Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 33, No. 10, 2014, pp.

918-935

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

TO CONFORM OR TO MAINTAIN
SELF-CONSISTENCY? HIKIKOMORI RISK
IN JAPAN AND THE DEVIATION FROM
SEEKING HARMONY
Vinai Norasakkunkit
Gonzaga University
Yukiko Uchida
Kyoto University
There is an increasing number of youth in Japan who are dropping out of society
and isolating themselves in their bedrooms from years to decades at a time. These
so-called hikikomori or social isolates have been described by Japanese clinicians
as suffering most commonly from an autism spectrum disorder. However, such
claims come out of examining biased samples of hikikomori who have already
been referred to mental health professionals. Alternatively, we argue that the tendency for hikikomori represents an increasing marginalization of Japanese youth
who are consciously rejecting dominant cultural values of harmony-seeking and
consequently deviating in their motivation to conform to others behaviors. The
current study tests for this alternative argument for hikikomori tendencies. One
hundred ninety-five participants were recruited from Japanese universities and
divided into high risk vs. low risk of becoming hikikomori according to an instrument that measures such risks. As expected, high risk students shared similar
social perceptions about pervasive values in their society as low risk students,
thereby ruling out deficits in social perception as being associated with hikikomori risk. Instead, high risk students were not motivated to conform to others
behaviors relative to low risk students and this difference was fully mediated by
differences in preferred levels of harmony-seeking. Furthermore, high risk students scored lower on both local identity and global identity relative to low risk
students, thereby reifying their marginalized identity in Japanese society.
This study was supported by grants from the Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto
University and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 2109215.
The authors would like to thank Keiko Ishii and Yuri Yano for their help with data
collection.
Address correspondence to Vinai Norasakkunkit at the Department of Psychology,
Gonzaga University, 502 East Boone Avenue, Spokane, WA 99258-0102; E-mail:
vinainor@me.com.
2014 Guilford Publications, Inc.

918

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

919

You cant pinpoint the reason, but you can pinpoint the context: its Japan. In Japan you have to be like other people, and if
you arent, you have a sense of loss, of shame. So you disappear.

Sadatsugu Kudo, Director of Youth Support Center

which fields about 1,500 calls a year from families

seeking help about their hikikomori children.
(Time Magazine, August 28, 2000)

HIKIKOMORI AND DSM DIAGNOSES

There is an increasing number of youth in Japan who are dropping
out of society and isolating themselves in their bedrooms from years
to decades at a time. According to Japans Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfares first official 2003 guidelines on this culture-bound
syndrome, hikikomori (social isolation syndrome) has the following
specific diagnostic criteria: (1) no motivation to participate in school
or work; (2) no signs of schizophrenia or any other known psychopathologies; and (3) persistence of social withdrawal for at least six
months. Indeed, most hikikomori individuals avoid any and all social contact, including interactions with their own family members
despite most of them shutting themselves in their own bedrooms in
their parents home. It is an affliction that mostly affects young Japanese men (Koyama et al., 2010), although there are some women
and older people who suffer from this syndrome as well. Currently,
the lifetime prevalence rate of hikikomori is about 4.6% of Japanese
youth ages 1534 who suffer, which is estimated to be more than
1.2 million young individuals (Norasakkunkit, Uchida, & Toivonen,
2012). The afflicted have been known to shut themselves in from six
months to even decades at a time (Zielenziger, 2006).
One obvious dilemma in studying hikikomori is that most of those
suffering from hikikomori, by definition, do not seek treatment. More
importantly, social isolation itself is not even a symptom of any of
the DSM diagnosis often assigned to an individual afflicted with
hikikomori, other than for agoraphobia. Even so, the motivation for
isolating oneself for an agoraphobic is to avoid a possible panic attack in public (DSM IVTR). The motivation for isolating oneself
among a hikikomori is simply to avoid possible social interactions
with others who might know or judge them (Zielenziger, 2006).
Indeed, many hikikomori individuals have been known to venture
outside the home in the middle of the night, often to spend time at
a convenience store because they know that it is unlikely that they

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NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

will encounter someone familiar at that time (Zielenziger, 2006).

