Japan has nearly a million and a half social recluses or “hikikomori”, as they are called in the country, of which almost 20% attribute their withdrawal from society to the pandemic, according to a study by the Japanese government. The phenomenon affects around 2% of 15-64 year olds in the archipelago (1.46 million people), according to this survey carried out in November 2022 and published last Friday, the most comprehensive carried out to date by the government.
The most common reason respondents gave for leaving the company was quitting their job, followed closely by the Covid-19 pandemic. “It seems that some people fit our definition of hikikomori because they were discouraged from going out by Covid, and therefore ended up having less contact with society,” Koji Naito, an official, told AFP. governmental.
Voluntary confined
Hikikomori are defined in this study as people between the ages of 15 and 64 who avoid participating in social activities such as going to school or work and who, for at least six months, have only gone out for their hobbies or for shopping, or hardly ever leave their homes.
