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SCMP’s Asia desk

Japan has long grappled with what to do about hikikomori – the social hermits who seal themselves off from the world, sometimes for years, retreating from all human contact.
In the past, these recluses were thought of as a youth problem: troubled teenagers, rudderless young men. But that framing no longer holds.
Japan’s shut-ins are growing old, and the parents keeping them alive are growing older still.
The average hikikomori is now 36.9 years old, according to the Asahi newspaper, citing a recent survey of 280 families conducted by Kazoku Hikikomori Japan (KHJ), an NGO providing support, guidance and community.

More striking still, the survey suggests more than 43 per cent of hikikomori are now over 40 and nearly 13 per cent are past 50. Their carers – overwhelmingly ageing parents – averaged 66.3 years old.
This has been called the “80-50 problem”, describing parents in their eighties shouldering the care of hikikomori children in their fifties.
As demographics worsen, it has acquired a grimmer sequel: the “90-60 problem”.
There are documented cases of hikikomori in their sixties being supported entirely by parents in their nineties, sustained on pension income, with no plan and no safety net for when those parents are gone.
In reality this is not a challenge limited to the younger generation
Chikako Hibana, KHJ director
In 2024, the Mainichi newspaper reported on a disturbing pattern emerging from police data: a rising number of middle-aged people arrested for abandoning the bodies of elderly parents who had died in the family home.
Cases involving suspects aged between 50 and 60 were the highest recorded since 2014, when the average age of hikikomori was 33.1 years.
Many told investigators they “didn’t know what to do with the body” or “didn’t want to talk to other people”.
One man left his 95-year-old father’s body undiscovered for six months, claiming he could not afford funeral expenses. Another was convicted of fraud after continuing to collect his dead father’s pension.


These are not aberrations. They are the logical endpoint of a life lived entirely outside society, where the death of a carer, instead of triggering a call for help, leads to paralysis.
“There is a strong perception that hikikomori measures are about supporting young people,” KHJ director Chikako Hibana told the Asahi newspaper. “But in reality this is not a challenge limited to the younger generation.”
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the trend, normalising isolation for a cohort that had been teetering on the edge of it for years.
By 2023, a Japanese Cabinet Office survey estimated that 1.46 million people – roughly 2 per cent of the working-age population – were living as shut-ins.
Four years earlier in 2019, the government estimated there were roughly 613,000 hikikomori in the 40-to-64 age bracket alone, according to the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada.


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Japan’s hikikomori recluses are growing old. So are their carers

Japan

A Japanese government survey estimated that 1.46 million people were living as shut-ins as of 2023. Photo: Shutterstock

A 55-year Japanese man who chose to shut himself away from society poses for a picture in Tokyo in 2018. Photo: AFP

Rapidly ageing Japan’s ‘macho carers’ lend muscles to benefit elderly, disabled

Care worker and bodybuilder Takuya Usui (right) chats with Madoka Yamaguchi as he helps her sit on a bed at a care home for people with disabilities operated by Visionary in Ichinomiya, Aichi prefecture. Photo: AFP

Tatsumi Hokuto works as a “macho carer” for Japanese care facility operator Visionary. Photo: Handout

Yusuke Niwa, founder of Japanese care facility operator Visionary. Photo: Handout

Japan’s hikikomori go on a pilgrimage of self-discovery to find their way back into the world

Pilgrims on the Shikoku Pilgrimage for hikikomori in Japan, via a project by Chiba-based NPO New Start. Photo: X/@henrohouse

Pilgrims pray at Nagao-ji, Temple 87 of the Shikoku 88 Buddhist temple pilgrimage in Japan. More than 120 people have taken part in the pilgrimage since New Start began the initiative in 2003. Photo: X/@henrohouse

A pilgrim or “henro” walks up the street leading to Ryuku-ji, Temple 41 of the Shikoku 88 Buddhist temple pilgrimage, in November 2019. Photo: Getty Images

Japan society ‘needs to change’ so hikikomori will feel welcome again, experts say

Government studies and surveys show that there are an estimated 1.1 million hikikomori across Japan. Photo: Shutterstock

A woman walks along an empty street in Kyoto, Japan. Government studies and surveys show that there are an estimated 1.1 million hikikomori across Japan. Photo: Getty Images

A solution is urgently needed for Japan’s “80-50 problem”, where elderly parents in their 80s care for hikikomori in their 50s. Photo: EPA-EFE

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What happens to more than 1 million social recluses in the world’s fastest-ageing society when the last person who cared for them is gone?


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Japan’s hikikomori recluses are growing old. So are their carers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}What happens to more than 1 million social recluses in the world’s fastest-ageing society when the last person who cared for them is gone?

What happens to more than 1 million social recluses in the world’s fastest-ageing society when the last person who cared for them is gone?