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Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation

Michael Zielenziger

3.58 · Rating details · 847 ratings · 130 reviews

The world's second-wealthiest country, Japan once seemed poised to overtake America. But its failure to recover from the economic collapse of the early 1990s was unprecedented, and today it confronts an array of disturbing social trends. Japan has the highest suicide rate and lowest birthrate of all industrialized countries, and a rising incidence of untreated cases of dep ...more

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published September 19th 2006 by Nan A. Talese (first published 2006)

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Feb 24, 2009 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: japan, society, culture

One of the things you learn about Japan when you get here - and you learn it pretty quickly - is that there can be a vast difference between the appearance of Japan and the reality of it. The faces that people show you, or even that the city shows you, is not necessarily their true face.

Take Kyoto as an example: it prides itself on being a city of traditional culture, the touchstone of all that is Truly Japanese. When you first see it, though, you think, "Really? Because it looks like a big ol' ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: japan

Michael Zielenziger’s goal in this book is to show how Japanese culture produced the hikikomori, the young people who use extreme measures to isolate themselves from the world. He shows how the phenomenon is unique to Japan, by drawing parallels to the seclusion of Princess Masako, by comparing the post war experience of Japan and Korea and through commentary on the unique social, historical and economic forces that created modern day Japan. This broad agenda makes for a sprawling book only abou Michael Zielenziger’s goal in this book is to show how Japanese culture produced the hikikomori, the young people who use extreme measures to isolate themselves from the world. He shows how the phenomenon is unique to Japan, by drawing parallels to the seclusion of Princess Masako, by comparing the post war experience of Japan and Korea and through commentary on the unique social, historical and economic forces that created modern day Japan. This broad agenda makes for a sprawling book only about 1/3 or which directly pertains to the hikikomori.

The portraits of the hikikomori and their families are the 5 star highlights of the book. In this you see a different Japan than the tourist sees. You learn of a culture of bullying, competition, conformance and shame. Some young people, mostly male, look at the compromised life of their fathers while they are facing social and/or academic failure at school and become immobilized by fear of not fitting in. They are indulged by the family that is ashamed and helps the hikikomori to hide by allowing him (usually him) to cover bedroom windows and by putting their food outside their bedroom doors. Some of these parents have not seen their sons for years. Some of the hikikomori, when they see their parents are violent; they may say something like “You have wrecked my life” as they assault them.

There is commentary on how widespread this is, the problems of parents who can overcome shame only to find very little help available and the hikikomori’s difficulties in “coming out” without an education credential or a social network.

The author ties the problem of Japan’s low birth rate to the same circumstances that produce the hikikomori. Unlike the hikikomori phenomenon, the author seems to blame this on the women who see only obstacles in marriage (care of the inlaws – no help in raising children – husbands working 7am-9pm) almost saying women should overlook them. There is only passing recognition that the men of marriage age want women who will put up with all of this and are not able to grasp what they are asking of a potential mate.

The other parts of the book are commentaries, many quite negative, on Japan. I presume these were adapted from material by the author in his role as a journalist. A few are timeless, others, because the book is from 2007, were interesting to see how they held up.

While the part on the hikikomori is excellent, rest of the book, while informative in some parts, brings it down. ...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Brian rated it it was ok

(2.0) Feels like loose stitching of previous reporting

Kyusik and I have this thing about journalists throwing a bunch of articles together to make some money on the side...yet we (or at least I) continue to pick up books on interesting topics only to be disappointed when the same thing happens.

Well, chalk another one up. Zielenziger didn't even try to hide this from us. The primary piece of evidence is how frequently he repeats sharing the very same interesting facts and clearly writing them as (2.0) Feels like loose stitching of previous reporting

Kyusik and I have this thing about journalists throwing a bunch of articles together to make some money on the side...yet we (or at least I) continue to pick up books on interesting topics only to be disappointed when the same thing happens.

Well, chalk another one up. Zielenziger didn't even try to hide this from us. The primary piece of evidence is how frequently he repeats sharing the very same interesting facts and clearly writing them as they are included for the first time (e.g. provides definitions, analogies). Some examples of his repetition that I can recall now:

that juku are so-called cram schools
that Japan is a "maternal society" whereas Western societies are "paternal"
that a particular liquor drunk frequently by businessmen is "like vodka"
that Japanese men list "sleeping" as their #1 weekend activity
that South Korea has far fewer hokikomori than Japan in part because of Korea's compulsory military service at majority
that during the 19th century, Western traders were isolated Deshima, the island off Nagasaki (where a fabulous novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, takes place incidentally)
that many Japanese firms conspire to hold shareholder meetings on the same day to minimize the presence of activist shareholders

To continue the rant, I did not appreciate his style at all...needlessly injecting himself into the exposition as though it were a narrative: "I met so-and-so at a great French bistro, and..." or "I met him in an unusual encounter...". Yes, we believe you interviewed these people, we don't need to visualize you in conversation with them over lunch. The other side of this criticism is that it's all interviews. Very little actual research appears to have been performed. Yes, it's the 'human side' of the lost generation, but meh.

And finally, he doesn't even stay on topic (further evidence of his article stitching). We spend a little time with the hokikimori (about whom I assumed this book was primarily written) into Japanese macroeconomics, globalization, its relationship with the US (and what "we" should be wary of in our foreign policy), Korea as a case study/counterexample, the rising influence of China in the region. I just couldn't really follow where he was going and never felt like he tied the second half of the book back to the Lost Generation.

