Hikikomori: Adolescence without End, is the English translation of a book that became a best seller when it was published in Japan in 1998, raising public ...
Book Review
Hikikomori: Adolescence Without End Saitō Tamaki; (translated by Jeffrey Angles)
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, September 2014, Volume 38, Issue 3, pp 512-513
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu Hikikomori: Adolescence without End, is the English translation of a book that became a best seller when it was published in Japan in 1998, raising public awareness of the social problem of “withdrawal” that is estimated to involve hundreds of thousands of mostly male Japanese adolescents and young adults. As 16 years have passed since its publication, the translator’s introduction and author’s preface to this English edition are helpful in explaining what has happened since then. The book was a ground breaking work that launched Saito Tamaki into the national spotlight as the expert on adolescent problems. It also led to hikikomori becoming so popularized that it became an English word that the Oxford English Dictionary defines as: “In Japan: abnormal avoidance of social contact; acute social withdrawal; (also) a person, typically an adolescent male, engaging in this; a recluse, a shut-‐in.” While the dictionary definition associates it with Japan, Saito emphasizes that it is found in other societies, acknowledging that certain conditions make it especially common, and increasingly so, in Japan. One is an educational system that appears to value cooperation but actually places students in intense competition with one another. The main focus is placed on the family system that allows, and even encourages children to continue to live with and be taken care of by parents into adulthood, often in co-‐dependent relationships. Saito sees this combination of factors as working to allow certain children to remain in an immature position of emotional and economic dependence, an artificially prolonged state of adolescence. When I was professor at the University of Tokyo and a practicing clinical psychologist I was sometimes asked by foreign media to comment on certain trends in Japanese society, which they clearly wanted to paint as exotic. While acknowledging the particular socioeconomic conditions that produce the rise of this condition and the failure of Japanese society to deal successfully with it, Saito is aware of this tendency to exoticize and does not want to pathologize Japanese society. He claims that hikikomori is no stranger than the phenomenon of homeless youth that plagues other societies, seeing each as particular to certain societies. In one type of society, in which young people are punished by “grounding” them in the house, youth are trying to find themselves by leaving home; in the other type of society, in which children are punished by locking them out of the house, they are finding themselves by staying home. Like others before him, such as Morita Shoma (1998), Doi Takeo (1981), and Takie Sugiyama Lebra (1976), Saito attempts to describe a phenomenon in Japan balancing global and local features. In considering whether hikikomori is a mental illness, Saito asks us to exercise caution in labeling it as pathological, emphasizing that it is not an illness or typology. He calls it a particular state that develops in conjunction with certain environmental factors and arises in response to perceived setbacks on the path to emotional maturity and independence. While acknowledging that as period of withdrawal lengthens the likelihood of developing various pathologies grows, Saito also asserts that from his clinical
experience, many individuals can benefit from improved communication with family and the outside world. This is a translation and reads well, although I do not know how faithful it is to the original as I did not read the original Japanese. The strength of the book is its basis in Saito’s extensive clinical experience with this population. The book is divided into two parts: One is on theory, which Saito introduces with case studies from his clinical practice, asking various questions about the nature of the problem. The second part is about practice, outlining concrete methods of treatment, family members and clinicians As it was published in Japan as a shinsho, books that introduce academic topics to a general audience, it tries to appeal to various readers. Some readers may find that the theoretical part is too dense and others may find that the practical part is excessively detailed for their interests. I found myself wishing to hear more voices of the subjects to bring the subject more to life. Hikikomori served an important social function in Japan of giving people a term that helped them to talk openly about this issue affects their lives, families, and society. The English edition now enables non-‐ Japanese to see that while it has a cultural emphasis, hikikomori is not just a Japanese phenomenon but is a human dilemma that can be seen in most societies. Hopefully it will bring needed attention to efforts to help the hidden young people who suffer in silence. References Doi, Takeo (1981). The Anatomy of Dependence: The Key Analysis of Japanese Behavior. English trans. John Bester (2nd ed.). Tokyo: Kodansha International. Lebra, Takie Sugiyama (1976). Japanese Patterns of Behavior. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. Morita, Shoma (1998). Morita Therapy and the True Nature of Anxiety-‐based Disorder. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press