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Japan's ‘Socially Withdrawn Youths’ and Time Constraints in Japanese Society

Management and conceptualization of time in a support group for ‘hikikomori’

Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford; sachiko.kaneko2005{at}gmail.com

This article discusses how time is conceptualized among hikikomori, or Japan’s so called ‘socially withdrawn youth’, through the narratives of hikikomori keikensha (those who experienced hikikomori) and also examines time and space management in hikikomorisupport context based on ethnographic data. Hikikomoriis an act of retreat from time and space constraints in society. Hikikomorisupport groups provide a place for them to be without feeling such time constraints, but this is not considered sufficient to get hikikomoriback into society. Hikikomori, which challenges the usual coordinates of time and space, may be understood as a kind of reaction to time pressures and role performances in Japanese society.

Key Words: ethnography • Japanese youth • narrative • social withdrawal • time constraints

Time & Society, Vol. 15, No. 2-3, 233-249 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0961463X06067034


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