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A Sociology of Hikikomori

Author: Teppei Sekimizu
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666900958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Hikikomori, which literally means “withdrawal,” is considered an increasingly prevalent form of social isolation in Japanese society. This issue has been attracting worldwide attention for two decades. Based on interviews with people who have experienced it, Teppei Sekimizu explores what the hikikomori experience is like from a sociological perspective. He also examines the characteristics of four decades of hikikomori discourse by governments, professionals, and mass media; the difficulties faced by parents with hikikomori children; and the social policy which has relegated most provision of welfare for citizens to the private sector. Through these examinations, the author illustrates how the exclusive labor market and familial social policies create masses of family-dependent and isolated individuals in contemporary Japan. A Sociology of Hikikomori leads the reader to a deeper understanding of the manifold hikikomori phenomenon and Japanese society itself.

Mental Health and Social Withdrawal in Contemporary Japan

Author: Nicolas Tajan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351260782
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This book examines the phenomenon of social withdrawal in Japan, which ranges from school non-attendance to extreme forms of isolation and confinement, known as hikikomori. Based on extensive original research including interview research with a range of practitioners involved in dealing with the phenomenon, the book outlines how hikikomori expresses itself, how it is treated and dealt with and how it has been perceived and regarded in Japan over time. The author, a clinical psychologist with extensive experience of practice, argues that the phenomenon although socially unacceptable is not homogenous, and can be viewed not as a mental disorder, but as an idiom of distress, a passive and effective way of resisting the many great pressures of Japanese schooling and of Japanese society more widely. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351260800, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CCBY-NC-ND) licence.

A Sociology of Japanese Youth

Author: Roger Goodman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 041566926X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
This book puts forth a sociology of Japanese youth problems showing that the Japanese media draw on an equally, if not more, perplexing gallery of social categories when it discusses youth than affluent Western societies such as the US or UK and that Japan is no less replete with social problems involving young people and no less capable of generating hysteria over the fate of its youth than affluent Western societies such as the US or UK.

Hikikomori

Author: Tamaki Saitō
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816654581
Category : Social distance
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the first English translation of a controversial Japanese best seller that made the public aware of the social problem of hikikomori, or "withdrawal"--a phenomenon estimated by the author to involve as many as one million Japanese adolescents and young adults who have withdrawn from society, retreating to their rooms for months or years and severing almost all ties to the outside world. Saitō Tamaki's work of popular psychology provoked a national debate about the causes and extent of the condition. Since Hikikomori was published in Japan in 1998, the problem of social withdrawal has increasingly been recognized as an international one, and this translation promises to bring much-needed attention to the issue in the English-speaking world. According to the New York Times, "As a hikikomori ages, the odds that he'll re-enter the world decline. Indeed, some experts predict that most hikikomori who are withdrawn for a year or more may never fully recover. That means that even if they emerge from their rooms, they either won't get a full-time job or won't be involved in a long-term relationship. And some will never leave home. In many cases, their parents are now approaching retirement, and once they die, the fate of the shut-ins--whose social and work skills, if they ever existed, will have atrophied--is an open question." Drawing on his own clinical experience with hikikomori patients, Saitō creates a working definition of social withdrawal and explains its development. He argues that hikikomori sufferers manifest a specific, interconnected series of symptoms that do not fit neatly with any single, easily identifiable mental condition, such as depression. Rejecting the tendency to moralize or pathologize, Saitō sensitively describes how families and caregivers can support individuals in withdrawal and help them take steps toward recovery. At the same time, his perspective sparked contention over the contributions of cultural characteristics--including family structure, the education system, and gender relations--to the problem of social withdrawal in Japan and abroad.

Solitary Non-Employed Persons

Author: Yuji Genda
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811377871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
This book is devoted to offering a new concept of non-employment caused by social exclusion. Among labor economic studies, it is the first attempt to investigate the conditions of jobless persons who have completely lost opportunities for daily communication with others. The new concept provided by this book is “solitary non-employed persons (SNEP).” SNEP are defined as non-employed persons who are normally entirely alone or do not spend time with people other than their family. According to a detailed time-use survey in Japan, SNEP make up almost 70 % of single, jobless persons aged 20 to 59. The number of SNEP doubled in the 2000s. As a serious issue for non-employment, economists and sociologists have focused on long-term unemployed persons and persons “not in education, employment, or training” (NEET), which include discouraged persons resigning from work. These serious non-employment issues are attributable to and further aggravated by the isolation experienced by the SNEP. Social withdrawal—that is, the hikikomori who stay indoors—is one notable feature of Japanese youth problems in many cases. Large numbers of the middle-aged jobless Japanese also currently shut themselves in their rooms. The objective approach by the SNEP concept enables us to understand the reality of these withdrawn persons who are now growing in number in many countries. A continuous increase in the number of SNEP will cause several difficulties in society and the economy. SNEP will not make their own livings after the deaths of their families, causing social security costs and financial deficits to further accumulate in the efforts to help them. A shortage of an attractive labor force will accelerate in the future due to the expansion of SNEP within the young and middle-aged populations. This book proposes appropriate policies to prevent an increase in SNEP in such a way as to generate skilled professionals, as well as to reach out and support them. It will contribute to developing studies for jobless people closely involved in social exclusion, and to finding universal and effective solutions for their inclusion.

