Japan's ‘Socially Withdrawn Youths' and Time Constraints in Japanese Society

Sachiko Kaneko (1)

1 Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

This article discusses how time is conceptualized among , or Japan's so called ‘socially withdrawn youth', through the narratives of hikikomori keikensha (those who experienced ) and also examines time and space management in support context based on ethnographic data. is an act of retreat from time and space constraints in society. support groups provide a place for them to be without feeling such time constraints, but this is not considered sufficient to get back into society. , which challenges the usual coordinates of time and space, may be understood as a kind of reaction to time pressures and role performances in Japanese society.

Mots clés: ethnography; Japanese youth; narrative; social withdrawal; time constraints

Sachiko Kaneko. Japan's ‘Socially Withdrawn Youths' and Time Constraints in Japanese Society. Time & Society, 2006, 15 (2-3), pp.233-249. ⟨10.1177/0961463X06067034⟩. ⟨hal-00571018⟩