Hikikomori

I am now reading Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation. Does anyone have any opinion of the cause of these young people, mostly men, who lock themselves in their rooms and refuse to come out?

Does anyone know the ration of Males to Females on this? Why are the guys doing withdrawing, and not the girls?

I have read Shutting Out of the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation and found it to be a powerful book. It is sad that Hikikomori have chosen to shut themselves up but I think the reason they do that is same reason why a lot of people have chosen to shut themselves from the world, which is the real world is very hard to deal with and the it is better to get away from it then to deal with it.

It's interesting that more men than women shut themselves up. Perhaps girls from dysfunctional families are better at coping or have stronger nervous systems than boys.

I've actually been holding onto this book, a freiend gave it to me a little while ago, yet to read it.

As for the Hikikomori... I think it has to do with a few things that are particular to Japanese culture, such as over bering parents, an abundance and culture acceptance of moe and porn, "the system"/"the way it's been done", as well as the governments acceptance/classification of NEETS.

There could be so much more involved, but I could go into these ideas in detail a little more if you're interested. I'm no scholar or aficionado on the subjet of Japanese culture, but have a few personal observations.

What are NEETS?

NEET = not in employment, education or training.

One possible reason why there appear to be fewer female hikikomori is that it's more socially acceptable for women to remain at home and not go out and work than it is for a man. Obviously hikikomori take this to pathological levels, but it may explain not why there are fewer female hikikomori, but why fewer female hikikomori are noticed.

Actually when I was in Japan I knew a hikikomori except at that time there wasn't such a term. He was the third child in the family--a boy and had an older sister and older brother. The two brothers lived together but I never met him because he was always in his room listening to music. He didn't work and it was lucky that his family was rich and he didn't have to work. He refused to talk to anyone and he almost never went out. When he was older he moved back to the countryside with his brother but he still didn't work and stayed at home with no friends. In this family I felt only the older sister was "normal" being a hospital dietician. The older brother became a psychic and channels the power of the universe to people. He was also very lucky because at the age of 32 he barely escaped becoming seriously mentally ill because he began to hear voices and he says he was cured by listening to "ESP tapes".
In Shutting Out the Sun the author asks if someone can become a kuro fune about the problem of hikikomori. In the case of this family I have met the mother and father of the siblings and they were all born after the mother had a "pregnancy problem". The father wanted a "perfect marriage" and didn't want his bride to be pregnant. I know there is a high incidence of mental illness (depression, manic-depression, paranoia) and anti-social behavior in children born after that and also in children in families in which this happens before the children reach the age of about 10. It would be interesting to know if the mothers of the hikikomori have had such problems. I think it would take some kind of drastic event in the family that would change the child's mental and social development so that he was unable to leave his room.

We were just talking about "ikemen" today in class. Ikemen, I found out, means a father that helps out with raising the children and household chores. Key word here is, "helps." This a new term to represent a recent trend in Japan.

Blew my mind that there was a special term for this. I know it's a different culture and all, but it's a personal believe (and my students seem to think this as well) that it would be better for a child's mental health if both parents were involved with raising children. But instead, dad works all day and night and in his free time plays pachinko and flirts with girls at snackbars.

I mention this because it could also be a factor for why there are hikikomori.

If the father is absent all the time and the mother is neurotic then the child has no one to identify with. This seems to affect boys more than girls. Girls often directly identify with the neurotic mother. A good example of this kind of behavior is in the manga Obaterian which I have in my catalog. This manga hasn't been translated into English and I wonder what Western audiences would feel about such a mother.
Also male and female and family groupings are different in Japan where the mother and child are considered one group and the father is on the outside. In Western countries the mother and father as a couple is one group and the child is in another group. It is probably this way because traditionally Japan is a matrilineal society.

#9:

Ikemen=handsome, cool guy.
Ikumen=guy who helps around the house and with the kids.

>11 dcozy: Yeah, keep getting them mixed up. It's still absurd, though.

What are the kanji for ikumen?

育メン

And there's no reason and ikemen couldn't be an ikumen.

>15 dcozy: No reason at all, and being both would be preferred. However, I think that most ikemen might be too busy fixing their hair to be concerned with raising a child ;P

So is that kanji "ao"?

No, that kanji is the same kanji as in 育てる which means to raise, to grow up. That's the word you use if you were to say "I grew up in the United States." So 育メン is a man who helps raise (kids). And the kanji for "ao" is 青.

育

Onyomi: イク Iku
Kunyomi: 育てる　そだてる　Soda.teru,

Meaning: to raise, to bring up, etc...

メン　means noodles... no. But, seriously, I believe it means "man" or "men"