Japan's loneliness crisis has nearly 1.5 million social loners

Nearly 1.5 million Japanese people of working age are keeping a solitary living, that is they are living as social loners. The revelations related to the reclusive sense of being of young Japanese people came in a government survey and showed increasingly thinning demographic realities of Japan.

People who avoid social contact are called Hikikomori in Japan. Hikikomori account for 2 per cent of people aged 15-62, the survey found.

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The government survey said that large number of Hikikomori started stepping back from mainstream society due to relationship issues and after losing or leaving their jobs.

A fifth of the surveyed people said that their self-isolationsense of being came from changes in lifestyle due to Covid pandemic.

The cabinet office surveyed 30,000 people between the ages of 10 and 69 across Japan last November. The poll found that just over a fifth of respondents aged 15-39 had been socially isolated from six months to less than a year. More than 20 per cent said they had experienced problems with interpersonal relationships, while just over 18 per cent cited the pandemic.

Among people in the 40-64 age range, 44.5 per cent said their behaviour had been triggered by leaving their jobs, followed by 20.6 per cent who cited the pandemic.

Recognising the challenge of increasing social isolation among youngsters, some local authorities have stepped up.

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Edogawa, a ward in Tokyo, said that it will hold metaverse socialising events from June to give hikikomori the opportunity to meet people via their avatars.

The ward is reportedly home to more than 9,000 people, including students who have stopped attending classes, some of whom describe themselves as hikikomori.

"We don’t think everything will be solved just because we offer a metaverse. It’ll probably be helpful for some people," the ward’s mayor, Takeshi Saito, told the Mainichi Shimbun. "We are targeting those who can’t leave their rooms and haven’t been interacting with other people. We want to help them take a step forward."

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