The second major concern with relying only on clinical samples is
that patients have been referred to a mental health facility or clinic
because they have already been identified as suffering from a DSM
disorder. Thus, such samples may be biased.
Despite such concerns about making generalizations from clinical
samples of those suffering from hikikomori, in 2010, Japans Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfares updated their guidelines to
include individual psychopathology as a primary cause. This update was largely due to the work of Kazuhiko Saito. Saito (2010)
who collected data from 125 hikikomori who sought treatment at
government run Mental Health Welfare Centers in Japan. According to Saitos data, hikikomori individuals often met criteria for one
or another DSM-IV diagnosis. In his hikikomori sample, he found
that 27% suffered from an autism spectrum disorder, 22% suffered
from an anxiety disorder, 18% suffered from a personality disorder,
14% suffered from a mood disorder, 8% suffered from a psychotic
disorder, 6% suffered from adjustment disorder, and only 5% was
not otherwise specific (NOS). Thus, the most common diagnoses
among clinical samples of hikikomori were autism spectrum disorders and anxiety disorders. More recently, when mothers were interviewed about their hikikomori children, the most common diagnosis again was an autism spectrum disorder with about a third of
these patients being assigned this diagnosis (Sakai et al., 2011).
Saitos (2010) and Sakai and colleagues (2011) data suggest that
10% to 15% of the hikikomori population suffer from an autism spectrum disorder. However, such proportions may not be replicable.
For example, Norasakkunkit and Uchida (2010) recruited a sample
of hikikomori youth through a Youth Support Center whose parents
cooperation were solicited to pass on a survey packet that included
various mental health measures to their withdrawn adult children.
This sample was compared with an elite university student sample
and no differences were found in the levels of autism spectrum quotient or anxiety tendencies (i.e., social avoidance and distress, fear
of negative evaluation, taijinkyofushoa type of social anxiety mostly bound to Japanese culture, and post-traumatic stress). Having
said that, somewhat elevated levels of depression and borderline
personality tendencies, as well as somewhat lower levels of global
functioning, were present among the hikikomori sample relative to
the university student sample, although these levels were not clinically significant.

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

921

Moreover, in the first epidemiological study conducted on hikikomori that was as close to a nation-wide random sample as possible,
Koyama and colleagues (2010) conducted a face-to-face household
survey, including a structured diagnostic interview, by randomly
picking households and interviewing 4,134 individuals. They confirmed a hikikomori lifetime prevalence rate of 1.2% in their nationwide sample. Among these hikikomori individuals, the researchers
found that only half suffered from a DSM-IV diagnosis. However,
and more importantly, there was no particular diagnosis that was
systematically associated with hikikomori. For the remaining half of
hikikomori individuals, no DSM diagnosis could even be assigned.
Thus, the researchers concluded that any DSM diagnosis was an
epiphenomenon to hikikomori at best and that hikikomori is rather a
psychopathology characterized by impaired motivation (p. 72).

HIKIKOMORI AS A SOCIAL PATHOLOGY

Recently, we (Norasakkunkit & Uchida, 2011; Norasakkunkit &
Uchida, 2012; Norasakkunkit, Uchida, & Toivonen, 2012; Toivonen,
Norasakkunkit, & Uchida, 2011) have provided some evidence
and theoretical grounds for the argument that hikikomori is part of
a larger set of youth problems that stem from a misalignment between mainstream Japanese institutional practices and postindustrial pressures to make structural and ideological changes so that
Japan can become more competitive in the global marketplace. Put
more simply, hikikomori and other recent social problems in Japan
(i.e., underemployment of youth, decreasing population size, womens increasing reluctance to get married and/or have children, etc.)
may be arising from the fact that Japanese cultural practices are not
keeping up with rapid societal changes due to globalization and
postindustrialization processes. In particular, institutional resistance to postindustrial pressures include protecting long-standing
institutional cultural practices such as adhering to a seniority system or engaging in corporate hiring practices that tightly control
and curb entry into the long-term labor market to protect the job
security of senior elites. Maintaining such protective cultural practices which are clashing with the globalization pressures to be more
competitive, horizontal, and flexible in the labor market comes at
an increasing social cost born mostly by young Japanese who are
systematically prevented from attaining secure and stable social

