Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run
Nagisa Hirai was an active child who loved playing football with the boys. But that early happiness dissipated on her first day at elementary school when she became frightened after being unable to find her classroom.
Over time, she became a “hikikomori, ” a Japanese word used to describe the more than half a million young people in the country who stay at home and shun interaction with people outside their family. She would suffer anxiety attacks over anything unfamiliar — even forgetting stuff for school could cause her to anxiety. She became increasingly uncomfortable going to school, pushing her strict parents to force her to attend.
The 30 -year-old now says shes retrieving, but there are still days when she cant drag herself out of bed for her part-time undertaking at a university.
While the hikikomori issue isnt new, Prime Minister Shinzo Abes now plans to mobilize them as part of a broader drive to bolster the aging workforce. The premier has vowed to stop the population from falling below 100 million from the present 127 million, and have all members of society make an active contribution to the worlds third-biggest economy.
There is no single cause for the phenomenon. Hikikomori can stem from factors such as bullying at school or run, or pressure from parents or other family members to succeed in entrance tests or job interviews.
Weight Loss
In Hirais case, she was both scared of people and felt bad about not being able to go to school. She became anorexic during her time at a part-time high school as she struggled to find a solution — her weight dropping to around 30 kilograms( 66 pounds ).
“I could repress my emotions by restraining my craving, ” Hirai says. While it allowed her to go out and fulfill people, she was never able to attend class and dropped out when her classmates graduated.
Hirai received support from Shure University, a nonprofit that offer pressure-free space for people like her who want to continue their education. Shes now been living by herself for virtually 10 years and says that although shes getting better she still get tense around some people.
“Im afraid of shutting myself off again from society, ” she says of her career plans. “Whats more important to me is the kind of people Im with rather than what I want to do. My parents are already old and Im merely a junior high school graduate. Im always anxious about how I can live my life.”
Negative Perceptions
Kageki Asakura, a member of the Shure University, says a lack of self respect is a reason why many people become hikikomori. Negative perceptions toward the individuals who drop out of society attain the situation worse, he says.
In a government survey published in 2014 of young people in seven countries including Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, Japanese were ranked lowest in terms of self gratification. Only 7.5 percentage said they were content.
About 541,000 people aged between 15 and 39 — or 1.6 % of the population in that age group — were estimated to be hikikomori in a Cabinet Office report published in September. The government defines them as people who have stayed at home and avoided interaction with non-family members for at the least six months.
As society ages, hikikomori are also getting older. About 53 percent of them in the western prefecture of Shimane were aged 40 or older, with the above figures at 44 percentage in northern Japans Yamagata. This in turn raises questions about how the older drop out will support themselves when their aging parents die.
Economic Impact
Appropriate policies such as financial assistance and counseling could help transform hikikomori into members of the labor force, says Eriko Ito, a consultant at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo. This would boost overall economic output as well as help reduce spending on social welfare.
“We should change our thinking about supporting then, ” Ito says. “Its an investment , not a cost.”
Each welfare recipient was transformed into a taxpayer would add between 78 million yen ($ 702,000) and 98 million yen to the nations finances over their lifetime, according to calculations based on the latest available data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The governments plan is to support hikikomori and other young people with difficulties by making them more “independent.” It has set up counseling centres nationwide, and has support employees visiting those reluctant to leave home.
But reaching out may demonstrate tricky. More than 65 percent of the hikikomori surveyed said they werent keen on these services as they were concerned about not being able to communicate or reluctant to have other people notice them.
“Abes labor policy is putting pressure on hikikomori, ” the NPOs Asakura says. “Abe wants them to be great and achieve great results. Why cant they just pursue happiness instead? “
Read more: www.bloomberg.com
Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run
Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run
Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run
Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run
Why Half A Million Young Japanese Can't Face School Or Run