Experiences of Difficulties Faced By Hikikomori People within Everyday-Life: From the Perspective of View of Intimacy

This paper aims to describe the experiences of difficulties faced by the withdrawal of youth from society known as hikikomori people in Japan. This paper is based on fieldwork data and narratives of hikikomori people in self-support group in Kobe. This self-support group organizes peer supporters with their edge of experiences, and provides support to hikikomori people as the person concerned (Tojisha). This paper analyzes their narratives from the approach of life-history analysis. In Japan, hikikomori phenomenon has been problematized since the 1990s. According to research conducted by the Cabinet Office in 2010, the population of hikikomori (age range 15-39), is estimated 696 thousand (comprising 1.79% of the total population of Japan). In this survey, hikikomori is defined as “people who predominantly stay at home for more than six months, other than for household work, child-care, schizophrenia or physical illness.” Therefore, hikikomori has been referred to as problems of psychology and requires psychiatric treatment. Moreover, hikikomori has been also identified as problems related to Japanese education and employment systems. However, experiences of difficulties faced by hikikomori people are more complex.  In fact, on their narratives, they address the various issues  which they face in their daily lives. When talking experiences by hikikmori, they talk about various categories of human relations. In particular, their narratives on difficulties are often associated with intimate relationships, gender, sexuality and the other. For example, a hikikomori parson said “I am troubled about how to interact with other people familiarly.” Thus, this paper focuses on the intimacy of human relationships within their everyday-life experiences. Through this analysis, I argue that the experiences of difficulties faced by hikikomori people not only reflect instability of employment of youth but also related to the anxiety and uncertainty concerning their intimate relationships.