Hikikomori- The Global Epidemic?

 I love watching anime. Watching anime has been a part of my life since my childhood. I used to watch anime only for enjoying the fighting scenes when I was a child. I remember doing the hand signs used in one of my favorite anime, Naruto and saying "ino saru tori hitsuji.. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" which basically was the technique to summon a giant animal and all these words which seem random are basically the Japanese words for different animals. But nowadays, I love to watch anime with some good information that would teach me a lesson, Even though I have a keen interest on watching anime, I have not been watching any for a long time. But one of the recent anime I watched was "NHK ni Youkoso!" which is kind of an old anime about people with social withdrawal syndrome.

In this anime, the main character is a Hikikomori. Hikikomori is a Japanese term for defining a person who seeks an extreme degree of social isolation and confinement. In the anime, the main character, Tatsuhiro Satou, has dropped out of his college and he spends his entire time inside a room. He does not eat healthy, his sleep schedules are messed up, he does not clean and he does not work. He is afraid of crowd so he is confined to his small space. The main reason for him being a Hikikomori was the pressure he felt from his studies. A strange girl in the anime helps him regain his confidence and she also teaches him to deal with the crowd and how to have a basic conversation with people. Satou felt crazy and is afraid to travel alone. He used to think the gossips, the laughs, the stares, etc in public were meant to criticize him. So, he used to go out only when he had the company of that strange girl. After few weeks, he becomes much more comfortable in public and he finds an old friend whose brother, Yuuchi Kobayashi was also a Hikikomori, with much more extreme conditions than Satou. He was afraid even when the light bulb was switched on and he spent his time in a room like Satou but he was more involved in online games. He would not talk to anybody, not even his sister but he talks with Satou because Satou would be the only one to understand Kobayashi. The new hikikomori becomes the motivation for Satou to not become a hikikomori. The story ends with positive result for Satou.

Now, the main concern is if the education system has made the people lose their confidence in themselves. Most of the major achievers in the world are college dropouts and most of the under-achievers are also college dropouts. I think the main difference between them is the fact that the achievers quitted before the education got them discouraged but the under-achievers did not quit until the education really got them discouraged. Our "quality" education system measures the information retaining capacity of a person rather than other valuable aspects. The another reason for people to be a hikikomori could be the development of the virtual world. Most of our generations love to dive into games and virtual entertainment than being present in the physical world. Assuming the growth and development of new ways to get involved in the virtual world, more people will be neglecting the traditional ways to past time and this trend will only continue to grow.

The anime I watched really got me into thinking about "What would I do if I were to become a hikikomori?" I could not think any of the possible ways to help myself. Most of the people these days are suffering from depression, anxiety and are not fond of social interactions. I myself am not fond of crowdy places and I would rather play games all day inside my room than go outside with friends. Maybe it's just the choice of a person to not get involved socially. But the pressure which causes people to feel depressed and eventually quit the jobs and schools surely would not be the choice of any person. Some of these people even commit suicide and this is a huge problem. The Japanese government estimates over a million hikikomori and the number just keeps rising. It is not only in the case of Japan but other countries have similar studies too.

So what should we do to prevent ourselves from being a hikikomori? The answer is simple but very difficult to apply on our daily life. We should always be occupied with something creative.