Hikikomori: Identifying people who avoid social participation in Japan can vary depending on criteria used

The definition of “hikikomori”—people who avoid social participation and generally stay at home—according to criteria used by the Japanese Cabinet Office survey, as reported in the press, differs from the diagnostic criteria for hikikomori proposed in the field of psychiatry. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have found, in a survey of residents of Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, that the populations described by different definitions of hikikomori had little overlap, and the prevalence rates of hikikomori differed according to the definition used.