Since the concept of the hikikomori recluse was first introduced by a psychiatrist in Japan nearly a quarter century ago, it has encapsulated a range of terrors about society, technology and the young.
In its early stages, the phenomenon of individuals withdrawing into their bedrooms for months or years at a stretch was considered a peculiarly Japanese problem. Theories linked it with the nation’s perceived societal and economic woes. A 2006 book, Shutting Out the Sun, deemed it the pathology of a “lost” generation created in the aftermath of the 1980s bubble.
A combination of Cabinet Office studies in 2015 and 2018 suggested that Japan may have more than a million 15- to 64-year-olds living as hikikomori in its broadest definition. In 2019 the psychiatrist who coined the term all those years ago warned that the real number may be far higher.