University of Hawai'i Manoa Hikikomori as a Gendered Issue Analysis on the discourse of acute social withdrawal in contemporary Japan. A research paper submitted to satisfy the requirements for History course number 425 —Final Revision— By Michael J. Dziesinski Honolulu, Hawaii Fall Semester 2004 NOTE: This document is an academic work being provided for free distribution in order to disseminate the research herein. You may quote from this work freely provided you properly cite this author and document as your source and that citation of the author’s name accompanies any usage of any part of this work. Please email me with any questions at:
[email protected] This document is Copyright Michael Dziesinski, 2005. Michael Dziesinski Hikikomori as a Gendered Issue 2 Hikikomori, an introduction. In the year 2000, a new social malady apparently unique to Japan came into the pubic awareness through various news reports by media outlets in Japan. A new term, hikikomori, was coined for this social phenomenon by Japanese psychologist Tamaki Saito to describe a disturbing behavioral trend towards complete social withdrawal among Japanese youths. This new social label, hikikomori, began to spread in an almost viral fashion throughout the Japanese consciousness gaining ever-higher visibility through media coverage associating sensational acts of violence to those suffering from the hikikomori 'malady'. It was not long until the definition of 'hikikomori' was co-opted by public health professionals to officially classify reclusive youths who exhibited deviance by refusing to participate in socially established norms. From of the mouths of institutional and governmental spokesmen, the classification of 'hikikomori' was accompanied by an air of legitimacy and so accepted by the public as fact; an affliction which media sources proclaimed as a distinctively Japanese illness with no Western equivalent in circumstance or scope: Hikikomori noun, 1.