When the Kimura family moved here from Tokyo, their middle school-aged daughter missed her old friends. Midway into her first year in high school, she stopped going. Between 14 and 19, she barely left the house, and for one year hardly left her room, interacting only with her parents.

木村（Kimura）一家剛從東京搬到這里的時候，家里上初中的女兒十分想念她的老朋友。高一念了一半，她就輟學了。14至19歲期間，她基本不出家門，曾經有整整一年幾乎沒離開過自己的房間，而且只跟父母打交道。

Now 33 and recovered, Ms. Kimura says she was “hikikomori.” That’s the name of a type of social withdrawal that can be so severe, people with it don’t leave their houses for years. It’s also what those who suffer from the condition are called.

現年33歲的木村女士說，她曾是個“隱蔽青年”（hikikomori）。“隱蔽青年癥候群”指的是一種社交退縮癥，這種病癥可能會達到相當嚴重的地步，患者終年不出家門。“隱蔽青年”則用來指代罹患此病的群體。

The puzzling condition is often thought of as a Japanese phenomenon, affecting an estimated 500,000 to two million in Japan, according to projections from academic surveys. Published reports also have described cases in the U.S., Hong Kong and Spain, among other countries.

這一令人迷惑不解的病癥經常被視為一種日本社會現象。據學者調查推測，日本約有50萬至200萬人深受其害。而在已發表的報告中，對于美國、香港、西班牙和其他國家的相關案例也有描述。

In Japan, hikikomori has been a household word since the 1990s, with many experts calling it one of the biggest social and health problems plaguing the country. Yet the causes and treatments of the condition—or even whether it’s a mental illness or not—remain poorly understood. And while the Japanese government has poured significant funds into helping hikikomori, treatment success rates remain low.

20世紀90年代以來，“隱蔽青年”成為日本人人皆知的一個詞匯。許多專家將其視為制約日本發展的一大社會與心理健康問題。然而，我們對其產生的原 因、治療方法，甚至這是否應該被歸為一種心理疾病，都知之甚少。盡管日本政府已投入大量資金幫助“隱蔽青年”，但治愈率依然很低。

The condition illustrates the difficulty of defining mental illness and raises questions about the role society plays in shaping, allowing or even creating problematic behavior. Researchers in Fukuoka have set up an international collaboration to try to answer some of these questions.

“隱蔽青年癥候群”充分證明了心理疾病的界定難度，也質疑了社會在問題行為上的作用，包括社會對問題行為的影響和容忍，甚至包括問題行為是否由社會引發。福岡的研究人員已發起一項國際合作項目，試圖解開這些疑問。

Solving the hikikomori riddle has taken on greater urgency in recent years. Sufferers often are men in their 20s and 30s who would be in the workforce but instead are being supported largely by their parents. Government officials worry about who will take responsibility for long-term hikikomori when their parents retire or die.

近年來，揭開“隱蔽青年癥候群”謎題已變得愈加迫切。“隱蔽青年”多為20歲至30歲的男性。本該在工作的他們如今反而基本倚靠父母供養。政府官員們擔心，一旦他們的父母退休或離世，將無人為“隱蔽青年”負責。

Fukuoka, a city of 1.5 million 550 miles southwest of Tokyo, about four years ago opened a support center, which the Japanese government requires of every prefecture in the country. 福岡位于東京西南方1,500,550英里。大約四年前，按照日本政府對各縣市的要求，福岡開設了一家“隱蔽青年”援助中心。

Called Yokayoka, which means, “It’s OK, don’t worry about it,” in the local dialect, the one-room support center is linked to a youth employment facility. The center primarily fields phone calls from hikikomori or, more often, their worried parents. It also offers support groups for hikikomori and their parents. However, only a small number of hikikomori actually show up at the center. Of those, a minority are treated successfully, staffers say.

援助中心名叫“Yokayoka”，當地方言的意思是“沒事兒，別擔心”。這家援助中心只有一個單間，與一所青年就業機構相連。援助中心的主要工作 任務是接聽“隱蔽青年”的電話，但來電的更多是憂心忡忡的父母。他們也為“隱蔽青年”及其父母成立了互助小組。但工作人員稱，僅有少數“隱蔽青年”會來， 而他們中只有一小部分被成功治愈。

Takahiro Kato, a professor in the neuropsychiatry department at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, is working with the support center to study hikikomori in a more rigorous and systematic way. Dr. Kato and a team of Japanese and international collaborators that includes Alan Teo, a psychiatry professor at Oregon Health & Science University, want to better define what hikikomori is. They also hope to understand the social and biological underpinnings of the condition to improve treatments.

