The phenomenon of the hikikomori, born in Japan in the eighties and nineties, is no longer a phenomenon limited to the Japanese archipelago: this term refers to people, mainly teenagers and young adults, who isolate themselves from the outside world for a prolonged time and refuse social contacts. In the last two decades, hikikomori has spread far beyond the Asian borders, taking on different characteristics depending on the cultural context. Today, in fact, there are cases not only in Japan, but also in Europe, Latin America and even in Middle Eastern countries, demonstrating a transformation in a global sense.
The phenomenon in Italy and the “new” countries involved
In Italy, the estimates speak of about 50,000 certified cases, with some sources that double the number of up to 100,000. Unlike Japan, where the phenomenon was initially associated with school and work pressure, in the Italian context weighing more the dimension of the retreat due to episodes of bullying, social exclusion and existential precariousness. Spain, on the other hand, recorded extreme isolation episodes, with people who remained closed at home for decades, while in China the percentage of young people retired exceeds 6%, a figure that reflects the combination of very high school expectations, family control and scarcity of youth autonomy spaces.
This heterogeneity indicates that hikikomori is not an exclusively Japanese “cultural product”, but a form of social response to structural conditions common to globalized societies: competitive pressure, fragmentation of traditional communities and new methods of socialization mediated by digital.
Causes and triggering factors
The causes that lead to social isolation vary significantly according to the context. In the countries of Eastern Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, school and professional competition represents a central element: academic or working failure is perceived as a stigma that is difficult to recover, and for many young people the withdrawal becomes a “protection” choice compared to the judgment of society.
In Europe, however, they are more dynamic related to bullying, racism, integration difficulties and growing urban solitude to affect. In Latin America, on the contrary, the phenomenon is intertwined with economic instability and youth unemployment, which feeds the feeling of helplessness and the loss of perspectives.
This diversity of factors leads to the formation of very different profiles: there are teenagers who suddenly interrupt the school and retire to the room; young adults who fail in the transition to the work world and remain blocked in a domestic limbo; and middle -aged adults who have spent this years in isolation that they can no longer imagine their reinstatement.
The economic question is one of the most enigmatic and delicate nodes of the hikikomori phenomenon. In Japan, most of those who live in isolation do not work and do not have their own income: daily survival is guaranteed almost exclusively by family support. Parents cover the costs of food, accommodation and consumer goods, actually transforming themselves into the main social safety net.
This model, however, is fragile as it depends on the aging of the population that feeds the so-called “problem 80-50”: elderly parents (80) that maintain adult children (50) without any perspective of autonomy.
Responses to the phenomenon and innovative therapeutic approaches
The responses to the phenomenon are heterogeneous and reflect the differences in welfare systems. In South Korea, community houses were born as transition spaces, where young people in insulation can live together, follow therapeutic paths and gradually regain social and work skills. In France and Italy, however, it is preferred to focus more on the involvement of families: psycho-education interventions aim to transform the domestic context, which often proves to be ambivalent. In parallel, innovative approaches are emerging that use technologies as mediation tools. In Brazil, for example, therapeutic video games designed to stimulate progressive interaction are experienced, while in Japan and Korea there are applications of virtual reality that simulate social environments, allowing subjects to gradually face the fear of contact with the other.
These tools show how technology, often perceived as the cause of isolation, can also be part of the solution.