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NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

spaces in the Japanese labor market (see also Brinton, 2011). Since
many youth are prevented from participating in mainstream Japanese society while very little, if any, legitimately recognized alternative life course to success is available to them, a sense of anomie
ensues. Consequently, many Japanese youth may not see the benefit
of internalizing a motivational style that is oriented toward conformity for the sake of harmony. Nor have they become globalized
by adopting the values of another culture (e.g., Western culture).
Hence, they may be rejecting mainstream cultural values without
switching to other values in a coherent way. Thus any motivation
to act in culturally incongruent ways may be an outcome of their
actual or anticipated marginalization rather than a cause of it.
After having ruled out any systematic link between hikikomori
and any DSM diagnosis, Koyama and colleagues (2010) boldly concluded that hikikomori is a psychopathology of impaired motivation.
More recently, Norasakkunkit and colleagues (2012) have argued
that hikikomori is more of a social pathology than a psychopathology
since the cause of the pathology lies more in the structural aspects
of society, which limit the institutional means to accomplishing
cultural goals for many Japanese youth (see Toivonent, Norasakkunkit, & Uchida, 2011). Since impaired motivation implies a deficit
in capacity as opposed to a conscious choice, Norasakkunkit and
colleagues have argued that the motivation among hikikomori is not
necessarily impaired but rather deviant from the Japanese cultural
mandate toward conformity for the sake of harmony. Yet, because
the social reality in Japan limits multiple paths to cultural success,
at least relative to other postindustrialized societies, such deviant values and motivational styles may actually be dysfunctional
and distressing for those with such tendencies, even to the point of
wanting to avoid all interactions with the outside world.

RATIONALE AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES OF THE CURRENT

STUDY
Although there is some empirical basis for the above social pathology argument (see Norasakkunkit & Uchida, 2011), the role of being
motivated to dissociate from conformity and harmony expectations
for those with hikikomori tendencies has not been more systematically tested. The current study attempted to do just that. Specifically,
the current study attempted to investigate the motivation toward
conforming to others for social harmony reasons among university

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

923

students who are at risk of becoming hikikomori and students at low

risk of becoming hikikomori, according to a marginalization risk factor scale (Uchida & Norasakkunkit, 2011) that was developed for a
previous study.
With respect to measuring preferred values and social cognitive
deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders, the current
study employed a harmony seeking values scale standardized on a
Japanese sample. Each participant was asked to evaluate each item
on the harmony seeking values scale at three levels: (1) self, (2) ideal
self, and (3) other people in their society in general (i.e., perceived
consensus). Preferred values were operationalized as harmony
seeking values at the ideal self level. Also, perceiving and understanding common beliefs requires a well intact theory of mind (Tomassello, 1999), which is not likely if one is afflicted with an autism spectrum disorder because such disorders are associated with
at least a certain degree of theory of mind deficits (Tager-Flusberg,
2007). Thus, anybody with an autism spectrum disorder should not
only have deficits in the capacity to perceive socially shared perceptions but would also have deficits in the capacity to be concerned
about such perceptions. Therefore, any differences between high
risk students and low risk students in levels of perceived consensus of harmony-seeking values may possibly indicate deficits in
perceiving pervasive values in society while no such differences
should indicate that the role of such deficits being associated with
hikikomori risk is unlikely.
With respect to operationalizing the motivation to conform for
harmony seeking reasons, Cialdini, Wosinka, Barrett, Butner, and
Gornik-Durose (1999) found that the motivation to comply with
a request to complete a survey was greater for individuals in an
interdependent-oriented society when they believed that most of
their classmates have complied with similar requests (social proof)
than when they believed that they had generally complied to similar requests in the past (commitment consistency), while this pattern was reversed for people in an independent-oriented society.
Cialdini and colleagues study was replicated in the current study
to compare high risk students with low risk students on their motivations to conform. It was expected that the compliance of low
risk students will be motivated by social proof (i.e., social conformity), while compliance for high risk students will deviate from such
motivations and may even be oriented more toward commitment
consistency (i.e., nonconformity) relative to low risk students. Fur-

