Letters to the Editor,
The Daily Yomiuri,
1-7-1 Otemachi,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8055
After reading Yuko Tsuchiya’s inspiring story of recovery from being a “hikikomori” social recluse from school for many years (“Ex-recluse becomes teacher,” March 20, 2010) and rising to become a teacher herself, I thought it is a bit unfair and harsh to call such young people school “truants.” It is correct that they are truants in the sense of students who stay away from school without permission, but not appropriate in the sense of students who are idle, shiftless and maliciously shirking or neglecting their responsibilities. Clearly, these are young people with mental health issues, so they are not so much “truant” as they are ill. Their problem is not so much that they are lazy, selfish characters, or that they are morally or socially depraved as that they suffer from a treatable biochemical imbalance. Tsuchiya’s case shows that hikikomori can livesuccessfully despite their illness, just as other people with mental health issues, like depression, do.