On a Saturday in mid-April, a woman in her 50s sat on a bench munching a rice ball in front of Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.

She is one of several people interviewed that day who said they have family members or friends who are hikikomori — people who shut themselves into their homes for reasons ranging from difficulty finding a job or refusal to attend school to trouble in their personal relationships. Others said that they themselves have been social recluses in the past.

The woman's daughter, who is in her early 20s, dropped out of college without enough credits to graduate.