All that said, I found modern Japan an interesting subject and did learn a few things that I've already shared in conversation. So it wasn't a total waste of time, just very poorly executed. ...more

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Dec 23, 2011 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book touched on nearly every Japanese socio-cultural ill that has plagued my mind since I began living here . Scathing in every dimension, often backed by insightful research and careful observations, the author paints a truer picture of Japan than most books. While much of the book delves into the Hikikomori phenomenon (shut ins, those who seclude themselves from society for a variety of reasons), many elements of social interaction in modern Japanese life are discussed. It makes for an en This book touched on nearly every Japanese socio-cultural ill that has plagued my mind since I began living here . Scathing in every dimension, often backed by insightful research and careful observations, the author paints a truer picture of Japan than most books. While much of the book delves into the Hikikomori phenomenon (shut ins, those who seclude themselves from society for a variety of reasons), many elements of social interaction in modern Japanese life are discussed. It makes for an enthralling read, even frightening in its portrayal of the levels of dysfunction that follow each Japanese person from the cradle to the grave.

One of the more interesting points made, and one central to its thesis, is the idea of “social trust”. Essentially, Zielenziger argues that because of Japan’s rather agnostic sense of spirituality(Shinto with accents of Buddhism), modern Japanese are extremely hesitant to reach out to “the other”; whether that be those in different social circles or the neighbor next door. This isolating pattern is seen everywhere, from the groups that are formed in school, to the workplace, and the family. Breaking free of these imposed group relationships is nearly impossible to do, and dangerous for those who try.

Most of these “shut-ins” who stay locked in their rooms sometimes for several decades, find this psychic break from the group to be the root of their troubles. Many of these Hikikomori stories begin with the person being dubbed an outcast in their schooling days, bullied for being different. Although such ostracism exists in all societies, in many other cultures the young person finds a way to prevail, remaining eccentric, and develop in to interesting, creative adults. (albeit with some mental scars) However, the chains of group dynamics in Japan are just too strong to overcome and those who try to break free are rejected by society as a whole. It is a sad state of affairs and leads one to question how many interesting, eclectic, creative individuals are locked away in Japan’s back closets.

Altogether this is a fascinating book that gets to the heart of many issues. If read in conjunction with Alex Kerr’s works, those interested in modern Japanese society can obtain a truer picture of this complicated nation, without wearing rose tinted glasses. ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Anna C rated it did not like it

Shelves: japan

I read this book hoping for an account of the hikikomori, the (estimated) one million young Japanese men who withdraw from society so completely that many of them literally do not leave their bedrooms for years at a time.

And for the first few chapters, that's what "Shutting Out the Sun" is about. However, rather than dig into the details of these isolated lives, Zielenziger spends the rest of the book trying to explain the roots of the hikikomori phenomenon through broad, structural analysis of ...more

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Jul 13, 2007 Yulia rated it liked it

Shelves: read-to-me-by-frank, japandemonium, non-fiction

This book provides essential insight into Japan's mindset as a country of largely homogeneous citizens who still trust only those in their closest circles and its younger generation's struggle to find their place in a banquet with too few seats and too strict a dress-code. What happens when democracy is forced onto a nation that has not fought for its rights? What happens when bullying becomes an accepted form of social feedback and women are given the same tests as men, only to enter into an ad ...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I enjoyed the first 1/3rd of this book, but as soon as it fell into `the only way to save Japan is through Christianity`, I was so put off, I could barely finish it.

While I agree with a lot of what the author says about the future of Japan and about the need for some kind of revolution, this whole book felt like some left over journalism thrown together and sellotaped into a book. Such an interesting topic, but very poorly executed. ...more

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Apr 19, 2009 Jerometed added it

I enjoyed this book, with one complaint.

All the information in the book comes from Zeilenziger or someone he interviews telling us "how it is." There are very few statistics or 'hard facts' anywhere, and that makes it difficult for me to imagine or care about the world Zeilenziger describes. However, it sounds like Japan's secretive attitude forces that sort of writing.

Japan faces a host of weird social issues, made incredible by the coupling of an unbelievably rigid society with a difficult pa ...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Jennifer Lavoie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: multicultural, japan, history, person-library, nonfiction

While this book started off fascinating for me, by the end I was struggling to complete it. The information on the hikikomori were fascinating, as was much of the history, but I felt that by the end, the author drifted so far away from the hikikomori side of the book, I couldn't remember why he was discussing the issues that he was.

For a long time, probably half the book, the author discusses not only Japanese history and religion, but Korean history and religion, and compares the two. He does ...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012, sociology-and-culture, non-fiction, japan-and-asian-studies, psychology-and-psychopathology

I do not typically read non-fiction; reading is less of a chance to learn and more of a chance to escape. Reading is slightly more mentally stimulating than, say, watching a movie or surfing the Internet, but the purpose is the same. I would rather read of the fictional adventures of a character or group of characters than to observe the what's-what of real life. Even so, I would have been a total idiot to overlook Zielenziger's book on the basis of, "my tiny exhausted undergrad brain cannot han I do not typically read non-fiction; reading is less of a chance to learn and more of a chance to escape. Reading is slightly more mentally stimulating than, say, watching a movie or surfing the Internet, but the purpose is the same. I would rather read of the fictional adventures of a character or group of characters than to observe the what's-what of real life. Even so, I would have been a total idiot to overlook Zielenziger's book on the basis of, "my tiny exhausted undergrad brain cannot handle it." As an Asian Studies/Japanese Studies major and a psychology geek, the subject of this book hit all my buttons.

It took me forever to finish it. I started in the beginning of January and only just managed to finish the book, right at the start of April. It is a dense read, and it's not easy. Zielenziger is clear in his words, being a journalist, but clarity only gets one so far. For example, much of the book's economic explanations were lost on me, simply because I know nothing about economics. Sometimes the book felt like a chore to read and by the middle it was less about hikikomori and more about business and economic history. As someone with very little prior knowledge of economics and someone who wasn't even alive in Japan's heyday, these parts of the book - though relevant - made things somewhat hard to follow and confusing.

