek help.