Fifty-three-year-old Kenji Yamase doesn¡¯t fit the traditional image of a hikikomori, but then perceptions of Japan¡¯s social recluses are changing.
¡°People think of hikikomori as being lazy young people with personality problems who stay in their rooms all the time playing video games,¡± says Yamase, who lives with his 87-year-old mother and has been a recluse on and off for the past 30 years.
¡°But the reality is that most hikikomori are people who can¡¯t get back into society after straying off the path at some point,¡± he says. ¡°They have been forced into withdrawal. It isn¡¯t that they¡¯re shutting themselves away ¡ª it¡¯s more like they¡¯re being forced to shut themselves away.¡±
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