Even so, the book offers an in-depth look at the psyche of Japan's hikikomori and the psyche of Japanese culture as a whole by analyzing the events that led up to and followed the burst of Japan's bubble economy. As an American, it feels to me that we often do not get much by way of an explanation when it comes to Asia; even now, this region of the world feels enigmatic to me, and I'm studying it in college! What many people perceive to be Japan hides the darker, more pressing social issues at play. Many people are unaware of the phenomenon of hikikomori, or the surprising amount of xenophobic regulations that make it hard for foreigners to assimilate, or the collective mindset that sweeping issues under the rug will make them disappear.

This book gives a lot of insight into the rise of hikikomori, though it is now slightly dated (it makes several mentions to the Bush presidency as a present-day situation; international relations have surely changed by now). That does not make the information inside it any less relevant. Anyone wishing to gain a deeper knowledge of Japan and the less-glamorous side of a culture that brought anime and gadgets to our shore should definitely read this book; it is insightful, interesting, and, in my eyes, vital to understand the complexities of Japanese culture. ...more

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Jul 19, 2008 John rated it liked it

Shelves: library_books

Great job from an outsider into Japan's hikikomori problem - boys (usually bullied at school) who just decide to "drop out" of society, not even leaving their bedrooms for years; there's also a discussion of the growing trend among young women to stay at home, refusing to marry, well past the traditional age of 25. Latter part of the book is a bit dry, giving social/economic/political backgground of Japanese society, as well as a contrast with that of South Korea, where the phenomenon is unknown ...more

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Aug 16, 2007 John rated it it was ok

The content of this book was very interesting, but the execution is flawed. Shutting Out the Sun was written by an American journalist living in Japan, and while the outsider's perspective is really needed to tell the story, the fact that the book is written by a journalist is both obvious and a problem. The book reads less like a study of the problems of modern Japanese society and the causes that led to them than a series of articles about it. I think the book's editor really fell down on the ...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Lisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japan

Interesting, but not facsinating. Zielenziger has the tendency to write as if he's doing a college term paper. At the begining of the book he says that he's going to let the individual Japanese hikikomori tell their own stories, but after one short quote, he lauches into his own opinions and findings and statistics for the rest of the chapter. I most enjoyed learning about the single Japanese women (dubbed "parasite singles"!!!) who refuse a traditional and expected life of marriage and children ...more

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May 18, 2009 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

What I liked most about Zielenziger's book is that he spends very little time talking about cultural differences between East and West, or between Japan and everywhere else. He explains in great detail the problem of Japan's disaffected hikikomori, and how they are the product of centuries of rigid thinking and decades of economic prosperity (and subsequent bust). Interviews with some of these people gives a personal focus. Refreshing. ...more

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Dec 08, 2020 DaveD rated it it was ok

It started out good, but at some point went off the rails and lost me...I 'ganman'd through to the end. ...more

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Jul 11, 2014 Jon rated it it was amazing

One of the best texts on Japanese culture that I've read, this book initially seemed like it would be a disappointment. Zielenziger starts off his book writing about the hikikomori, and since that discussion takes up the first several chapters, I initially thought I'd ended up reading a book on some uniquely Japanese psychological problem. The hikikimori are adults who live at home with their parents, usually holed up in their room. Unable to take the pressure of integrating socially, they choos One of the best texts on Japanese culture that I've read, this book initially seemed like it would be a disappointment. Zielenziger starts off his book writing about the hikikomori, and since that discussion takes up the first several chapters, I initially thought I'd ended up reading a book on some uniquely Japanese psychological problem. The hikikimori are adults who live at home with their parents, usually holed up in their room. Unable to take the pressure of integrating socially, they choose to wile away there time alone. The psychological problem sounded to me not dissimilar to autism or Asperger's syndrome, but in fact the problem is uniquely Japanese, as such people integrate normally into foreign societies. Usually, a bullying experience or something similar is the cause for the decision to withdraw from society; the hikikomori, Zielenziger claims, are often people who are too individualistic to fit in in Japan's very conformist society.

Zielenziger's discussion moves then to a more general discussion of Japan, a society, he claims, is essentially a hikikomori nation--a country that historically withdraws from other nations in the world. Here's where the book gets interesting: Zielenziger hypothesizes on why the Japanese are the kind of people they are and on why Japan, which had so much promise economically in the 1980s, fell into economic disarray in the 1990s and has not wholly recovered.

Zielenziger then goes into a history and culture of Japanese business. Japan's economy and politics is routed in the feudal culture that predates the modern world. Even though the United States transformed Japan in terms of its economic system, opening it up to the world, it did not transform the Japanese spirit. Hence, even though Japan became capitalist, the country transferred its warrior culture to the economic world: trade essentially remained one way (few imports, many exports), and businesses became the new extended families that one conformed to and that took care of the people.

Because Japan lacks a moral compass outside of societal conformity, Zielenziger hints, the Japanese often lack a sense of greater purpose or individuality. As such, capitalism becomes the end all and be all even more than it does in Western countries. A chapter is given over to fads and materialism in Japan, and how that is often the means by which Japanese gain a sense of “self,” which is not a sense of self at all but of cliques or groups.

It's at this point that Zielenziger gets into some of his most interesting discussions, comparing Korean culture to that of Japan's. Korea doesn't have quite the same tendency to cut itself off, and it thus doesn't have hikikomori. As a nation invaded multiple times by neighbors, Korea's independence is relatively short lived. It too has gotten rich in the capitalist realm, but unlike Japan it has managed to recover from the 1990s doldrums. This is because it has opened its economy to foreign investors. (Japan, meanwhile, closes itself off, maintaining corrupt or zombi firms, and slowly driving itself into debt. It was a nation of savers, but its debt has grown in the last few decades. That said, statistically, on the Web, it is still as far as I can tell a creditor nation, unlike, say, the United States, to which Zielenziger often compares Japan--I don't see the American system as all that great; then again, Zielenziger later notes how our two nations contribute to our mutual problems, since Japan allows us to drive up our debt by buying it.)

