Who are the hikikomori?
Natacha Vellut: The hikikomori are young Japanese men and women under 30, who spend periods of at least six months without leaving home. They stop going to school or work, they cut all social ties… Some live like recluses for years on end! The word ‘hikikomori’ literally means “to withdraw” or ‘to lock oneself up’. The phenomenon was described in Japan in the late 1980s, and the term was soon adopted by psychiatrists and physicians around the world who identified sufferers among their young patients. In France, an increasing number of families and youngsters are realising that they fit this definition, even though the condition itself is not considered a distinct medical category outside of Japan, and there are no statistics available. Some hikikomori are camouflaged by other labels, like “school dropouts”, for example. But not all dropouts are hikikomori, since some may have an aversion to school while maintaining social relations.

What is the cause of this withdrawal from the world?
N. V.: It’s essentially a psychosocial situation. It emerged in Japan during the severe economic crisis that followed the bursting of the country’s financial bubble. People began referring to young people at the age of entering the job market as a ‘lost generation’. Japanese society continued to impose obligations, but without making room for its youth. At that point, something broke. Beyond Japan, modern-day society sets extremely high standards, both professional and personal, at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a job and find one’s place in life – not to mention the norms that the pressure of social networks forces on young people today – ‘be like this, act like that’…
The level of ontological insecurity has risen sharply, further exacerbated by environmental threats, the climate crisis, and now a global pandemic[…]