– Senior thesis project
“My psychology thesis on the Japanese sociocultural phenomena, called Hikikomori provoked me to think about solitude and loneliness. These two words describe two completely different mental states. One can feel lonely in a room full of people, whereas, one can enjoy his solitude in an empty room. Moving to Europe from Japan, which I had never been to at the time at the age of 20 years old, the amount of loneliness I felt was a lot bigger than I had ever experienced. As much as a lot of international students perhaps can relate to me, it isn’t only those who left their homes for college that have felt the way as I have. Especially, the COVID pandemic might have affected us all in that sense.”
“Hikikomori is a sociocultural phenomenon which is often seen in Japan. The Japanese government defines it as a state of staying home or not interacting with others at all for more than half a year in principle by avoiding social involvement for a variety of reasons. According to my studies, the biggest two causes are: social intolerance and stigma for a variety of reasons. By those, I mean people with mental disorders tend to go into the spiral of this phenomenon as they tend to fail to seek mental health care as mental disorders are stigmatized; not only those people, but citizens in general have hard time living comfortable lives because society overvalues homogeneity. My research showed that a lot of the citizens feel uncomfotable since they are forced to comfort to society.”
