Hikikomori

In Japan, Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠り, Hikikomori^?, literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. Hikikomori refers to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves. Hikikomori have been described as loners or "modern-day hermits."

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare defines hikikomori as people who refuse to leave their house and thus isolate themselves from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months. The psychiatrist Tamaki Saitō defines hikikomori as "a state that has become a problem by the late twenties, that involves cooping oneself up in one's own home and not participating in society for six months or longer, but that does not seem to have another psychological problem as its principal source".

More recently, researchers have suggested six specific criteria required to "diagnose" hikikomori:

While other critics point to cultural frameworks, Professor Flavio Rizzo of the University of Tokyo defines them as "post-modern hermits" whose solitude stems from ancestral desires for withdrawal.

While the degree of the phenomenon varies on an individual basis, in the most extreme cases, some people remain in isolation for years or even decades. Often hikikomori start out as school refusals, or futōkō (不登校^?) in Japanese (an older term is tōkōkyohi (登校拒否^?).

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Wikipedia