Hikikomori: The Japanese Cabinet Office's 2016 Survey of Acute Social Withdrawal
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In September 2016, the Cabinet Office of Japan published the results of an epidemiological survey focusing on acute social withdrawal (hikikomori). This article summarizes and assesses the major features of the survey. It aims at facilitating research and international exchanges on a mental health and social problem affecting at least 541,000 people in Japan that seems to have spread to industrialized societies.
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An absent father, a subsequent mother-child closeness and over-interference, and the inhibition of children's independence have been repeatedly mentioned in previous studies as factors in the occurrence of hikikomori in Japan.
“An absent father, a subsequent mother-child closeness and over-interference, and the inhibition of children’s independence have been repeatedly mentioned in previous studies as factors in the occurrence of hikikomori in Japan”
From Preliminary study of the social withdrawal (hikikomori) spectrum in French adolescents: focusing on the differences in pathology and related factors compared with Japanese adolescents (2022) · cites this paper as [56]
The Concluding remarks discuss mother–child codependency and suggest that strong parental intervention might impair youth autonomy, potentially contributing to hikikomori. They do not identify an absent father as a factor or establish that previous studies repeatedly identified this combination of factors; the proposed risk is also tentative. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Arnett, Jeffrey, Rita Žukauskienė, Kazumi Sugimura. 2014. "The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18-29 years: implications for mental health." Lancet Psychiatry 2014(1): 569-576
- Futagami, Nōki, and Shirō Asano. 2006. "The 'Integrated Community': Toward the Transformation of the Hikikomori Archipelago Japan. A Dialogue between Asano Shirō and Futagami Nōki (translation John Junkerman)." The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.
- Hamasaki Yukiko 2015. Appearance of Caseness -Social withdrawal and the development of schizophrenia, Japanese Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 44(5):655-662
- Kato, T. A., Teo, A. R., Tateno, M., Watabe, M., Kubo, H. and Kanba, S. (2017), Can Pokémon GO rescue shut-ins (hikikomori) from their isolated world? Psychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, 71: 75-76. doi:10.1111/pcn.12481 · DOI
- Kondo, Naoji, Motohiro Sakai, Yasukazu Kuroda, Yoshikazu Kiyota, Yuji Kitabata, and Mie Kurosawa. 2013. "General Condition of Hikikomori (prolonged Social Withdrawal) in Japan: Psychiatric Diagnosis and Outcome in Mental Healths Welfare Centres." International Journal of Social Psychiatry." 67: 193-202.
- Li, Tim MH and Paul WC Wong. 2015. "Youth social withdrawal behavior (hikikomori): A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 49(7): 595-609. doi: 10.1177/0004867415581179 · DOI · Paper page
- Lock, Margaret. 1995. Encounters with Aging. Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Miller, Aaron L., and Tuukka Toivonen. 2010. "To Discipline or Accommodate ? On the Rehabilitation of Japanese 'Problem Youth.'" The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.
- ---. 2016. Wakamono no seikatsu ni kansuru https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466017013341 Published online by Cambridge University Press 10
- Ogino, Tatsushi. 2004. "Managing Categorization and Social Withdrawal in Japan: Rehabilitation Process in a Private Support Group for Hikikomorians." International Journal of Japanese Sociology (13): 120-133.
- Ryder Andrew G, Momoka Sunohara, and Lawrence J. Kirmayer. 2015. "Culture and personality disorder: from a fragmented literature to a contextually grounded alternative." Current Opinion in Psychiatry 28(1): 40-5.
- ---. 2013. Hikikomori: Adolescence without End (American translation of Shakaiteki hikikomori -owaranai shishunki). Minnesota University Press.
- Tajan, Nicolas. 2015a. "Adolescents' School Non-Attendance and the Spread of Psychological Counselling in Japan." Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy 6(1/2): 58-69. · DOI
- ---. 2015b. Social Withdrawal and Psychiatry: A Comprehensive Review of Hikikomori, Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence, 63(5): 324-331. · DOI · Paper page
- ---. 2015c. Japanese post-modern social renouncers: An exploratory study of the narratives of Hikikomori subjects, Subjectivity 8: 283-304 (September 2015). · DOI
- Teo, Alan R., and Albert R. Gaw. 2010. "Hikikomori, a Japanese Culture-Bound Syndrome of Social Withdrawal? A Proposal for DSM-5." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 198 (6): 444-449.
- Toyama Kagehiro 2016. 大都市における子育て 家族の社会的孤立要因 : SSP2015を用いた地域 信頼度の分析よりThe isolation of child-rearing families in urban area : From the analysis of trust in local communities using SSP2015, 北 海道大学大学院文学研究科研究論集 Research Journal of Graduate Students of Letters, 16:209-230 · DOI
- Hamasaki Yukiko, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Psychiatrist https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466017013341 Published online by Cambridge University Press Kyoto Women's University, Faculty for the Study of Contemporary Society 35, Kitahiyoshi-cho, Imakumano, Higashiyama-ku, 605-8501 Kyoto, Japan
- Nancy Pionnié-Dax, M.D. Psychiatrist, Department Director Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, EPS ERASME 143 avenue Armand Guillebaud, 92160 Antony, France https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466017013341 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Hamasaki, Y., Pionnié-Dax, N., Dorard, G., Tajan, N., & Hikida, T. (2022) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-022-04116-6 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Tajan, N., Yukiko, H., & Pionnié-Dax, N.
- Affiliations
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Kyoto Women's University (JP)
- ORCID
- Tajan, Nicolas
- Venue
- Asia-Pacific Journal
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2017-03
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 17
- ISSN
- 1557-4660 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4408501342
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Japan focus (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Japanese History and Culture
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
- Keywords
- hikikomori, social isolation, mental health, epidemiological survey, Japan, industrial society
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