A large-scale survey conducted by Tokyo＊s Edogawa Ward has found that nearly 8,000 people age 15 and older are considered to be hikikomori, or people who have isolated themselves from society at home for more than six months.

The results, which were released Wednesday, showed that the largest proportion of social recluses in the municipality were people in their 40s, at 17.1%, followed by those in their 50s, at 16.6%.

Edogawa＊s survey, based on responses from 103,000 households, is unusual because the questionnaire was sent to every resident in the ward age 15 or older who was suspected of being a shut-in. The ward made the judgment based on them not having paid income taxes or not having used nursing or disability services provided by the government.

A 2019 Cabinet Office survey put the number of hikikomori nationwide at 613,000, but that estimate was based on a much smaller survey.

The ward＊s survey also showed that 1 in 4 hikikomori had isolated themselves from society and not participated in any social activities for at least a decade 〞 supporting earlier estimates that a growing number of social recluses are adult and middle-aged people.

When asked whether they were seeking any form of social interaction, many respondents in their 40s said they were seeking employment or were at least hoping to find opportunities to work part time. However, the higher the age, the more comfortable the respondents were with their current situation, the survey found.

On what triggered them to become socially isolated, 20% of respondents cited an illness requiring long-term recuperation, followed by a failure to fit into the workplace (14%), a failure to find a job (11%) and an experience of not fitting into school life (10%).

Moreover, 62% of the social recluses said they had not sought any assistance or support from governmental institutions or other organizations regarding their situation. That contrasted with the responses of people who had a hikikomori in the family, 55% of which said they had sought help from outside parties.

For the survey, through which 7,919 people from 7,604 households were confirmed to be hikikomori, the questionnaires were sent to about 240,000 people from 180,000 households between July 2021 and February this year. The ward received responses from 103,000 households, or 57.1% of those who were sent the survey.

The Edogawa government said it plans to use the results to provide adequate support to hikikomori and their families. It also plans to look further into the situation of people from nearly 80,000 households that have not responded to the survey.

Only 26.4% of hikikomori responded to the survey on their own, while the remainder of the responses came from the family members of people who live in isolation.

Edogawa Ward has nearly 700,000 residents across some 350,000 households.