Hikikomori

I came upon this new (to me) word in today's Times.

"The typical hikikomori is a young man living at home who abandons his work or education, refuses to see his friends and retreats into his bedroom. He spends all of his time alone, playing computer games, browsing the internet and emerging only for late-night shopping expeditions to refresh his supply of comics.
"For periods of a few days at a time, such episodes are familiar to parents all over the world. But in Japan they have taken on the proportions of an epidemic. More than a million Japanese, 80% of them young men, are believed to be suffering from long-term hikikomori. A third of them are over 30; a quarter of them have been living alone in their bedrooms for more than ten years.
"Demographic time-bomb... devastating implications for Japan's economy... running out of young people to man industries and pay taxes... when parents too old to look after them they will become a burden on the welfare state... budget for parents increasing from $2.5 million to $18 considered inadequate... condition often starts with bullying at school or betrayal or abandonment by a close friend... boys who are intelligent and sensitive, with overprotective parents... the kind who read the newspaper Asahi - equivalent to 'The Guardian' (a Socialist newspaper RB)... peculiarly Japanese phenomenon. Most extreme case is Mr Okuyama, a man of 53, who has been in his room for 30 years."
"Hikikomori are not mad or stupid," said Dr Saito. "They are shy, gentle, clever people."

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England