924

NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

thermore, the difference between high risk and low risk students
in motivation to conform under conditions of social proof was expected to be mediated by levels of harmony seeking values at the
ideal self level.
Finally, according to the acculturation and adaptation model by
Berry and Sam (1997), marginalized individuals should be disidentifying with their own heritage culture as well as that of their host
culture. Since the social pathology argument suggests that hikikomori individuals are marginalized in part because they are rejecting
mainstream cultural values without necessarily becoming globalized by adopting the values of another culture (e.g., Western culture), we have chosen to adapt the Barry and Sam model by measuring local identity and global identify. It was expected that high
risk students will score lower on both local identity and global identity relative to low risk students, thereby reifying the marginalized
identities of high risk students (see Figure 1).

METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
Since there are relatively few university students who score high
on the marginalization risk factor scale, participants were recruited
in three phases in order to maximize sample size. Unfortunately,
not all the measures could be included in phase two and phase
three since some of the measures relevant to this study were simply
tagged onto other studies during those phases. The specific measures that were excluded in each phase, if any, are mentioned in
the Materials section below. In phase one, 119 participants were recruited from Kyoto University (63 males, 53 females, 3 unspecified).
In phase two, another 22 participants were recruited from Kyoto
University again (11 males, 11 females). In phase 3, 54 participants
were recruited from Kobe University (33 males, 21 females). The age
ranged from 18 to 28 with an average age of 20.24 (SD = 1.56). All
participants were asked to complete a survey packet and received a
$10 gift card for participating in this study.
MEASURES
Hikikomori Risk Factor Scale (HRFS). The HRFS (Uchida & Norasakkunkit, under review) was developed by compiling common

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

925

FIGURE 1. Adapting Barry and Sams (2007) acculturation and

adaptation model to a globalization and adaptation model.

attitudes and values held by marginalized Japanese youth, including hikikomori, according to other investigators on the subject.
These items used a 7-point Likert scale. Initial analyses identified 27
meaningful survey items that measured the risk of becoming marginalized in modern Japan. Furthermore, three distinct risk factors
emerged in the initial exploratory factor analysis. Factor 1 was labeled Freeter Lifestyle Preference, which refers to the tendency of
becoming a Freeter who consciously chooses not to work despite
opportunities and job availabilities. An example of an item from
this factor is, After graduation, if there is something at work that I
cannot tolerate, it is better to not force myself and instead just quit.
The next factor that emerged, Factor 2, has to do with a Lack of Self
Competence (i.e., not feeling competent in accomplishing interdependent cultural tasks). An example of an item from this factor is,
My social skills are low, and I am not good at relating to others.
Factor 3 has to do with an Unclear Ambition for the Future (i.e.,
having unclear or unrealistic goals for what they want to do in the
future). An example of an item from this factor is, I dont quite
know what I want to do in the future.
Although these factors are relatively distinct from each other, a
reliability analysis also revealed that an overall score, combining all
the items, could be calculated to represent overall risk of becoming

