Japan's Most Extreme Social Recluses: Hikikomori in their Personal Prison (Japanese Documentary)

These people exist solely to tell us to NOT give up and become losers like them.

About time to have a proper documentary on this phenomenon that isn't just based in Japan. I lived it in the West and knew it wasn't just a Japanese phenomenon, they were just ahead of the curve. Over the years I've watched as many documentaries as I could find on this subject, and this is the best constructed. Can't applaud it enough.
Let us work towards better integrated societies with insight and compassion. Now is the time.

There is one easy medecine: "Lift you fools" , just pump your muscles for 6-12 months, it helps a lot feeling stronger and independent in society.

Étant hikikomori beaucoup de jugement. Ma mère ne comprenait pas mon anxiété sociale ma dépression et mes crises d’angoisse. C’est extrêmement compliqué et chaque personne a ses raisons harcèlement scolaire anxiété ect… l’avantage au Japon ils existent des organisations qui peuvent aider mais en France aillant vu des docteurs c’est direct prenez des médicaments 💊 forcer vous même si je force je vais pas commencer à aimer comme ça c’est très complexe . Ce n’est pas de la mauvaise volonté de notre part, le fait de rester reclus est aussi une bulle qui nous protège d’une société qui nous comprend pas.

Videogames will rot your brain 🧠

That French kid should be out by himself and not in his parents’ home. He’s been coddled and he has learned to be helpless.

How is it suffering when it makes you feel good to be left alone? It’s society that’s the problem. This world is crazy.

I'm an American female hikikomori so for me
It's a choice, but mostly a societal problem. I really can't stand society and I gave up on it years ago. I'm very content being in my solitary life. Just because you don't agree with it, you shouldn't force someone to not be a hikikomori…

Sorry but what social pressure is that guy facing that makes it so hard for him to talk to his own mother, he can't socialize with his own family? This guy should just get kicked out of the house or move out if he can't stand dealing with anyone.

Untill we have a just, fair , equitable and inclusive society this won't go away and we can't medicate our way out of it either.
Society put all value and emphasis on money and high achiever's everyone else was left in the dust of pure unfettered immoral capitalism. And the world wonders why people don't want to participate in such shallow meaningless bullshit.
The mold was cast and anything that doesn't fit that mold is not acceptable.

Wish I could lay in bed all day and have someone foot the bill. Must b nice to not have to pay bills

This is so tragic, they are losing the best years of their lives. We, in middle America, were told we were “out at 18” and off we went! The launch was difficult and we did without for a long time, but we were so proud to be out on our own! Also, “video gaming” is not a degree-that’s a joke. If the kid isn’t smart enough to major in accounting or engineering then go to a trade school. They call it work because it pays the bills, it’s not for your enjoyment.

We've had hermits for millennia. When it was tethered to a religious ideology it was seen as acceptable - often lauded. Now that there doesn't appear to be an ideological underpinning, it's becoming medicalised. Why not turn the whole thing round and ask the question, 'is the world really so wonderful that one must be mad not to want to be out in it?' In essence our species (or more its precursors) evolved to move around the East African Rift Valley in familial or extended familial groups, and the 'civilised' world is something of aberration in the 200,000 year history of Homo sapiens. The whole phenomenon of the Hikikomori was first observed in Japan and I don't think this is any accident. It's a wonder that anyone would feel comfortable surrounded by 35 million people in the Tokyo-Yokohama conurbation and it's a testimony to human adaptability that most just get on with it - though whether they are happy with it is another question. Perhaps we can learn from the Hikikomori and their experience - after all, as the density of population in our ever more pressured, stressed and unhappy world becomes greater, more and more of us are doubtless going to be just like them. Perhaps it's the arrogant and self-satisfied outside world that needs to change as much as the Hikikomori - who might not be as mad or as much of a social problem as we think they are?

We are human beings. Some are introverts, others are extroverts. We are pack animals. Research has shown that the lack of social contacts makes us mentally ill. Some people are prisoners of their own depressions. They are truly lost there way and urgently need help.

Hikikomori here for almost 7 years.

Well, the solution is right there. it's on the tip of the tongue of everyone, nobody is just going to say it. Trash their stuff. Phones, computers. Stop enabling them. See what they do.

how can they pay their electric bill and food every day if they are always in the room?

I can’t hear anything because of the stupid background piano music.

Good luck with your channel

I think you should cover the name of person who died from Hikikomori from the social ID

The world and its troubles have become to overwhelming for them so they remove themselves from the world.

depressed individuals with basic needs provider (enabler), thats what separates hikkikomori from other depressed people who has to force themselves to function to pay the bills.

It took me like 3 minutes to try and figure out why I was understanding some of these Japanese words. LMAO

Shut the power off, watch them come out of their rooms and be part of society again. Electronics are consuming these people. They think they have a life in the virtual world but they are so lost.

Yup, I’m that. However, if I was on the flip side, all hell would brake loose, and would not tolerate this shi’.

sadly this is not just Japan...

