Back in February, Krys Suzuki summarized the “shut-in” phenomenon of Japan – the so-called “hikikomori” who stay sheltered in their parents’ houses and, outside of online interactions, have no to minimal contact with the outside world.
At the time, the hikikomori phenomenon wasn’t getting a lot of fresh attention in the Japanese press. But that changed dramatically in the past month with two unfortunate incidents.
In the first, Iwasaki Ryuuichi, a 51-year-old man living in Kawasaki, went on a sudden rampage on May 28th after years of staying holed up in his room. The incident injured 18 people, and left two dead. Immediately after this violent spree, Iwasaki took his own life.
The issue initially raised fresh concerns about mental health care in Japan. Subsequent investigations found that the elderly uncle and aunt of Iwasaki, with whom he lived, had actually consulted city health and welfare offices about their nephew some 14 times. A social worker never met directly with Iwasaki, who insisted at the time (through notes left outside of his door) that he wasn’t a danger or a burden to anyone. (You can read our Twitter thread below for more details.)
The incident began to stoke fears about hikikomori, and the potential dangers of people who withdraw from society. But what happened next raised a whole separate set of fears.
On June 1st, 76-year-old Kumazawa Hideaki, a former Vice-Minister with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry (MAFF; Japanese: 農林水産省; nourin suisanshou), was arrested for knifing his unemployed son, 44-year-old Kumazawa Eiichirou. Police told the press that the attack was extremely violence, leaving Eiichirou with several dozen stab wounds all over his body. The son later died at the hospital, and the charges against Kumazawa were changed from attempted murder to murder.
Why would a graduate of Japan’s prestigious Tokyo University and a former government professional resort to murdering his own child in such a violent manner? According to police, Kumazawa told them that his son displayed “hikikomori tendencies,” and was violent towards other members of the family. The elder Kumazawa alluded to the Kawasaki incident, and said he feared that his son would end up committing a similar crime.
Given Kumazawa’s age, there’s another possible angle to this story: that the former bureaucrat, as he grew older, found it harder to control his impulses and emotions, and committed a crime he never might have considered committing 30 years ago. As Japan’s population grows proportionately older, the country has been forced to contend with a series of problems involving elderly citizens slowly losing their faculties.
The Demonization of Hikikomori?
That aside, the Kumazawa murder was a clear-cut case of someone using “hikikomori hysteria” as an excuse to commit a capital crime. Whatever his previous transgressions, Eiichirou was killed by his father, not for crimes he committed, but for a crime he might one day commit.
On the blogging platform Blogos, Kumazawa’s treatment in the media was picked up by writer Nyato (ニャート). A self-described former NEET (someone Not in Employment, Education, or Training) and a current contract employee, Nyato notes with trepidation that the media has been giving Kumazawa more than the benefit of the doubt. For example, Nyato writes, Kumazawa said his son had “hikikomori tendencies” (引きこもりがち; hikikomori-gachi). As a result, some news outlets have branded Eiichirou a hikikomori – even though the 44-year-old had only been staying at his father’s house for a week.
One report in particular said that Kumazawa had “steeled himself (Japanese: 覚悟; kakugo) to committing a crime” – thus reinforcing the father’s narrative that he had done a sort of public service. But Nyato weighs that description against the violence of the attack:
それでも、1週間しか暮らしていないのに10ヶ所以上刺し殺しているのだから、犯行への覚悟というより、「お荷物だから殺したい」という強い憎悪を感じる。
…he was stabbed over ten times after living there for a week, which feels less like steeling yourself to commit a crime, and more like a strong hatred along the lines of “I wanna kill you ’cause you’re a burden.”
Nyato received a lot of pushback in her write-up from readers who bristled against her comparison of the treatment of hikikomori to the Nazi’s vilification of the Jews, and to the Sagamihara incident, in which a man killed 19 people in a facility for the mentally and physically disabled because he believed they should be euthanized. Is it wrong, some commenters asked, to show sympathy for the father’s plight?
However, it’s not just Nyato who’s feeling the increase in social stigmatization. The Tokyo Shinbun interviewed 39-year-old Kozaki Yuuya, a hikikomori for 25 years, about how tensions in his own household ratcheted up when his father saw the news about the Kawasaki stabbings.
A combination of bullying and a diagnosed communication disorder has left Kozaki struggling to keep a study job for almost three decades going. That hasn’t stopped him from trying, though. The almost-40-something told Tokyo Shinbun that he felt a need to speak out for others like him, even if it means getting labeled as dangerous.
“I want to change,” he told Tokyo Shinbun. “I want the world to know that there are people who want to work out there, even if we’re struggling.”
Personally, I see the entire situation as a confluence of multiple issues in Japanese society. The stigma against seeking mental health care, the societal pressure that leads many young people to hole up and avoid society, and the rapidly aging population are combining to create a powder keg situation in which such situations are bound to foment until they explode. Without more support for both the country’s hikikomori and senior populations, expect this cycle to continue.
