Description
Book SynopsisHikikomori, which literally means “withdrawal,” is considered an increasingly prevalent form of social isolation in Japanese society. This issue has been attracting worldwide attention for two decades and is now recognized as a problem for the youth as well as for middle-aged and older adults. Based on interviews with people who have experienced it, Teppei Sekimizu explores what the hikikomori experience is like from a sociological perspective. He also examines the characteristics of four decades of hikikomori discourse by governments, professionals, and mass media; the difficulties faced by parents with hikikomori children; and the social policy which has relegated most provision of welfare for citizens to the private sector. Through these examinations, the author illustrates how the exclusive labor market and familial social policies create masses of family-dependent and isolated individuals in contemporary Japan. The Sociology of the Hikikomori Experience leads the reader to understand the manifold hikikomori phenomenon in a wider social context and also to a deeper understanding of Japanese society itself, which has regarded not the government, but corporations, families, and communities responsible for individual well-being.
Trade Review"In this innovative and insightful book, Teppei Sekimizu takes a multifaceted, sociological approach in exploring so-called 'hikikomori' (social withdrawal) in Japanese society by bringing together individual voices and shifting policy discourses and debates as well as sociological theories of selfhood and time. This book goes beyond a culturalist analysis common in existing literature on the subject and instead significantly brings to light how the inadequate welfare provisions from the state, placing the welfare responsibilities on corporate and family sectors, have forced hikikomori individuals to remain family dependent and isolated in post-bubble Japan. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the issue of social isolation and well-being in and beyond Japan."
-- Sachiko Horiguchi, Temple University, Japan Campus
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Glossary of Japanese Terms
Preface
Chapter 1 The Hikikomori Experience and Ambivalence
Chapter 2 Self-Categorization as Hikikomori: Becoming a Hikikomori Subject
Chapter 3 Hikikomori as a Japanese Social Problem: Focusing on Families with Hikikomori Children
Chapter 4 Discourses on the Hikikomori Problem from the 1980s to the 2010s
Chapter 5 On the Difficulty of Participation: From Theoretical and Empirical Considerations of the Situated Self
Chapter 6 Time Perspective in the Hikikomori Experience
Conclusion Japanese Society in the Light of the Hikikomori Experience
References
About the Author