Zielenziger then goes into a very interesting study of why this might be so, and he comes to the conclusion that it is because Korea adopted Christianity (or at least one-third of Korea did). This has created a more Western sense of self that no longer looks entirely to the group for personal action and decision making. Zielenziger isn't trying to claim the Christianity is the boon of the world or anything like that--he's Jewish--but he is saying that Western ideas do lend themselves more to globalization and to the flexibility necessary to transform a culture when economic turmoil and other problems arise. ...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it really liked it

Shelves: japan

Shutting Out The Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, by Michael Zielenziger, is a fascinating look at contemporary societal problems in Japan. The central metaphor of the book is the social problem known as “hikikomori.” Hikikomori is a condition where, basically young men, few women have this condition, withdraw from the world and society by shutting themselves in their rooms and refusing to interact with their families and society. As far as it can be established, this condition on Shutting Out The Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, by Michael Zielenziger, is a fascinating look at contemporary societal problems in Japan. The central metaphor of the book is the social problem known as “hikikomori.” Hikikomori is a condition where, basically young men, few women have this condition, withdraw from the world and society by shutting themselves in their rooms and refusing to interact with their families and society. As far as it can be established, this condition only exists in Japan. I guess anywhere else the parents would knock down the door and tell to get a job or get out; apparently many of the men who suffer from this condition had been bullied at school. There is no official recognition of this condition and few treatment centers with no government funding.

I was first inspired to read this book when a friend of mine who was a long time resident of Japan said this book and a recent work related experience changed his perception of Japanese society. My friend is an executive recruiter (headhunter), it has been his belief that people are people and an understanding can always be made. But one of his placements, a western woman, was fired for being too opinionated. In his words, “fired for trying to make the company better.” So when he met a young Japanese applicant that had studied in America and said that she could maneuver both cultures due to her experience, he started to think there might be something to that.

Throughout the book he gives other well-supported examples of other societal problems plaguing modern Japanese society. For example, he looks at the phenomena of suicide which continues to rise yearly with over 30, 000 suicides a year. Then there are the people’s obsessions with goods and consumer society where 94% of women in their 20s have at least one Luis Vuitton product. There are significant problems within the family unit as where in a disproportionate number couples are living in separate bedrooms. According to one source in the book, one in three custom homes is built with separate bedrooms for the husband and wife.

Zielenziger’s discussion of the underlying social reasons for these problems is particularly interesting to me as he discusses concepts like that of the tradition of dependence and social obligations related to communal rice production. Rice cultivation required broad cooperation and meant that achieving consensus and making sure agreements were followed had been matters of life and death. This collectivist concept survives today and in studies between Japanese and Americans-Americans try to “influence” others to change behavior, while Japanese are more likely to change their behavior.

He also discusses how the collectivist mind set undermines trust of strangers and “social capital.” Trust is an essential to make society efficient, productive, and responsive to new concepts. A Japanese social psychologist suggests that Japanese collectivist society undermines trust and prevents social capital from accumulating. They have trouble looking outside their the scope of their predefined relationships.

I also found his comparison and contrast of contemporary Korea with Japan quite fascinating, since I have spent some time there as well. Korean culture is similar to Japan, but distinct nonetheless. One observation the author makes in this section is that basic civil liberties are guaranteed, but real choice is absent. Another observation states that democracy was imposed on Japan from the outside and warped by the one party rule and other factors. The results of this kind of democracy results in a system where dissent disturbs group harmony and deviance from the mainstream can jeopardize one’s livelihood.

All in all, Zielenziger’s book is painstakingly researched and supported with any number of facts, statistics, and authoritative opinions form people that matter. He has produced a balanced and though provoking book about contemporary society, which seems to be ignoring some of its greatest social problems. ...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Meg rated it liked it

Shelves: psychology, 2009, nonfiction, sociology

4/3/09 - I'm reading this, very slowly, before bed. Usually I pass out after a few paragraphs, which isn't fair because it's an interesting book. Right now I'm using it to distract myself from the two classes I'm taking, which are terrifically boring. I hope to finish this book within the month; at the same time, my classes will be over, and I will finally be free to jump into my ever-growing to-read list. I just keep adding and adding books and never get through any of them. It's almost time an 4/3/09 - I'm reading this, very slowly, before bed. Usually I pass out after a few paragraphs, which isn't fair because it's an interesting book. Right now I'm using it to distract myself from the two classes I'm taking, which are terrifically boring. I hope to finish this book within the month; at the same time, my classes will be over, and I will finally be free to jump into my ever-growing to-read list. I just keep adding and adding books and never get through any of them. It's almost time and I cannot wait!

5/13/09 - Slow-going but really interesting. The first few chapters seemed kind of fluffy, but by the fourth chapter the author performs an amazingly in-depth analysis of Japanese culture for the past 50 years or so. I learned there's a theory that the Japanese are groupthinky because of their historical dependence on rice. Several anthropologists believe that since it literally took a community during rice planting and harvest to ensure that no one starved, their culture developed around cooperation and shunned individualism. That has become a liability in the modern world.

I'm trying to take this all with a grain of salt because this is the first book on Japanese culture (all Asian, for that matter) that I've ever read. And the author's analysis of Japan's problems often stings. In one paragraph he points out some "odd" habits they have, such as reading BDSM manga on subways with no shame, bowing to an invisible superior while talking on cell phones, and cosleeping until the age of 4 or 5. I felt almost embarrassed reading that paragraph because the author was so critical. Okay, so reading BDSM in public is, to me, a little weird. (I like to do so privately. ;) ) Cosleeping in the US is not really accepted at any age, and especially not beyond toddler years. Public bowing - kind of cute, I thought. My point is that I need to read other books on Japanese history and culture, and probably make my way to Japan, to really accept the extremely negative view the author takes on Japan.

