Five years ago I wrote a blog on the psychological scourge affecting a large number of young people, hikikomori. I have not heard much good news from five years ago until now. Last week Elaine and I had lunch with Pastor Koichi Hirano and Pastor Nobuo Watanabe at their Setagaya church’s new café. We had not talked with Pastor Hirano for several months and he shared some amazing stories. The Hikikomori are the Japanese most…
Over 9 days Levi and Diane Velasco visited Japan. Levi is the Director of Recruiting for Converge Worldwide and they wanted to sense the needs here so they can better recruit people to come to Japan. This is from their newsletter sent from Japan. What pictures do you conjure when you hear the word “unreached”? In my mind, I see huts, muddy, potholed roads, crowded housing, slums, favelas and civil mayhem. What if I told…
Hikikomori (pron. He-key-koh-moh-ree) literally means “pulling away, confinement” or an acute social withdrawal. Hikikomori is a relatively new social phenomenon that the Japanese government defines as individuals who isolate themselves from the rest of society in their parents’ homes for at least 6 months. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands possibly upwards of 1,200,000 people (or 1% of the population) struggle with this social anxiety.