926

NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

marginalized. In the current data, the reliability for the items that
make up the overall risk score was alpha = .81.
Norasakkunkit & Uchida (2010) found that university students
consistently score lower on all three factors as well as on the overall score relative to a nationwide sample of occupationally inactive
youth or the so-called NEETs (Not in Employment, Education, or
Training) and a small sample of those suffering from hikikomori. Furthermore, Norasakkunkit, Toivonen, and Uchida (2011) found that in
January of 2011, in a sample of fourth-year Kyoto University students
(n = 21), about 80% of students were searching for or had already secured a long-term employment position three months prior to their
graduation. However, these students were considered to be at low
risk of potentially being marginalized as NEETs or hikikomori according to HRFS. In contrast, in a sample of fourth year Kyoto University
students who were at high risk of being marginalized according to
HRFS (n = 5), the rate of searching for a job or securing a long-term
employment position three months prior to graduation was 0%.
This measure was included in all three phases of data collection.
Willingness to Comply (WTC). The WTC (Cialdini et al., 1999) is a
marketing survey that comes in two versions. Participants are asked
how much they were willing to comply to completing a marketing
survey on a scale from 0 (very low likelihood) to 8 (very high likelihood). One version of the survey asked the participants to rate their
likelihood of complying to a request assuming that the majority of
their classmates have already complied (i.e., conformity or social
proof version). The other version of this survey asked participants to
rate their likelihood of complying to the request assuming that they
have complied to a similar survey in the past (commitment consistency version). This measure was included in all three phases of data
collection.
Local-Global Identity Scale. The Local-Global Identity Scale (Zhang
& Khare, 2009) is a 19-item scale to measure local-global identity.
Each item is on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly
agree). Nine items constitute the global identity scale (alpha = .74)
and 10 items constitute the local identity scale (alpha = .74). The
mean score for each scale was computed separately. This measure
was included in phase 1 data collection only.
Measure of Harmony-Seeking at the Ideal Self, Self, and Perceived Consensus Levels (Hashimoto & Yamagishi, 2013). The harmony-seeking
measure is a subscale of a Japanese collectivism self-report instru-

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

927

ment which measures collectivistic values at three levels: (1) ideal

self level, (2) self level, and (3) common beliefs level. With this instrument, Hashimoto and his colleagues (2011) showed a pattern
whereby most Japanese endorse highest levels of collectivism at
the perceived consensus level and the lowest level of collectivism
at the ideal self level. Each item was evaluated on a 7-point scale (1
= Doesnt describe at all; 7 = Describes very much). The Cronbachs
Alpha reliability analyses for the three levels for which this value
was measured were: (1) self level: alpha = .76; (2) ideal self level:
alpha = .80; and (3) perceived consensus level: alpha = .74.
This measure was included in phase 1 and phase 2 only. Furthermore, harmony seeking at the perceived consensus level was not
measured in phase 2.
PROCEDURE
Participants were divided into a high-risk group and a low- (to moderate) risk group according to a cut-off score on the HRFS (Uchida &
Norasakkunkit, 2011). Then, in an experimental design, half the participants were given a survey packet in which the WTC contained
instructions asking participants to rate their willingness to comply
to a request under the social proof (i.e., conformity) condition while
the other half was given a version of the packet in which the WTC
contained instructions asking participants to rate their willingness
to comply to a request under the condition of commitment consistency. The rest of the measures in the survey packet were identical
across the two compliance conditions.

RESULTS
To test the hypothesis that differences in the level of preferred
harmony-seeking values, rather than deficits in social perception,
are associated with risk, preferred values were operationalized as
harmony-seeking values at the ideal self level. Also any differences
between high-risk students and low-risk students in levels of perceived consensus of harmony-seeking values may possibly indicate
deficits associated with social perception, which can index an autism spectrum disorder. Relevant correlations between all measures
are indicated in Table 1. Relevant descriptive and independent samples t-test statistics are indicated in Table 2.
As expected, independent samples t-tests revealed that there was
no difference between low-risk and high-risk students in the per-

928

NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

TABLE 1. Correlations Among All Measured Variables

1. HRFS
2. Harmony seeking self level
3. Harmony seeking ideal self level
4. Harmony seeking perceived consensus
level
5. Mean local identity
6. Mean global identity