Before passing out into a mouth-wide-open sleep last night, I finished the chapter that covers Japan's addiction to high-end brands like Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, which I already knew about because of my many years of toiling in the Hamptons and because of a book I read last summer called Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. I don't think that author analyzed why "luxury" brands were so popular in Japan, so I enjoyed reading about it last night. Another example of Japanese searching for an identity and instead finding conformity and materialism. Ach, not a fan of using those words. I think I'm the biggest conformist/materialist of them all.

5/21/09 - This book made me feel happy to be an American woman, with a screwed up American husband, rather than a Japanese woman with a screwed-up Japanese husband. Although Japanese women do have the right approach: their idea of "opting out" and not putting up with the bullshit is refusing to marry and have children, whereas the American female idea of opting out is having the marriage, having the babies, and giving up the career. Bleh to that. The author says that Japanese men are quite stuck to a traditional view and expectation of females, and that most men, across all jobs, put in long hours because company = family more than family = family. Women are not only expected to be the sole caregivers to children, they are also expected - get this - to nurse their mother-in-law through any ailments until she dies (only if they are married to the first-born son). This has led some smart ladies to completely refuse to marry first-born sons, and many more women to opt out of marriage and family completely. I don't blame them. I guess we can't "have it all" in America or Japan? Or anywhere else? ...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Jean rated it really liked it

Shelves: lpl, japan, non-fiction, commentary

Rewritten and updated review (Sept 4, 2013)

This work as approachable and well laid out for the most part. It is an examination of various elements of Japan's society that is causing it to implode. Japan is suffering for its unwillingness to evolve and accept or adapt foreign or new ideas. Once its society had reach its initial post World War II reconstruction efforts, it never re-established new societal goals and left a generation floundering for purpose. Unfortunately, the status quo and ruthl Rewritten and updated review (Sept 4, 2013)

This work as approachable and well laid out for the most part. It is an examination of various elements of Japan's society that is causing it to implode. Japan is suffering for its unwillingness to evolve and accept or adapt foreign or new ideas. Once its society had reach its initial post World War II reconstruction efforts, it never re-established new societal goals and left a generation floundering for purpose. Unfortunately, the status quo and ruthless importance of conformity has stifled its citizens and its society.

The first phenomena discussed is those who suffer from hikikimori, people who have completely withdrawn from society and refuses to leave their room. Often times it severe social tramua brought about by class bullying on individuals who just cannot conform or just feel they do not know how to conform to what is expected of them. The stories of individuals suffering for hikikimori as well as the parental despair is very heartbreaking especially since this phenomenon is not brought about by biological imbalance but by social imbalance.

Another issue is the changing expectations of women who now value independence and refuse to subjugate themselves to the role of housewife and mother. Often called the Parasite Single, these women want a career and something for themselves. While some do want a family, the workplace is such that it will not permit them to have both. Also, their male counterparts do not feel the need contribute to duties of childrearing or house keeping and often times shy away from women who earn more or is more educated than they are. With workplace and male adherence to arcane gender roles, women have decided that marriage and children are not worth their loss of independence. Why give up a career, traveling and disposable income to become a slave to a man and a household.

Another eye-opening aspect is the nation's suicide rate which is one of the highest in the industrialized nations. The attitude towards suicide is an interesting one. Zielenziger notes the lack of Judeao-Christian influences could be a factor. Without the stigma associated with suicide, people are more apt to take this way out rather the fighting the immense tide of conformity and subjugation. Methods and group assisted suicides are very accessible.

The off shoot of this is the moral relativism born from a society with no Western influence. While it has its benefits, the disadvantages can be readily seen in its business world as corruption and the lack of will to enforce what is right or wrong and a general defeatist attitude by the general public. With this prevailing attitude, it will inhibit the Japan's ability to recover from its recession and economic woes as it becomes steeped in a game of saving face rather than facing the music and moving on.

The writer also made a comparative case study between Japan and South Korea. While two cultures are similar, South Korea is more agile and willing to take risks, look at different ideas and make radical changes swiftly. This has prevented South Korea from moving in the same trajectory as risk adverse Japan. The author also notes the influences of Christianity which also works against the moral relativism.

This is a compelling look at current modern Japanese Society and how it is suffering from the xenophobic and conformist views that can be traced even as far back as its feudal period. Though towards the end, there are some speculative assertions by the writer, for the most part, he presents a clear picture of Japan's people are suffering from their society's stagnation and its really heart breaking.
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Sep 02, 2014 Brian Caster rated it did not like it

I do not give out one-star ratings lightly. I read several books a week, rate them all on GoodReads, and this is the first one-star rating I've given out.

The author seems to know a little bit about about a lot, but not a lot about even a little bit. Instead, he seems to have formed a bunch of opinions/stereotypes about Japan and everything he, the wise Occidental, finds wrong with it. Then, toss in a few carefully chosen quotes from authors whom he treats like objective sources (for example, Fra I do not give out one-star ratings lightly. I read several books a week, rate them all on GoodReads, and this is the first one-star rating I've given out.

The author seems to know a little bit about about a lot, but not a lot about even a little bit. Instead, he seems to have formed a bunch of opinions/stereotypes about Japan and everything he, the wise Occidental, finds wrong with it. Then, toss in a few carefully chosen quotes from authors whom he treats like objective sources (for example, Frances Fukuyama, a darling of the far right), and suddenly his view is not actually an opinion--it is a medical diagnosis.

Zielenziger also constantly confuses correlation with causation, itself not a crime, except where you make it your goal of the book (seemingly) to determine the cause of the hikikomori issue. Instead, the book turns into a long rant about Japan and everything it is doing wrong, because it is not doing everything that the United States is doing.

Some choice quotes:

(Referring negatively to the U.S. leaving many war criminals in political positions post-WWII): "This is just the opposite of our current policy in vanquished Iraq, where the Americans summarily fired all Sunni Baathists loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Wrong. They fired ALL Sunni Baathists, regardless of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's regime. And, while Zeilenziger thinks that this was an objectively good decision, pretty much every single knowledgeable speaker on the Iraq War has universally condemned this move as short-sighted and poorly planned.

