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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-17/hikikomori-seiko-goto-japan/100792330>
"Standing with a knife beside her son's bed while he slept, Seiko Goto was
contemplating murdering her son and killing herself.
Seiko was ashamed and desperate, fearing she had raised a person who was of no
use to the world.
Her son, Masato, refused to go to school or even leave his room. He had shut
himself off from society.
Masato is not alone. The phenomenon is so acute in Japan that it has its own
word — hikikomori, or the "shut-ins".
The more than 1 million people who do not conform to the country's rigid social
expectations are left with few options.
They hide. Their failure brings enormous shame on their families.
"I became scared to go to a nearby supermarket," Seiko tells Foreign
Correspondent.
"I didn't want the parents of my son's classmates to see me and ask me about
him.
"I saw students having fun on their way to school. I had tears in my eyes
watching them. Why can't my child be the same as them?"
As Seiko watched Masato sleep that night, more than a decade ago, she was
stopped in her murderous intent by his gentle, peaceful face.
At that moment she was seized by a thought: She realised that the high
expectations she imposed on him were destroying him.
"I told him to study and study from morning to night, and I think I was a
terrible, terrible mother," she says.
Seiko came to terms with having a son who is different, and realised that she
was the one who had to change.
These days she's happy and laughs a lot, and has repaired the relationship with
her son."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