.27**

.33***

.15

.28**

.16

.65***

.12

.37***

.21*

.03

.28**

.04

.007

.19*

.37***
-

Note. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .01

ceived consensus of harmony seeking. This finding suggests that

high-risk students have the samte capacity for commonly shared
social perceptions as low-risk students. A 2 3 risk (high-risk, lowrisk) by harmony-seeking condition (perceived consensus, self, and
ideal self) mixed design ANOVA with Risk as a between subjects
factor and Harmony Seeking as a within subjects factor revealed the
expected interaction effect between the two factors, as indicated by
F(2, 234) = 6.31, p = .002. Specifically, independent samples t-tests revealed that low risk students scored higher on harmony seeking values relative to high risk students at both the self level and the ideal
self level with the ideal self level yielding the biggest difference.
A repeated measures one-way ANOVA of harmony seeking condition for low risk students further revealed a main effect of harmony seeking, as indicated by F(2, 180) = 16.14, p < .001. Specifically, while low risk students perceive harmony seeking values at the
self level as being lower than that at the perceived consensus level
(Mean Difference = .55, p < .001), there was no difference in perception of harmony seeking at the ideal self level and the perceived
consensus level. In other words, low risk students would like to
ideally be at the level of harmony seeking as what they perceive to
be the case among the majority of Japanese people. In contrast, a
repeated measures one-way ANOVA of harmony seeking for high
risk also revealed a main effect of harmony seeking, as indicated
by F(2, 54) = 14.85, p < .001, where all three levels of harmony seeking were different from each other. Specifically, high risk students
would ideally like to be lower on harmony seeking than what they
perceive to be the case in Japanese society (Mean Difference = .81, p
= .006) although this ideal is slightly higher than the level at which
they perceive themselves to have (Mean Difference = -.39, p < .05).
Together, these findings suggest that low risk students and high risk
students most differed on their preferred level of harmony seeking

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

929

TABLE 2. Mean Differences Between High-Risk University Students and Low-Risk

University Students (Self, Ideal Self, and Perceived Consensus Refer to Harmony-Seeking
Values at Different Levels)
Measures
Self Level
Ideal Self Level
Perceived Consensus Level
WTC
Local Identity
Global Identity

Sample
(Risk)

SD

df

2.96

139

3.94

139

Low

105

4.76

.82

High

36

4.27

.93

Low

105

5.25

.87

High

36

4.53

1.14

<.001

Low

91

5.29

.72

ns

High

28

5.38

.60

Low

143

3.80

3.35

High

52

3.69

3.13

Low

91

3.97

.73

High

28

3.39

.64

Low

91

3.81

.84

High

28

3.46

.81

<.01

ns
3.83

.73

<.001

.64
1.97

117

=.05

(i.e., harmony seeking at the ideal self level) with high risk students
being significantly lower than that of low risk students.
To test the hypothesis that highrisk students have a motivational
style that deviates from conformity while lowrisk students will
be oriented toward conformity, the responses to WTC scale were
submitted to a 2 (risk) by 2 (compliance condition) ANOVA. The
expected interaction was found, as indicated by F (1,191) = 5.84,
p = .02 (see Figure 2). However, comparing willingness to comply
between low-risk and high-risk students in each compliance condition suggests that high-risk students were not more motivated to
comply by commitment consistency than were low-risk students.
As was expected, the difference between a low-risk and high-risk
student lied in willingness to comply under the social proof condition, as indicated by t(106) = 2.14, p < .04. In a moderated regression
analysis, the interaction term between HRFS scores and compliance
conditions was also significant, as indicated by = .06, p < .05, although simple slope analyses did not reveal significant findings.
Overall, these findings suggests that, relative to low-risk students,
the motivation style of high-risk students was more about deviating
from the culturally dominant motivation process (i.e., conforming
to others behaviors) and less about being motivated by something
else, like commitment consistency.
Furthermore, as expected, the difference between low-risk and
high-risk students in willingness to comply under conditions of
social proof was fully mediated by harmony seeking at the ideal