加藤貴裕（Takahiro Kato）是福岡九州大學神經精神學科的一名教授。他正與援助中心合作，用更嚴謹系統的方法對“隱蔽青年癥候群”進行研究。加藤博士及其所屬的一支包括日 本和國際專家在內的合作團隊，正試圖為“隱蔽青年癥候群”下一個更為明確的定義。俄勒岡健康與科學大學神經病學教授張艾倫（Alan Teo）也是團隊成員之一。該合作團隊還希望了解這種病癥的社會和生理因素，并改善治療方法。

People who consider themselves hikikomori exhibit a wide range of symptoms, including depressive, autistic and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. A minority appear addicted to the Internet, says Dr. Kato, a 40-year-old psychiatrist.

現年40歲的精神病學家加藤博士稱，那些自認“隱蔽青年”的群體表現出的癥狀各有不同，包括抑郁癥、自閉癥和強迫傾向，少數人上網成癮。

Yossy, 31, came for a recent hikikomori support group. He says he didn’t leave his parents’ house for six months after harassment from his boss at his speech therapy internship led him to quit. After that, he did begin to visit friends occasionally and volunteer at a library. But after four years, he still hasn’t held a full-time job.

31歲的Yossy近期曾到援助中心來參加過互動小組。他表示，自己曾是一名語言障礙矯正實習醫師，因老板騷擾而辭職，之后他有半年一直待在父母家。從那以后，他偶爾也去會見朋友，或者在圖書館做義工。但四年過去了，他仍然沒有一份全職工作。

Hikikomori appears to be a condition distinct from other mental illnesses, Japanese experts say. Only about half of those with the condition would be diagnosed with a disorder in the U.S. psychiatric diagnostic manual commonly known as DSM-5, according to one survey of 4,134 Japanese residents published in Psychiatry Research in 2010. But large-scale survey data on hikikomori remains limited.

日本專家們認為，“隱蔽青年癥候群”似乎有別于其他精神疾病。一項針對4134名日本居民的調查顯示，僅有約一半的“隱蔽青年”符合美國精神病學會 《精神障礙診斷與統計手冊》（Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders，俗稱DSM-5）的診斷標準，會被診斷為精神障礙。調查結果發布在2010年的《神經病學研究》雜志上。但針對“隱蔽青年癥候群”的 大規模調查數據仍然很有限。

Japanese experts point to strict parenting practices and pressure that children feel to succeed as contributing factors. Yet hikikomori often live with their parents, and these parents can be soft in forcing their children to go to school or leave the home. They often bring trays of food to their bedroom doors.

日本專家指出，嚴厲的家庭教育和成功壓力是“隱蔽青年癥候群”的誘因。“隱蔽青年”經常與父母同住，而他們的父母在敦促孩子上學或離家方面卻表現得心慈手軟。他們常把食物端到孩子的房門口。

Current thinking is that providing hikikomori with positive social interactions will help them reintegrate with the outside world. Michiko Asami, president of the nonprofit that runs Yokayoka, welcomes each hikikomori with a big smile and tries to initiate a nonjudgmental conversation. Sometimes they sit silently for multiple sessions or won’t look at her. Gradually, some do.

目前來看，為“隱蔽青年”提供積極的社會互動將有助于恢復他們與外界的聯系。負責Yokayoka援助中心運作的非營利性機構主席淺海美智子 （Michiko Asami）笑容滿面地歡迎每一位“隱蔽青年”的到來，她試圖發起一次無偏見的對話。有時，“隱蔽青年們”會在小組交談時靜靜地坐著，亦或根本不看她。漸 漸的，一些人開始參與進來。

Vocabulary

hikikomori: 隱蔽青年，蟄居族

social withdrawal: 社交退縮癥

projection: 推測

plague: 折磨

neuropsychiatry: 神經精神病學

psychiatry: 精神病學

underpinning: 基礎

autistic: 孤獨癥的

obsessive-compulsive: 強迫性神經(官能)癥的

nonjudgmental: 無偏見的

（譯者：白雪_Cathy 編輯：祝興媛）