Different socieities have different problems… in Japan, one problem is young men who just refuse to go anywhere or do anything.
In other societies the response from many youths would be different. If they didn’t fit into the mainstream, they might join a gang or become a Goth or be part of some other subculture. But in Japan, where uniformity is still prized and reputations and outward appearances are paramount, rebellion comes in muted forms, like hikikomori. Any urge a hikikomori might have to venture into the world to have a romantic relationship or sex, for instance, is overridden by his self-loathing and the need to shut his door so that his failures, real or perceived, will be cloaked from the world. “Japanese young people are considered the safest in the world because the crime rate is so low,” Saito said. “But I think it’s related to the emotional state of people. In every country, young people have adjustment disorders. In Western culture, people are homeless or drug addicts. In Japan, it’s apathy problems like hikikomori.”
That’s not entirely right, because of course there are drug addicts and homeless people in Japan, just as there are shut-ins and recluses in the West. But the particular form of the phenomenon, and the particular response to it, seems to illuminate something about what it means to be Japanese. Of course, what it really illuminates is what Western media and its consumers think about Japan.
Secretly Ironic 