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NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

FIGURE 2. Risk by Compliance (Commitment Consistency) on Mean

Willingness to Comply.

self level (see Figure 3 for relevant statistics). Thus, the difference
in motivation to conform to others behaviors between high risk
and low risk students can be accounted for by the difference in how
much low-risk students and high-risk students want to ideally be
oriented toward harmony seeking. Importantly, high-risk students
do not want to be oriented toward harmony seeking as much as the
low-risk students do.
Finally, as expected, high-risk students scored lower than lowrisk students on both local identity and global identity (see Table 2
for relevant means). However, once HRFS was regressed on global
identity and local identity, only local identity and not global identity significantly and inversely predicted HRFS scores, as indicated
by = -.26, p = .007. This finding suggests that high-risk students
have disidentified with both their heritage culture and global culture relative to the low-risk students, but the crucial predictor of
hikikomori risk among these predictors is local identity. Applying
Berry and Sams (1997) acculturation model to this finding suggests
that hikikomori risk can reasonably be associated with having a marginalized identity.

DISCUSSION
In the current study, all the hypotheses were supported, thereby
suggesting that the atypical motivation style associated with hikikomori tendencies seem to be guided by culturally-deviant preferred
values and a marginalized identity. Specifically, high-risk students

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

931

Figure 3. Mediation Model: Harmony Seeking at the Ideal Self Level

Mediates the Relationship Between Risk and Compliance.

had a motivational style that deviated from conformity which can

be explained by the desire to deviate from a harmony-seeking orientation. This pattern is consistent with previous findings that highrisk students also deviated from mainstream Japanese tendencies in
terms of having more of an entity view of self rather than an incremental view of self and therefore being more likely to give up after a failure relative to low-risk students (Norasakkunkit & Uchida,
2011). Also, high-risk students, while sharing the same perception
about the pervasive social orientation in Japanese society, also deviated from wanting to personally align themselves with that social
orientation compared to low-risk students.
The fact that hikikomori is itself not a symptom of any particular
DSM diagnosis and that it was relatively rare in the past with rising
incidence over time (Zielenziger, 2006) suggests that it is probably
largely rooted in the social-structural forces of society due to globalization, postindustrialization, and institutional reactions to such
pressures that are alienating many Japanese youth who may consequently be choosing not to conform to the standards and norms
of their society (Brinton, 2011; Genda, 2005; Kosugi, 2004; Norasakkunkit et al., 2012; Saito, 1998; Kawanishi, 2009; Zielenziger, 2006).
The motivational style and preferred values of high-risk students
suggest that hikikomori is a kind of rebellion against conformity and
against other psychological processes that are well suited for functioning smoothly in Japanese society, such as having a sense of local
identity, and idealizing values associated with social harmony and
so on. If indeed many of these young adults feel much pressure to
conform in a society that can no longer assure them of a secure social space to belong to, then perhaps the state of anomie that ensues
would naturally compel them to retreat and withdraw, even if there
is no reason to doubt the soundness of their personal mental health.

