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Hikikomori refers to a mental disorder that manifests as an extreme form of social withdrawal. Those afflicted (i.e., the Hikikomoris) may not go to work or school or leave their home at all, and they may not engage in face-to-face communication with anyone, including their own family members. Information Technology (IT) has been identified as one of the key catalysts of Hikikomori development. And yet, there remains a lack of knowledge on the precise mechanisms through which IT drives the development of this disorder. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a case study of the Yokayoka Hikikomori Support Center based in Fukuoka, Japan. Our findings reveal that IT influences Hikikomori development by presenting three forms of escapes - the Relational, Emotional, and Spiritual Escapes. Moreover, each escape is more important in a specific stage of Hikikomori development and impacts the social life of the afflicted differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The label of hikikomori, coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, describes an increasing trend of Japanese youth, primarily male, that shut out contact with society by hiding within their parents' homes for months or even years at a time. In the process, these youth become truants, failing out of school and work through their long absences from the outside world. Reentry into society in middle class adult roles proves a difficult barrier for recovered hikikomori due to institutional features of Japanese society. This paper examines Takeyama, a private rehabilitation institution for hikikomori located in Tokyo Japan. Over the three-year span of Takeyama's rehabilitation program, hikikomori youth from middle-class backgrounds are exposed to daily social rehabilitation structured around an idealized norm of conduct through group participation, routinization, and repetition. My central research question for this paper examines how the process of hikikomori rehabilitation observed at Takeyama involves gender and class socialization. Namely, the normalization of male hikikomori youth with middle class backgrounds into a viable adult masculine identity entwined with a working class future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]