"For just as an isolated child needs a parent's protection, Japan can survive in its course of renewed isolation only if we Americans agree to act as the guardian who gallantly commands Japan's national defense while allowing Japan's export industries unfettered access to U.S. markets."

Where to begin? First, this is possibly the most arrogant, condescending attitude an American can take towards Japan, apparently our supplicant child. I met many foreigners in Japan (primarily, Americans, but just as often, Germans) who took this attitude towards Japan, apparently oblivious to the utter condescension of it. Japan is not a slave to the United States, its benevolent father. Japanese companies make plenty of money selling domestically, to China, India, Mexico, South America, etc. Zielenziger's utter lack of business knowledge is most apparent here, as he seems to think that only 4 Japanese companies sell products outside of the U.S., probably because those are the only companies whose products he has bought.

What about the major role Japanese companies play in the automotive industry, including the components industry? Pharmaceutical industry? Technology sector? Medical devices? It would be nice if Zielenziger could pay lip service to more than just the few companies he has apparently heard of, in an effort to bolster his very odd theory.

As you can probably tell from the review, I absolutely hated this book. The condescending tone, its being a political tract disguised as a well-researched tome, and the plain ignorance of its author (I doubt he speaks Japanese, since he points out with every source how good their English is--while at the same time criticizing Japan for having nobody who can communicate in English) add up to a giant mess that, unfortunately, will fool many into thinking it is more than just a giant, long-winded rant. It isn't.

Foreigners have criticized Asian nations for not mirroring the West since the King and I, but just with that flimsy musical, Zielenziger's horrible book actually demonstrates that the author himself doesn't seem able to turn the mirror on himself or his own country. A very Western thing, indeed. ...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Kevin Furr rated it really liked it

Japan is doomed. I've long since realized that, and occasionally I seek a better understanding of the causes of that destiny. While I was looking for more economic analysis, "Shutting out the Sun" proved to provide a very interesting analysis of Japan's psyche.

Above all it's the story of the hikikomori -- young men who withdraw from society and bunker themselves in their bedrooms for years at a time. Mere agoraphobics stay at home but happily welcome friends: the Hikikomoris refuse to talk to an ...more

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Apr 18, 2017 Sarah Stones rated it it was ok

I picked up this book because I was interested in gaining some insight into the lives of Japan's hikikomori, but was severely disappointed.

The book starts out promisingly, with Zielenziger offering some good framing of the problem, but it quickly devolves into a breakdown of everything that he thinks is wrong with Japan, and the various ways in which the country apparently fails to live up to the standards upheld by other developed countries, specifically the United States.

The focus on the hikik I picked up this book because I was interested in gaining some insight into the lives of Japan's hikikomori, but was severely disappointed.

The book starts out promisingly, with Zielenziger offering some good framing of the problem, but it quickly devolves into a breakdown of everything that he thinks is wrong with Japan, and the various ways in which the country apparently fails to live up to the standards upheld by other developed countries, specifically the United States.

The focus on the hikikomori themselves is soon lost, as Zielenziger devotes pages and pages to macro analysis of Japan's economy and all of the ways in which its businesses are falling behind the rest of the world.

While I'm one of the first to admit that Japan has some serious economic and social problems, Zielenziger's analysis is nothing but doom and gloom, as he cherry picks evidence that supports his bleak perspective.

One of the most bizarre parts of the book is when Zielenziger offers up South Korea as an alternative model for Japan, claiming that this small Asian country has avoided many of the ills that its larger neighbor is plagued by. While there are certainly some things that South Korea does better than Japan, this analysis doesn't hold up. Afflicted by the same workaholic culture that Zielenziger criticizes Japan for, South Korea also has some of the world's highest rates of alcohol consumption and suicide.

For someone who self-identifies as a secular Jew, Zielenziger is quick to praise Western Christianity, even going so far as to identify the spread of the Christian faith in South Korea as the reason for the country's relative prosperity. This theory is flimsy at best, and is also tinged with an inherent bias that implies that Christianity, along with the Western values associated with it, are fundamentally better than those of Japan's own Buddhism or Shinto. Then again, this kind of Eurocentrism is hardly surprising given the attitude that Zielenziger adopts throughout the book.

This book is over ten years old, but it feels even more dated than it is. Part of this is Zielenziger's stuffy writing style. He frequently employs old-fashioned writing conventions that have long been out of style, like the generic "he". He frequently talks about hikokomori as if they are all male, despite the existence of female hikikomori (one of whom he even interviewed for this book!).

All of this is a shame, because many of the social issues that Zielenziger addresses deserve attention, but he covers them with such alarmism and bleak pessimism that it's difficult to take much of what he says seriously.

This book is a good example of everything that's wrong with journalism about Japan. It's best left on the shelf. ...more

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Aug 30, 2019 Stephen added it

Shelves: japan

Shutting Out the Sun introduces itself with what readers will assume is its subject: the plight of an increasing number of young people who, for whatever reason, choose to withdraw into their bedrooms and cease to communicate with the outside world, ignoring even their parents. These persons, called hikkikimori, are merely part of Shutting Out the Sun, however, and readers who venture forward expecting a study of them will find that most of the time they are out of sight, mentioned a few times a Shutting Out the Sun introduces itself with what readers will assume is its subject: the plight of an increasing number of young people who, for whatever reason, choose to withdraw into their bedrooms and cease to communicate with the outside world, ignoring even their parents. These persons, called hikkikimori, are merely part of Shutting Out the Sun, however, and readers who venture forward expecting a study of them will find that most of the time they are out of sight, mentioned a few times after the first chapter but never examined in fine detail. The true subject of Shutting Out the Sun is Japan, which in 2006 was still mired in economic stagnation and rapidly being overshadowed by India and China. Japan is a country in a profound cultural crisis, writes Michael Zielenziger, and if it does not adapt to the realities of 21st century globalization, it faces the danger of becoming a hikkikimori nation: one so withdrawn from economic and diplomatic activity it may as well not exist.

