Michael ZielenzigerThinkers

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the fact that as wages started to sink and loans stopped flowing, too many goods and not enough buyers resulted in deflation. Consumer goods became increasingly cheaper by the month, discouraging consumption. After all, why buy a refrigerator this month if it will likely be $30 cheaper next month?

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the fact that in 1998—after two securities firms and the largest bank on the northern island of Hokkaido ignobly collapsed—the government was forced to dip into the national treasury and put $18 billion of taxpayer funds into the nation's largest banks to prevent them from failing, too.

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the fact that Japan was ready neither to resuscitate troubled lenders or seize the assets of deadbeat borrowers, so they made the poor decision of pumping massive quantities of money into the system to keep dodgy borrowers afloat.

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the fact that so many corporations and banks owned a stake in one another, resulting in the banks keeping dying companies on life support, hoping that if they just held on a bit longer, the economy might somehow return to growth on its own.

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the fact that the incestuous ties of Japan's banks to their corporate borrowers allowed them to flout market discipline and continue to roll over unpaid loans.

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the government having hollowed out the economy by protecting feeble domestic firms, which drove up prices for Japanese companies, forcing them to send factory work abroad, which further enfeebled companies.

The Bursting of the Bubble Economy in Japan is due in part to the Ministry of Finance having been reluctant to pull the trigger as bad debts continued to swell.

Hikikomori is a crisis now visited on the wider family of Japan which is also playing out in the anguish that the Imperial Family discreetly confronts behind stone palace walls.

Hikikomori is a pathology, not an illness — not a problem of one or two years, but a very long-term problem.

Hikikomori is a phenomenon that might offer clues not only to Japan's unprecedented breakdown, but also why the Japanese self seems so ephemeral.

Hikikomori is a phenomenon that will disappear only when Japanese society finally encourages individual expression.

Hikikomori is a problem that lies, to a large extent, less with the child than with the unhappiness of the mothers.

Hikikomori is a result of the fact that, in contrast to Western society where independence is valued, Japanese are not ashamed not to be independent.

Hikikomori is a social disease, not a mental disease like schizophrenia or paranoia.

Hikikomori is a symptom of Japan showing signs of system fatigue with young people afraid of participating in a society where there is no hope and no ambition; where Japan’s good days will never return.

Hikikomori is a tradition that has existed in Japan for a thousand years, going all the way back to Amaterasu oomikami, the sun goddess, who shut herself up in a cave.

Hikikomori is all the more dire because, in Japan, once you drop out, you can’t drop back in.

The Hikikomori is at war with his insides, His authentic personality is constantly struggling against the personality he thinks he must create in order to gain love.

Hikikomori is exacerbated by mothers who play an active role in supporting the isolation of their ‘problem child’ in a way that encourages the dependence relationship.

Hikikomori is kept hidden by a self-propagating cycle of silence and shame.