In 1998, the Internet was in its infancy but growing fast. So, too was a mental health phenomenon called hikikomori — a name for extreme social withdrawal and isolation — that the rise of the Internet may well have helped feed.
That same year, Tamaki Saito coined the term from the Japanese “hiki,” which means pulling inward or withdrawing, and “komori,” which means being confined or being inside. Saito first applied it to a patient who had socially withdrawn for six months, then popularized the term in his book Social Withdrawal – Adolescence Without End.
Since then, the Internet has taken control of more aspects of our lives. And cases of hikikomori have spread globally — sometimes affecting 1-2 percent of a country’s population. Extreme and long-term social withdrawal, often fueled by the Internet, has now become a globally recognized mental health problem.
As both cases and awareness of hikikomori have risen, so have several crucial questions: How can you identify it? What causes it? How can it be treated? And the most important question: Is hikikomori a unique condition unto itself, or a combination of mental health comorbidities — diseases or conditions that often occur together? How that question is answered has implications for how the condition is diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
