Japan's Rental Sisters and the Hikikomori Crisis

The Japanese government has estimated that there are about 1.46 million hikikomori, people who rarely leave their homes for six months or more. Not far from Tokyo, the nonprofit New Start sent young women, called rental sisters, to visit them at their homes. In 2007, a rental sister, a former welfare worker without counseling qualifications, said that "99% refuse". In one male shut-in’s case, her sealed letters were not opened, so she sent postcards instead. Leaving, she'd say, "OK, I'll leave this in the hallway," and leave something of hers (a CD, a manga), so she would have to come back for it. She thought of the young man inside, his heart pounding, wondering whether she'd come back tomorrow or the day after. Once, a loud hard-rock CD she had lent was returned with the message "I hate this stuff." "Yes!" she said, because he had finally thrown something back. Another rental sister asked a 20-year-old who had been shut in since the fourth grade to come outside. She asked him to meet her at the nearest bus stop to his home, and he came in his pajamas. Each meeting after that was farther out from his home: Atsugi Station, then Machida, then Shinjuku. Eventually, he came alone to Gyotoku, where New Start's dormitory is. A 2023 book by New Start tells the story of a man, given the pseudonym Daigo, who remained shut in for a decade, from his twenties until the age of 38, living on money sent to him each month by his parents. He ignored their letters, their calls, and an in-person visit. Then his parents told him that they were stopping the bank transfers, and wrote, "from now on, collect it from the New Start person." When a rental brother came to the door with his living expenses, Daigo opened it. Three and a half months later, he got a job. The book tells of another hikikomori, called Ayumu, also a pseudonym. At first his parents said, "our son is sensitive"; then they said, "No more visits, thank you." Over eight months of trying to reach him, the staff never heard him speak. 10 years later, his parents contacted New Start again. He was 35, and for five years he had not left the house at all. In 2024, after 30 years, New Start said that it would stop taking on new cases. Its founder, Futagami Nōki, had urged parents not to try to bear the burden of a shut-in child alone. But they kept doing so, and that was what, he said, "we couldn't beat."