6 years hikki here, lifes good

Tristia & Acedia comes from depression. Which are sins God hates, that we must repent to Jesus to be saved from.

This is not a medical condition to be treated with medication! Listen to the woman talking about "you dont have a son anymore" See? Our atitude is that we have, we have children, we have a job, we have money, we have a career, we have, we have, but we are nothing. We are nothing to this system but production factors population, voters, consumers, we are not us. From childhood on we are told to be productive, what does that mean, consume, work to consume. We instinctively want to be, but rarely can we. My generation, those who are now in their 50+ years, we put up with it. We took the abuse from our parents, from work, from family and society as general, we took drugs and drank to help ease the pain when it became too much. There are many, many out there who are sick of this system, sick of being played, sick of being blamed for things they never chose. Scociety is sick, stressed and empty and no medication can cure this. The young, who are still alive see this better then anyone, they withdraw in disgust. The older become angressive and cynical, lashing out and hurting where they can. Some become greedy, every one has their way to deal with this. Maybe we should be more understanding and search ourselves, maybe we should open our eyes to those sick games that are being played with us.

36 here i became a hermit when i was 27 i live in the netherlands

I only just came by this condition called Hikikomori.
I didnt realise that there's a name for what I have done since being a child. I relate a great deal to the feelings behind this isolation. The therapist with the long gey hair said that she had treated clients who would urinate in a receptacle rather than leave their room.
Its a shutting down, to move hurts, appears insurmountable.
You chip away at your world in order to make it smaller and there4 more manageable. It comes from a feeling of being lost, or from loss itself.
The man at near the end says.. if he were to be around ppl for too long, he would go crazy.. he needs to rest afterwards to digest the earlier interactions with people. Again that was/is me today and way back when I was a child.
I think this condition is triggered by some sort of trauma. Personally speaking I experienced this as a child and my escape was to invent these episodes of a story that I made up in my imagination, this allowed me to inhabit an imaginary alter life, and I would dip back into it when needed. Again this reminds me of the Hikikomori position. And to reduce your world and control it with whatever, usually the gaming, the internet is involved as it allows a person to communicate but from a distance/and sometime with a anon ID.
Basically I feel this stems from a powerful drive to avoid pain. The affected have realised that pain is other people, and there4 they have withdrawn their participation.

most of the time, it's the parent's fault.

Japan caused all this. I sadly don't feel pity for the recluses. If they don't want help, we can't force them.


It's a big dilemma.

Sheesh. My parents are good people, but there’s no freakin way they’d let me lock myself in my room, and refuse to work because of “anxiety”. Even though I’d love to some days. Some of us aren’t privileged enough to afford staying with mum and dad.

being adult work pay sleep consume alchool animal corpse secretions oils materialism debpt?
ill stay a kid no thx lol

the background music is too loud, annoying

The AI narration is really distracting. It often gets word and phrase stresses wrong and it's clear it's not a native speaker.

I think they're extremely shy and sensitive.

i hope everyone that needs it are getting help i am of the mind i never want to quit being a recluse i cant wait till i never have to come out but that cant happen because i medical problems i just want to be alone and i like it

The internet is the problem, people aren't helping each other anymore. People are not there anymore you need more than your wife/husband or parents.

That was sad how it didn't occur to her to go and see why her 58 year father could not get delivery of the cell phone, and/or visit him, just in general. But that also happens in the US as well, people don't want to be bothered anymore.

It’s a straight-forward computer addiction. Symptoms are everything listed here, the most definitive being the INABILITY TO TAKE ACTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD. There’s a simple solution, of course.

that french lady made him feel heard, I couldn't handle a case like this with my temperament ( good thing i'm not a shrink), but I'd try making him understand that he is loved and he is a valued member of society.

They are internet addicts so they can’t leave their room. Stay up all night and sleep during the day. Avoiding real human contact but are able to talk to their online friends. It’s an avoidant personality disorder. Take away the computer and internet. They can go to a computer cafe for their addiction at least they can come out of their room, walk outside. See life. Then you will see the addiction that creates avoidance. Staying inside only makes it worse and allows them to continue avoiding and just doing pleasures of dopamine. My mum helped my brother who did this for 5 years. Parents haven’t done anything wrong what they are doing is enabling them to be this way. Indulgent lifestyle.. my brother goes to an internet cafe, buys his own food, goes to JuJitsu and his computer is now in the living room as there is no power point in his bedroom. It worked


‘They cut all contact from me’ that’s a victim mentality. Hiki cut off from other people focusing on themselves. Expecting their family to know how to cope with that.

This is something an "Only child" can pull off 😒 because he knows you can't and won't kick him out and then he decides to take advantage of it... My American 🇺🇸 parents would have kicked my ass outta the house so fast it's not even funny.

Seems to affect man🤔

They’re parents are very understanding. I know my parents would yell at me like crazy

This is a societal issue worldwide.