In the 1980s, Japan’s economic prowess was such that many in the west feared its future influence. People drove Japanese cars, their kids were obsessed with Japanese video games, and their homes were increasingly filled with goods from Sony. And then…in 1989…the future fell to pieces, at least for Japan, and it entered a recession that was still going in 2006 when Zielenziger published Shutting Out the Sun. But it wasn’t just the economy that was struggling. Japan’’s entire society was stagnating, argues Zielenziger; the same factors that had undermined its economic growth were also driving its young people to isolate themselves from the world, and skyrocketing Japan’s suicide rates.

The root of the probem, Zielenziger believes, is that Japan never really embraced liberal democracy; its prewar order simply adopted democracy as the new way that traditional authority asserted itself. Democracy was imposed from on high, from the American military authorities and Japan’s own leaders. Democracy was never conceived as a challenge to existing order, the way it was in America, England, and France; and the bones of democracy like a widespread belief in human rights distinct from government never developed. Elements of Japanese culture which had previously bound the nation together – immense social pressure towards conformity, for instance — continued. This time, the Japanese people were marshalled to rebuild Japan and flourish economically.

The urgent need to recover economically produced a distortion in Japanese culture, however; Japanese men became obsessed with work, developing a ‘salaryman’ approach that meant they were out of the home for the majority of the day: they worked long hours, then socialized with their business partners late into the evening, retiring home only to sleep. The intense pressure to succeed drove many men to drink in excess, and their constant absence from the home didn’t do their marriages any favors. Zielenziger goes so far as to suggest that for the Japanese salaryman, his traditional fealty to his family has been displaced, and is now centered on his firm.

Kids were likewise pressured to succeed, and to conform; many of the hikkimori introduced in the opening relate tales of persistence bullying enabled by authority figures who assumed verbal and physical abuse meant that the kid in question had done something to disrupt the group. As Japan connected to the outside world through television and the internet, however, kids who were abused were also tortured by the fact that there were other societies out there where things weren’t like this – where people weren’t obsessed with academic excellence all the time, where there was room in life for leisure. The intense pressure from their peers and family, however, meant that young Japanese who wanted something different were constantly suppressed in their efforts to find it. Unable to conform and unable to stand and resist, many chose to flee – into their rooms, or if they were old enough, into neighboring countries like Thailand or South Korea. Even those who wanted to conform often found they couldn’t: how could they succeed as Japan entered a recession that went on for a decade?

That recession was largely caused by Japan’s culture of conformity, Zielenziger suggests: Japan focused so much on itself that it did not watch the world around it, and those who wanted to try new ideas were generally suppressed. Because Japan’s status quo was so successful – growing GDP, little crime, no underclass — any perceived challenges to it, like a poor-performing company or a new firm that threatened to disrupt things – were actively mitigated. Firms that would have gone bankrupt for failing to adapt in the western world were instead propped up, and up and comers suppressed by the government. So change-resistant was Japan, writes Zielenziger , that even in the early 2000s many businesses were still circulating interoffice memos by paper and only grudgingly tolerating the entrance of computers into their offices. Email was dismissed as unprofessional.

Zielenziger finds Korea as useful counter-example; westerners who first visited Korea as missionaries and doctors were not driven away; they stayed and their interactions with Korea changed it. Korea grew in response to its interactions with the outside world, and despite his secular Jewish status, Zielenziger finds Korea’s embrace of Christianity particularly interesting, contending that it promoted a view of people as individual persons, not merely members of a collective, and that it further set limits to the state by defining it as something separate, instead of conflating it and society. Korea’s democracy grew from below, instead of being imposed from above by a military hierarchy. While he does not suggest that Japan should convert to protestant Christianity, he does wonder if Japan would have gone another way had it had more substantial interaction with the western world rather than merely taking its tools to use on behalf of a chiefly feudal order.

As the length of this review suggests, Shutting Out the Sun offers a lot to consider. The problem in evaluating it, for me, is that I know very little about modern Japanese culture, either from personal experience or from other reading, so I don’t know if this is insightful or completely off the mark. I do know it makes for disturbing reading, between the kids walling themselves off from the world, the parents drinking or killing themselves from prolonged misery, and the looming hints that Japan is actively dying and no one can shake the stupor. ...more

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Dec 13, 2014 Ko Matsuo rated it liked it

This book is about the 1 million Japanese, who shut themselves off from society for years. Per Zielenziger, hikikomori is a unique phenomenon in Japan, where its victims are smart and articulate, but at the same time paralyzed, lack energy and enthusiasm. The first half of the book is fascinating, analyzing socials causes, such as amae (parents helping their kids too much), lack of community, concept of God, and a rigid society and government system that has no contingency for their plan of havi ...more

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Aug 10, 2014 Marija S. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history-politics-culture, solid-read

A very insightful and important book on invisible social crisis which is interwoven into modern Japanese society that offers a broad overview of its manifestations and causes. I highly recommend it to everybody interested in Japan and sociology even though I dislike the way it portrayed the hikikomori as modern (quasi) martyrs, contains some contradictions regarding data and conclusions it presents and clearly underlines Christianity as the solution of the presented problem (also, mentions Slove ...more

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Nov 20, 2012 palomino rated it really liked it

This book is absolutely intriguing, giving a rare and first hand insight into an extremely common but shunned phenomena growing amongst the youth and young adults of Japan.

It gives rise to the frail intricacies of the human heart and mind. The author gives us as armchair voyeurs the added cultural, historical and psychological insights that have all blended in helping to cause rise to the Hikikimori. I enjoyed learning from this book immensely.

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Jan 01, 2021 Kiki023 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Published a year before the bursting of a bubble that, ironically, plunged the western world into a nearly identical economic crisis, Michael Zielenziger presented an incisive yet blinkered account of Japan's 21st-century failings; its economic stagnation, its crisis of confidence, and the deep scars left on the psyche of a generation of hopeless young men.

