Both school lunches and cleaning are structured around collective responsibility, discipline, and cooperation, as discussed in earlier sections of this blog. Through “institutionalized control” (Damrow 2014), the schools have established a strict set of expectations that all students must follow. For students who struggle with these tenets, these expectations may foster feelings of discomfort and exclusion. In a 2024 study done by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, one of the reasons for student absenteeism in school was noted as “maladjustment to school rules that require conformity, such as those related to uniforms, school lunches, and school events” (Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2024). Students’ inability to meet these expectations may be a contributing factor in their inability, or lack of desire, to attend school. According to a 2022 survey by the same ministry, approximately 299,000 students – or about 3.2 percent – of elementary and junior high school students were frequently absent from school, an increase for the fifth consecutive year (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2022). As schools retain their rigidity concerning these mandatory practices and the number of absentee students increases, so may the number of students who do not attend schools for long periods of time, potentially resulting in the phenomenon of hikikomori – students staying home, avoiding school and society.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare defines hikikomori as “a state in which social participation opportunities are limited due to various factors, resulting in the long-term loss of opportunities for employment, school, or other activities outside the home.” Additionally, the ministry explains that hikikomori “does not arise from a single cause, such as bullying, family relationships, or illness,” but instead a “combination of various biological, psychological, and social factors” (Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 2001).
Hikikomori has been the topic of academic research: Alan Teo, in “A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of Hikikomori,” discusses the phenomenon of hikikomori holistically, touching on possible causes, symptoms, and treatments (Teo 2010). Dorota Krysinska, in “Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal) in Japan: Discourses of Media and Scholars; Multicausal Explanations of the Phenomenon,” synthesizes previous work on hikikomori and discussion of possible causes, focusing on family, societal pressures, and schools (Krysinska 2006). While these works study the case of hikikomori more generally, my research considers more specifically how expectations to partake in group activities, including cleaning and school lunches, may cause social pressures that make students not want to go to school.
I explored this phenomenon by doing ethnographic fieldwork at a free special school for hikikomori youth (students who had withdrawn from school and society) in Tokyo, and by analyzing past studies about the hikikomori phenomenon. The school is located in Tokyo’s Hiroo district, in the central area of the city. I visited the school ten times, each weekday for two weeks, from July 21 to August 1, 2025. I was there as both a volunteer and a researcher, and each visit lasted four hours, during which I observed the school’s activities and interviewed administrators, teachers, and students. There were 15 students. Not all the students attended each day; although some did, it was up to the student when they wanted to attend this school. Most students were in elementary school and had been attending the special school for two or three years already. While I was there, the youngest student I observed was in second grade, while the oldest was in sixth. These students are not extreme cases of hikikomori – they go outside and interact with others to a certain extent. In the morning, the students arrived looking cheerful and said “good morning,” setting up their belongings. However, after this initial greeting, there were few interactions among the students and between the students and teachers. Most of the students then spent the day on their electronic devices, seldom talking to each other unless it was for a game or about a device-related topic. When I attempted to initiate a conversation, their answers were almost always very brief and indicated that they were not interested in holding a conversation.
The administrators asked me not to talk to the children about not attending traditional school. When I asked the administrators about their reasoning for this, they explained their desire to create an environment in which the children felt fully comfortable. They sought to provide the children with a respite from the social pressures they might otherwise face at a school, such as interacting with their peers and participating in group activities. In line with this aim, the school doesn’t facilitate structured timetables or activities, instead allowing the children to spend their time as they wish. This allows them the freedom to make their own decisions and exercise their freedom. While the students did not specifically tell me why they didn’t want to attend traditional school, they did mention that they enjoyed spending their days at the special school for hikikomori, having not felt fully comfortable at their respective traditional schools.