When three Japanese hostages released in Iraq last month returned home, they were greeted not with garlands of flowers, prayers of thanksgiving and applause from strangers for their manifest courage, but with stony stares and accusations of disobedience.
Their cruel reception shocked many Westerners. The two young aid workers and the freelance photographer were vilified for defying Japan's mighty bureaucrats and venturing on their own into a chaotic landscape scarred by war. The government even demanded reimbursement for the flight home.
Now these former hostages are hiding in their own homes and making apologies to society for "causing trouble" -- after being held at knifepoint. Such behavior reflects a reality hidden behind the shoji screens of modern Japan. This is a society that doesn't tolerate difference or dissent and punishes it when it appears.
In fact, more than 1 million young Japanese adults have chosen to lock themselves up in their own homes rather than endure the coercion that informs Japan's collective society. Many would rather sit in their rooms reading, playing video games or drinking than expose themselves to ostracism for being "out of the ordinary."
The syndrome these young adults suffer from, known in Japanese as hikikomori, is seldom discussed in polite society and only recently has been recognized as a disorder by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. These young adults do not suffer from a psychological disease, like schizophrenia or agoraphobia. Hikikomori is a social disorder that psychiatrists who have studied it believe exists only in Japan's unyielding culture.
These psychiatrists agree that these young adults, 80% of them men, are prisoners of the rigidities that bind modern Japan. Conformity, fear of risk-taking and reprisals for dissent keep their insular nation outwardly placid and "trouble free" yet constrains its ability to adapt and adjust to a changing world. Like the returning hostages, these hikikomori often suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress after enduring harassment and hostility from co-workers, classmates and strangers.
For centuries, Japanese have been raised to follow Confucian doctrines of filial piety, loyalty and fealty to the group. The Japanese still reject the principles of universalism and individualism: that everyone should be treated the same even though each of us is different. Among Japanese, you are either part of the group or a total stranger.
