After the stabbing of 17 schoolgirls and two adults at a bus stop near Tokyo last week, a shocked public has been grasping for answers as to what could possibly have driven someone to commit such a horrific act.
While there are extreme recluses in other countries, experts say the condition may be most pronounced in Japan, where a culture that emphasizes conformity prompts those who do not fit in to hide away. Although there have been other high-profile violent crimes involving hikikomori — in which they killed family members, or parents killed adult children who had lived as recluses for years — the correlation is still rare.
According to the government survey, an estimated 613,000 people between ages 40 and 64 identify as hikikomori, outnumbering the 540,000 between age 15 and 39. The vast majority of them are men. Kato said that Japan’s educational system, which emphasizes shame in its pursuit of conformity and can undermine personal confidence, may seed reclusive tendencies.
In the public imagination, mothers who spoil their sons are sometimes held to blame, while others point fingers at video game addiction or obsession with cartoons known as manga.
how is this possible? guns are banned in Japan.