Sorry about the delay posting… My computer is completely broken, and I’ll have to use Adam’s throughout the trip.

I arrived in Japan two days ago and, after a train ride to dinner and a train ride back, I promptly fell asleep. I did, however, manage to watch a documentary on Hikkomori syndrome.

One case in the documentary stayed in one room in her house for almost a year and, since her bathroom was outside of this single room, she “bathed” by wiping her whole body with tissues. She used eight packs of tissues a day. In Japan, a surprisingly large number of people have withdrawn from society completely, and decided to live alone indoors for months or ears at a time with no human contact. It’s a classified as an extreme form of depression (possibly due to anxiety), and it sometimes confines to tiny spaces. The number of persons reported to suffer from Hikkomori syndrome varies from source to source, but the phenomenon is a definite presence in Japanese society.

The main question is: why hasn’t Hikkomori syndrome come to the United States? Will it ever make its way out of Japan?

One case involved a man who became obsessed with his job search. After failing to find the “perfect” job, he decided to withdraw from his job and stay in his room, leaving only in the middle of the night to find food. Perhaps it was social pressure to find a job that caused the syndrome to take hold. However, job-related pressures are more or less universal. So what’s up?

Hikkomori syndrome is an example of how little we know about ourselves as a species. It’s a case-in-point to those who believe that every disease, ailment or illness possible has been uncovered and documented. Hikkomori wasn’t reported until relatively recently, and the syndrome is suddenly in the national vocabulary.