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Hikikomori: The Japanese Cabinet Office's 2016 Survey of Acute Social Withdrawal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Nicolas Tajan
Affiliation:
Kyoto University Institute for Research in Humanities, Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo-ku, 605-8501 Kyoto, Japan
Hamasaki Yukiko
Affiliation:
Kyoto Women's University, Faculty for the Study of Contemporary Society, 35, Kitahiyoshi-cho, Imakumano, Higashiyama-ku, 605-8501 Kyoto, Japan
Nancy Pionnié-Dax
Affiliation:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, EPS ERASME, 143 avenue Armand Guillebaud, 92160 Antony, France
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Abstract

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In September 2016, the Cabinet Office of Japan published the results of an epidemiological survey focusing on acute social withdrawal (hikikomori). This article summarizes and assesses the major features of the survey. It aims at facilitating research and international exchanges on a mental health and social problem affecting at least 541,000 people in Japan that seems to have spread to industrialized societies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2017

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