In what has been described as an epidemic for Japan, as many as one in 10 Japanese youths is living as a modern-day hermit.
Often aided by their embarrassed families, up to 1 million young men may be hiding from the outside world -- perhaps never even leaving their bedrooms.
Called hikikomori (Japanese for "to withdraw from society"), their way is unique to Japan.
Experts in the field estimate that the hikikomori population at anything between 500,000 to 1 million, although according to the Japanese Ministry of Health and Labor the figure is only 50,000.
But this discrepancy is hardly surprising, given how unwilling hikikomori youths and their parents are to speak to outsiders.
To many, the condition is seen as a secret, shameful thing and their stigma is deeply felt.
Journalists in the past have had to speak to hikikomori through closed doors, with their families remaining anonymous and heads just seen in silhouette.
Dai Osaki, now 20, spent a year as a recluse.
His reason was/is a common one -- bullying at school -- which led to his not speaking to anyone for that year -- even his family -- while living in his bedroom, reading manga comics and playing video games.
For the first three months or so, his family pleaded with him to come out, but when that failed they dragged him out and in an effort to interest him in something -- anything -- they took him to a riding school.
Dai never looked back.
He developed a love of horses and riding that has never left him and three months later he returned to school and restored a normal relationship with his parents.
Today he is a full-time riding instructor and acclaimed show-jumper.
To meet Dai and hear him talk -- he has a smile that splits his face -- it is hard to imagine those dark days.
Apart from bullying, other reasons that have been put forward to explain the condition include academic pressure, too much time spent online or playing computer games leading to a poor communication skills, and the effect of most parenting being done by stay-at-home mothers while unavailable fathers work all hours.
Leading Japanese psychiatrist and hikikomiri specialist Dr Tamaki Saito talks about "the black hole of the spirit in Japan."
It's a view of a nation widely-regarded as being dominated by pork-barrel politics, the enslavement to the ideal of financial prosperity and the radical shift in cultural and political beliefs since the war whose young people have been questioning their parents and grandparents' work-ethic values.
But Phillida Purvis, director of Links Japan, which promotes exchange of social welfare ideas between Japan and the UK, said the problem may be that Japan's younger generation have never known hard times.
"Their parents lives were so destroyed by the war, they wanted their kids to have everything. In this way a lot of Japanese kids are quite spoiled," she said.
She also claims Japan's education system doesn't educate its young to "think outside the box," and that because most are brought up without religious teaching, no faith-based coping systems have been established either.
It's almost as if a sizeable proportion of Japan's young are acting as a mental health barometer for the nation's stagnating economy.
But she does see changes, with the devastating Kobe earthquake 10 years ago marking a turning point.
Because the then government did not react fast enough to the disaster, the people began to take matters into their own hands and started volunteering and organizing themselves.
This trend received a further boost in 1998 and 2001 with new laws relaxing the legal and tax status of not-for-profit organizations.
Today, some grassroots social groups are expanding across Japan; a sign, commentators believe, of Japanese people identifying the need to help themselves and their neighbors.
They may offer counselling, trips abroad or an activity, like Dai's riding school.
Link such expansion to a Japanese Ministry of Health survey in 2000, which showed that more than 6,000 hikikomori were seeking help in public health centers and that the signs of change are under way.
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
RSS