The phenomenon, commonly referred to as "hikikomori", is a major social problem confronting Japan today. There are believed to be a million such young adults who refuse to work and who avoid all social contact. In this paper, I consider possible contributing factors of hikikomori, including traditional Japanese culture and its mentality of "giri to one's name"; the psychopathology of taijinkyof...

S chool is about learning the values, norms, rituals, symbols, and designated knowledge of the dominant groups in power in any particular society. There are always many histories that exist in any given nation, and all of them are not always recognized or taught in the schools. So school learning is both written and unwritten. For example, schools teach an approved form of history, but they als...