Ed, I agree that rapid social change could be a factor in the "hikikomori" phenomenon of Japanese males. Economic conditions are bringing about other social changes reflective of current polls showing fewer Japanese adhere to traditional gender roles, such as housewives entering the labor market to sustain the household as husbands' hours, bonuses and expense accounts were slashed. We are not talking about the lower class or lower middle class of shop keepers, but the class of women who graduated from college and then became lifetime homemakers. These women mostly like their new accomplishments, even when minor and at minimum wage: they like earning their own money, not being bored at home and new power in the house. Shortly, we should be reading about how these recent developments are affecting latch key kids in already more rambunctious Japanese classrooms but will not be surprised that the Japanese husband has not picked up the pace of shared housework at home. You can see how the male in Japan might be stressed.
I wonder if the demographic trend in American schools that has teachers and sociologists so concerned has anything to do with "hikikomori"? Educators are increasingly noticing that girls are outperforming boys in US schools in all age groups, even through grad school. I'd read something (and maybe posted) about it previously, but saw a story on 60 minutes last night that hit the basic outline: boys are dropping out, not reading as well, not competitive in the classroom, not scoring on tests as well as before, finding jobs without pursuing higher ed and even though there are more graduating from grad programs now, if this trend continues unabated, they project that women will be performing white collar jobs and men the blue collar jobs by midcentury and everyone agrees this is bad news. Da so des, in Japanese: so they say. US law schools this year will have more girls than boys, med and business schools are looking that way. There are still more boy geniuses but proportionately, girls are outperforming boys in school as valedictorians, math and science awards, leadership positions. The interviewer met a principal at one high school in Massachusetts where the girls completely dominated the graduation ceremonies and leadership positions, while the boys seem to be focusing more and more on athletics as their arena for excellence. The point was made that this was not an isolated high school, apparently joined by a growing list of others. So of course, they went to outside experts for opinions, Daniel Kindlon, author of Raising Cain, a book about protecting the emotional life of boys, and a female ex-teacher now policy guru at American Enterprise Institute who blames feminists for over compensating with girls in schools (ie. Reviving Ophelia) at the very time that they were naturally overcoming boys in performance categories. She says that teachers, mostly female, are favoring activities and class studies that favor girls, like sitting still in early years, and punishing boys for being boys. Kindlon instead blamed fathers, saying "Where are the men at Parent Teacher Assoc. meetings? If you only show up for the football and soccer games it doesn't take long for boys to get the message." The teaching profession has always been dominated by females. So why is that a factor now? If it is, wouldn't hiring more male teachers help? So the 60 Minute story profiled Jefferson school in LA, perhaps a charter school, because the kids wore polo shirts as uniforms, where the ratio of male and female teachers is 50-50 and the kids are separated at class time. In the boy's classes, the teachers use more physical stimulation to keep the boys alert and focused. The boys say it has helped them to be separated and not worried about making mistakes in front of girls. It has also helped to have the football coach at this small school also teach math, or in another citing, poetry. Send the message. What do you think? Perhaps later today that story will be posted at the CBS website: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml Personally, I'd like to see Game Boys and Nintendo outlawed for everyone under 16 or perhaps medically restricted to 2 hours a week as a hazard to mental and physical health. By the way, I have some files saved on social/cultural change in Japan, if anyone is interested, including how social change is affecting burial customs, the classroom, and language. Karen Watters Cole Outgoing Mail Scanned by NAV 2002 Ed wrote: I must admit that I didn't read the original posting on Hikikomori, and what Pete's posting (below) says about it puts a different interpretation on it than the one I took. It is not simply "dropping out to the labour market", which implies a certain amount of rationality, but a neurotic condition somewhat like, as Pete suggests, anorexia. The kid is simply overwhelmed by, and cannot face, the world beyond the walls of his room or his house. This is not rational and would not therefore involve the intellect, except in a very screwed-up way. These kids, mostly boys, could be overly sensitive and could be highly intelligent, but are unable to develop a realistic understanding of the world beyond their doors or come to a compromise with it. Why does it happen? I'm sure that it's partly the psychology of the individual, but socio-cultural change would also play a role. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a rash of teenage suicides in a small, formerly isolated, northern Canadian Aboriginal community that was under tremendous pressure from oil and gas exploration. Some six boys killed themselves within a very short period. Some of it might have been emulative (if he could do it, so can I), but very rapid social change in a very traditional community must have been a factor. It is typical that people who live in such communities have difficulty in coping with the outside world, and in the case of the community at issue, that world had intruded full-force into their lives. Perhaps what we are witnessing is a range of responses to change. Kids who have had lots of experience with it can deal with it, but those who have had much less have difficulty in doing so, and may react to it in a far less rational manner.
