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.
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