An epidemic of shut-ins

For years, Takeshi hid from the world, playing video games all night and sleeping all day, eating from a tray his mother left outside his room. He was a hikikomori, one of an estimated 1 million Japanese teens and young men who have become shut-ins, with virtually no human contact beyond their parents. Some of the hikikomori first withdraw because of some social embarrassment — bad grades, or a romantic rejection. The longer they drop out, the more shame they feel in a society where one's status and reputation are paramount and hard to change. Parents, and especially mothers, often enable the withdrawal. "In Japan, mothers and sons often have a symbiotic, codependent relationship," says psychiatrist Tamaki Saito, who first identified the disorder in the 1990s. Takeshi re-entered society after four years, thanks to a government program that sends female outreach counselors known as "rental sisters" to coax the hikikomoriout of the house. But that program doesn't always work. As one shut-in of 15 years said, "I missed my chance."

为什么日本陷入了人口危机？

日本现在是世界上出生率最低的国家，与此同时，也是世界上最长寿的国家，因此 日本的人口急剧下降，老龄化趋势也越来越严重。七年前，日本人口达到峰值——1.28亿，这之后人口数开始走下坡路，每年减少近100万。政府预测，至2060年，日本将仅有8700万人口，其中近一半是超过65岁的老人。如果日本的出生率和限制性的移民政策没有大的变动，那么这个国家的劳动力将无法抚养其已经退休的父母，日本的人口死亡曲线将呈现螺旋上升的趋势，而出生率仍保持较低水平。

【关于日本人口危机你不得不知道的几件事】相关文章：

★ 劳斯莱斯要改行做飞机了？而且有望打破世界纪录

★ 你是否陷入令人不快的工作？

★ 关于樱花你可能不知道的10件事

★ 关于吸烟的一些鲜为人知的事儿

★ 研究：“男人不坏女人不爱”有道理

★ 科学家告诉你儿童尿床的原因

★ 关于睡眠的8个流言

★ 看了这么多年春晚，这些关于春晚的冷知识你知道吗?

★ 夏日书单：这五本书，比尔·盖茨劝你今夏读一读

★ 另一半不想听到的那些事