just wrapped up my final assignment of my undergrad career. it’s a research paper about hikikomori, the phenomenon of japanese shut-ins that’s been increasing since the 1990s, written for my east asian culture class. i’m very interested in the subject, so i got special permission to write a different essay than the one that was assigned to the rest of the class (basically tying together all of the reading assignments for the semester).

i had a hiki phase, from about age 18-21. it was a really dark time for me, and i reflect on it a lot – i’m deeply afraid of falling back into the lifestyle, because it’s very seductive to me. even now, in a relatively functional phase of my life, i spend most of my time sitting on my computer in my apartment and rarely go to social events or see friends. the main difference is that now i have a girlfriend, and i’ve been attending university for the last few years.

the paper is here, pardon the handful of typos that are still in that version. excerpt:

The concept of hikikomori is a perhaps too easy to confine to a mere diagnostic criteria or strange culture-bound syndrome. Beyond these labels there is a deeper context of Japanese cultural practices, the smothered expectations of young men, and the social detritus cast aside as the Japanese tiger falters in its long recession. As connectivity accelerates, linking disparate individuals as it fuels anomie and subverts traditional social structures, we in the west should not be surprised if we find our young people following the paths forged by the hikikomori in the wake of recessions, globalized industrial outsourcing, and a low-security job markets in many regions. We may look for lessons to preempt these challenges by examining the previous two and a half decades of scrutiny by social scientists, clinicians and media with regards to the hikikomori.