The essays section sounds interesting too. The whole hikikomori phenomenon is something I really haven’t been able to get a grasp of. I understand the mental impairment of those who suffer from it, but I guess what I find so hard to fathom is the general social acceptance of it as a semi-normal, or at least not unheard of thing, and how the families of these sufferers basically enable them to continue living that way. The thing I suppose I can’t wrap my head around is simply the many years of tradition and past stigmas involving such matters.

A book I read a few months ago called Tokyo Tribes touched on the hikikomori subject in one of its chapters and the author (an American born half Japanese half Jew who lived in Japan later on in life) tried to provide some explanation for the general “keep it a secret at all costs” sort of approach the families have, but it still was just such a foreign concept to me.