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It is also worth mentioning that the fact that hikikomori is considered a culture-bound syndrome does not preclude cases of hikikomori being documented in other cultures, just as other culture-bound
syndromes in Japan like taijinkyofosho can be found in the United
States (Norasakkunkit, Kitayama, & Uchida, 2012) or cases of anorexia which do not involve body image concerns previously common in Hong Kong have also been documented in Western cultures
(Watters, 2010). Indeed, cases of hikikomori have been documented in
South Korea, Oman, and Spain (Kato et al., 2012). Therefore, hikikomori is not a culture-bound syndrome in the most literal sense. Yet,
it can be reasonably argued that what makes a syndrome culturebound is not its complete absence in other cultures but its relative
prevalence as well as the prevalence of the conditions that give rise
to and sustain the syndrome in a culture.
For example, maintaining a seniority system, as well as maintaining a relatively impermeable long-term labor market due to rigid
hiring practices in the midst of postindustrial pressures to do precisely the opposite, may be preventing many young Japanese from
joining mainstream society because they have to bear the brunt of
the social cost of these globally uncompetitive institutional practices (Toivonen, Norasakkunkit, & Uchida, 2011).
Another condition associated with hikikomori may be related to
how Japanese parents seem to be much more willing than American parents to financially and logistically fully support their adult
children well in to middle age without necessarily seeking external
interventions (Kawanishi, 2009). Furthermore, public aid in Japan
is only made available if self-help and family support are not sufficient (Vij, 2007).
These more or less culture-specific conditions may represent
some of the conditions that give rise to and sustain hikikomori as
a syndrome or a more pervasive social problem. These conditions
speak to why specific manifestations of a larger issue become culture-bound. Having said that, the larger issue may be less culturebound. For example, hikikomori may simply be one manifestation of
how many young people are finding it difficult to cope with modern
society and with increased competitiveness due to globalization. In
the United Kingdom or the United States, the same issue may manifest in terms of increased homeless youth (Saito, 2013), for example.
Therefore, to say that hikikomori primarily stems from a neurological
or psychological disorder would be like saying that homelessness
is primarily caused by mental disabilities. While there are certainly

HIKIKOMORI RISK IN JAPAN

933

cases in which mental health issues trigger hikikomori or homelessness, the vast majority of cases may be stemming from structural
forces in society, such as unequal opportunities to access stable jobs,
that are marginalizing such individuals or demotivating them from
embracing mainstream cultural values and goals.
Even though a mental disability may not be the cause of hikikomori, there are few people, if any, who would dispute the fact that
hikikomori is dysfunctional and probably distressing as well. Indeed,
mild depression is often found among those suffering from hikikomori (Koyama et al., 2010; Norasakkunkit & Uchida, 2010) but it
is very plausible that such distress and dysfunction are the consequences of leading a hikikomori lifestyle rather than a cause of hikikomori itself. In fact, Kato and his colleagues (2011) have found that
Japanese young people who are trying to cope with modern society
are increasingly suffering from what they call modern-type depression, which is characterized by a shift in values form collectivism
to individualism, distress and reluctance to accept prevailing social
norms, a vague sense of omnipotence, and avoidance of effort and
strenuous work. The fact that these tendencies are associated with
depression suggest that perhaps deviating from prevailing cultural
norms and values can be distressing in itself, even if those engaging
in such behaviors personally prefer to deviate from such norms
and values.
One limitation of this study was the reliance on an analog sample
rather than on actual people suffering from hikikomori. In the current study, however, there were logistic issues with recruiting real
people suffering from hikikomori to participate in a social psychological study. Future research should try to obtain data on harmony-seeking tendencies at the self level, the ideal self level, and the
perceived consensus level from a nonclinical sample of those who
are suffering from real hikikomori. The second limitation of the study
was that not every relevant measure was included in each phase of
data collection. This may have limited the power of the findings
from analyses which included measures from phase one data collection only. Therefore, any analysis that include harmony seeking
at the perceived self level, local identity, or global identity was an
analysis performed with the participants from phase one data collection only.
In conclusion, the current study provided support for the idea
that hikikomori risk is associated with a deviation or possibly an outright rejection of mainstream cultural values of harmony seeking

934

NORASAKKUNKIT AND UCHIDA

in Japan, which then explains the motivation to deviate from social

conformity as a behavioral tendency. At the same time, the evidence
in the current study also suggested that hikikomori risk was not associated with deficits in commonly shared social perception. Thus,
much of the weight of the evidence in the current investigation
suggests that hikikomori risk should be conceptualized as a social
pathology that is driving many young individuals to consciously
become cultural deviants rather than as an innate deficit in the capacity to perceive socially-shared perceptions and therefore a lack
of capacity to be concerned about such perceptions.

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