Nearly 1.5 Million Japanese Living in Extreme Isolation After COVID-19 Lockdowns

A shopper wearing a protective mask pushes a shopping cart at Japan's supermarket group Aeon's shopping mall as the mall reopens amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Chiba, Japan, on May 28, 2020. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Japan has seen an increasing prevalence in the “hikikomori” phenomenon following COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, with an estimated 1.46 million people isolating themselves from society by staying at home for an extended period.

A survey by the Cabinet Office found that about 20 percent of the total 1.46 million hikikomori—a term used in Japan to refer to people who barely left their homes for over six months—cited COVID-19 for their social withdrawal.