Some 15 years later, after two decades of withering political economy and the startling rise of western-style hikikomori, it is hard to faul Published a year before the bursting of a bubble that, ironically, plunged the western world into a nearly identical economic crisis, Michael Zielenziger presented an incisive yet blinkered account of Japan's 21st-century failings; its economic stagnation, its crisis of confidence, and the deep scars left on the psyche of a generation of hopeless young men.

Some 15 years later, after two decades of withering political economy and the startling rise of western-style hikikomori, it is hard to fault the author for some of his mistaken presumptions: that this was a uniquely Japanese crisis born of uniquely Japanese pathologies rooted in its history and culture, that Japan needed to simply embrace the dynamism of a competitive and globalized economy in order to recover, and that its regimented society must embrace liberal pluralism in order to develop a true alternative to the heavy hand of the state.

The structure of the book mirrors that of a bewildered youth leaving his room and exploring the world, beginning with a microscopic examination of individual families laboring under the stress of hikikomori offspring, before gradually expanding its focus outward to examine the social and corporate world and eventually the international relations between Japan and the rest of the world. Through it all, the heart of this journalism-turned-book is oriented around its humanistic concern for the young men the author sought out to understand modern Japan. We learn about the plight of young men with seemingly little motivation and direction, who lash out at their parents, who take solitary walks through Tokyo's sprawling neighborhoods at night, who hole themselves up in their rooms and find recourse in fantasy worlds, anime, and manga. Sound familiar?

The theory of the case is that the Japan of the early 21st century is ruled by a soft managerial despotism that stifles creative expression and individuality even as it ostensibly guarantees the freedoms of its citizens. Its 20th-century traumas having not been adequately grappled with, its booming economy collapsed under the rapid deflation of an asset bubble, and its mores remain unchanged after co-opting western techniques of modernization without their complementary value systems, Japan has become a "hikikomori nation" incapable of contending with the challenges of modernity and unwilling to take the hard steps necessary to understand itself. Its national conglomerates, dense bureaucracy, and parasitical "press clubs" operate under a revolving door of patronage networks in which responsibility is widely disseminated and all are left unaccountable, even as rigid social mores meticulously pick out and remove dissenters from the nation's midst. The result is a hollow civil society, authoritarian culture, no effective mediator between individual and state, and near-total absence of social capital in Japanese society.

There is little doubt that much of the description is true. Anyone who pierces the thin veil with which Japan shrouds itself will see just what the author sees: the replacement of traditional Japanese aesthetic for dreary modernism, its single-minded devotion to education at the expense of all else, its stifling mechanisms of socialization, and the deep repression that sometimes explodes into shocking displays of violence. It is a far cry from the utopian image projected onto its western japanophiles by the cultural exports they readily consume. But time has demonstrated that the author's prescription - a sudden and dramatic individualistic revolution -misses the mark, and may well do much to land us in the same place.

The value judgments that inform his critique inform his solution, which automatically lends suspicion to the value of that critique. One need only look at the present state of the US and Europe, where young men retreat from society, take comfort in cartoons and video games, and in the worst instances engage in mass shooting sprees. Its people now die the same deaths of despair that the author laments as peculiarly Japanese. The same transformations in social mores that the author champions as a triumph of western flexibility in opposition to Japanese dogmatism now preclude a growing share of young people from sex and marriage. Inability to reckon with the tradeoffs of privatization and "shareholder" capitalism deindustrialized large swaths of developed nations and precipitated the rehabilitation of industrial policy in policymaking circles, precisely the kind of thinking the author identifies as responsible for Japan's economic stagnation.

Zielenziger dedicated a few paragraphs towards the end to the notion that the two extremes of the pendulum, extreme individualism and extreme collectivism, may both produce social dysfunction. Compared to his repetitive paeons for the protestant work ethic, he does not dwell on it nearly long enough. Nor does he take this essential insight to its logical conclusion: that a planned society and an unplanned society will, in the long run, produce the same kinds of systemic dysfunction. Creating thick networks of social trust will be as challenging in the United States's atomized society as it will be in a Japan dominated by its inflexible "Iron Triangle". The author gestures at this but does not follow through. Still, the insights here are valuable, and the dearth of hikikomori studies makes this an invaluable source of information and an intriguing starting point for those who perceive that our similar pathologies are more than mere passing resemblances. Japan's issues differ from ours only in the temporal realm. Their state of decay is not different, merely slightly advanced, and perhaps intertwined. ...more

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Apr 22, 2019 Sophy H rated it liked it

3.5 stars

An interesting read regarding the Hikikomori of Japan; disillusioned young Japanese who, having felt as though they've "failed society", shut themselves away in their rooms, cutting off contact to the outside world and equally rely upon yet are antagonized by their exasperated yet perhaps unsupportive parents.
The book is an interesting read which relies heavily upon verbal accounts of the phenomenon and oral histories from Hikikomori, their parents, employers, politicians, and psychiat ...more

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Dec 11, 2020 Joe rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, 日本, contemporary

Good overview of the social ills of contemporary Japan (although some of the references are dated... there is more discussion of Bush and the 90s than is necessary to make the author's point).

In particular, the author looks at the phenomenon of hikikomori, young people who are so intimidated by society that they never leave their bedrooms. The author ends up contrasting contemporary Japan with America and South Korea to see what caused this phenomenon to show up in Japan.

Now that "deaths of desp ...more

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Nov 30, 2018 R rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018

Found this book to be a compelling read. It was written in 2006 so if I had time I would do a bit of research to see what the current situation is in Japan and Korea. It was also written by a gaijin living in Japan and visiting Korea often. The book provided me with some understanding why one friend would say she was "weird" with such sadness. My response of I love weird provided her little comfort. I should have connected the pieces with the stories she told about being shunned by Japanese wome ...more

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