Precarious Japan

Author: Anne Allison
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822377241
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In an era of irregular labor, nagging recession, nuclear contamination, and a shrinking population, Japan is facing precarious times. How the Japanese experience insecurity in their daily and social lives is the subject of Precarious Japan. Tacking between the structural conditions of socioeconomic life and the ways people are making do, or not, Anne Allison chronicles the loss of home affecting many Japanese, not only in the literal sense but also in the figurative sense of not belonging. Until the collapse of Japan's economic bubble in 1991, lifelong employment and a secure income were within reach of most Japanese men, enabling them to maintain their families in a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Now, as fewer and fewer people are able to find full-time work, hope turns to hopelessness and security gives way to a pervasive unease. Yet some Japanese are getting by, partly by reconceiving notions of home, family, and togetherness.

Home and Family in Japan

Author: Richard Ronald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136888861
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
In the Japanese language the word ‘ie’ denotes both the materiality of homes and family relations within. The traditional family and family house - often portrayed in ideal terms as key foundations of Japanese culture and society - have been subject to significant changes in recent years. This book comprehensively addresses various aspects of family life and dwelling spaces, exploring how homes, household patterns and kin relations are reacting to contemporary social, economic and urban transformations, and the degree to which traditional patterns of both houses and households are changing. The book contextualises the shift from the hegemonic post-war image of standard family life, to the nuclear family and to a situation now where Japanese homes are more likely to include unmarried singles; childless couples; divorcees; unmarried adult children and elderly relatives either living alone or in nursing homes. It discusses how these new patterns are both reinforcing and challenging typical understandings of Japanese family life.

Trauma and Dissociation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Author: George F Rhoades Jr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136451838
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
An international look at the similarities and differences of long-lasting trauma Trauma and Dissociation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective examines the psychological, sociological, political, economic, and cultural aspects of trauma and its consequences on people around the world. Dispelling the myth that trauma-related dissociative disorders are a North American phenomenon, this unique book travels through more than a dozen countries to analyze the effects of long-lasting traumatization-both natural and man-made-on adults and children. Working from theoretical and clinical perspectives, the field’s leading experts address trauma in situations that range from the psychological effects of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland to the emergence of “Hikikomori,” the phenomenon of social withdrawal in Japanese youth. Reactions to trauma can be both unique according to a person’s culture and similar to the experiences of others around the world. Dissociation, intense grief, anger, and survivor’s guilt are common responses as people split off mentally, physically, and emotionally from the source of the trauma, whether it’s an act of nature (tsunami, earthquake, flood, etc.) or the trauma created by violence, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, assault, confinement, kidnapping, and war. Trauma and Dissociation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective examines the efforts of clinicians and researchers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Australia, and New Zealand to develop sociopsychological methods of providing counseling to people who are suffering physically, emotionally and spiritually, training for professionals counted on to dispense that counseling, and economic and political solutions that might help to limit the devastating effects of natural disasters. Trauma and Dissociation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective examines: the tensions between the National Health Service and the private sector in the United Kingdom how the Mandarin version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) is used in China Djinnai, a culture-bound syndrome and possession trance disorder found in Iran how colonialism has transmitted trauma to the Maori people of New Zealand transgenerational trauma in Turkey religious rituals and spirit possession in the Philippines “memory wars” in Israel traumatic syndromes among the French differences in dissociative experiences among Chinese and Japanese youth childhood trauma in Argentina and much more Trauma and Dissociation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective is an enlightening professional resource for anyone working in psychology, sociology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy.

Life Course, Happiness and Well-being in Japan

Author: Barbara Holthus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135196917X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
Much of the existing literature on happiness in Japan has been produced in the field of economics and psychology and is quantitative in nature. Here, for the first time, a group of anthropologists and sociologists jointly analyze the state of happiness and unhappiness in Japan among varying social groups in its physical, interpersonal, existential and structural dimensions, offering new insights into fundamental issues. This book investigates the connections between sociostructural aspects, individual agency and happiness in contemporary Japan from a life course perspective. The contributors examine quantitative and qualitative empirical data on the processes that impact how happiness and well-being are envisioned, crafted, and debated in Japan across the life-cycle. Therefore, the book discusses the shifting notions of happiness during people’s lives from birth to death, analyzing the age group-specific experiences while taking into consideration people’s life trajectories and historical changes. It points out recent developments in regards to demographic change, late marriage, and the changing labor market and focuses on their significant impact on the well-being of Japanese people. In particular it highlights the interdependencies of lives within the family and how families are collaborating for the purpose of maintaining or enhancing the happiness of its members. Broadening our understanding of the multidimensionality of happiness in Japan, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology.

Hidden Youth and the Virtual World

Author: Gloria Hongyee Chan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317513258
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Hidden Youth and the Virtual World examines the phenomenon of ‘hidden youth’ or hikikomori, as it is better known in Japan as well as Hong Kong. Exposure to the Internet has allowed these young persons to develop a high level of capability within the virtual world, however these are skills that are not highly valued by society. This book uncovers the truth about hidden youth, the causes, coping strategies, power relations between them and adults in society, and their relationship with the virtual world. Key topics surrounding the phenomenon of hidden youth are explored in detail, including: The framework of Social Censure Theory The theoretical concepts of hegemony and the impact that labelling by the Government, the media and institutions has had on hidden youth The willingness of the hidden youth to remain hidden within the virtual world Subcultures as a platform for hidden youth empowerment This is a particularly useful volume to researchers in child and adolescent psychology, clinical psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, school psychology, sociology, social work, and youth policy; as well as youth workers, school counsellors and mental health professionals, and will appeal to the interest of both academics and practitioners alike.