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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23182523
In Japan, hikikomori, a term that's also used to describe the young people who withdraw, is a word that everyone knows.
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The Truth about Mental Health: Hikikomori will be broadcast on the BBC World Service at 14:30 GMT on Friday 5 July
Read more from the Mental Health series
When does your mental health become a problem?
Tamaki Saito was a newly qualified psychiatrist when, in the early 1990s, he was struck by the number of parents who sought his help with children who had quit school and hidden themselves away for months and sometimes years at a time. These young people were often from middle-class families, they were almost always male, and the average age for their withdrawal was 15.
It might sound like straightforward teenage laziness. Why not stay in your room while your parents wait on you? But Saito says sufferers are paralysed by profound social fears.