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Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation Hardcover – Deckle Edge, September 19, 2006

by Michael Zielenziger (Author)

67 customer reviews

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The world’s second-wealthiest country, Japan once seemed poised to overtake America. But its failure to recover from the economic collapse of the early 1990s was unprecedented, and today it confronts an array of disturbing social trends. Japan has the highest suicide rate and lowest birthrate of all industrialized countries, and a rising incidence of untreated cases of depression. Equally as troubling are the more than one million young men who shut themselves in their rooms, withdrawing from society, and the growing numbers of “parasite singles,” the name given to single women who refuse to leave home, marry, or bear children.

In Shutting Out the Sun, Michael Zielenziger argues that Japan’s rigid, tradition-steeped society, its aversion to change, and its distrust of individuality and the expression of self are stifling economic revival, political reform, and social evolution. Giving a human face to the country’s malaise, Zielenziger explains how these constraints have driven intelligent, creative young men to become modern-day hermits. At the same time, young women, better educated than their mothers and earning high salaries, are rejecting the traditional path to marriage and motherhood, preferring to spend their money on luxury goods and travel.

Smart, unconventional, and politically controversial, Shutting Out the Sun is a bold explanation of Japan’s stagnation and its implications for the rest of the world.

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation [Deckle Edge]

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After its 1990 economic crisis, Japan entered a period of stagnation and has yet to recover. Although at first limited to finances, this depression slowly spread to the country's political system as well as its national consciousness. One extreme example of the problem is the more than one million young men who have given up on school or employment, spending their days in their cramped apartments. In this well-researched and well-organized book, journalist and scholar Zielenziger reveals how these men ("hikikomori") are both a symptom of and a metaphor for Japan's ennui. With compassion and vigor, he presents close-up portraits of the hikikomori, while grounding their stories in the political, economic and historic realities facing Japan today. Zielenziger also suggests that women who avoid marriage and children, men who drink too much and both men and women fetishizing brand names are additional signs of the mass confusion and discontent. Seven years as a Tokyo bureau chief for Knight Rider newspapers has given Zielenziger the necessary access to this closed culture, though his exposé is bound to be controversial. His inclusion of both small details and the big picture makes the book as intimate as it is revealing. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

At the end of the 1980s, Japan's future seemed bright. A leader in the technological arena, Japan seemed poised to become the world's next superpower. Twenty years later, that promise has faded, and the once-influential nation is in crisis. Journalist Zielenziger, who has lived in Japan for 10 years, set out to discover why. Much of the focus of this engrossing, comprehensive work is on the clash between older and younger generations and on how the former's inability to let go of tradition is stifling the latter. Japan's rigid education and work systems have created a class of young people known as hikikomori, who literally shut themselves up in their rooms. Through interviews with several of these young men, Zielenziger reveals how the pressures on Japanese youths cause some to give up and retreat from society. Young women, too, are rejecting traditional roles and choosing careers with foreign companies over marriage and children. A piercing, astute look at how a society's refusal to embrace change is detrimental to its younger generation. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese; First Edition edition (September 19, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385513038
ISBN-13: 978-0385513036
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.3 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,520,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2382 in Books > History > Asia > Japan
- #2515 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Political Economy
- #3918 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Asian

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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars

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2 star		12%
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Top Customer Reviews

as well as its best aspects. So while quite a few found this ...

ByMagicalon February 14, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I found the book very informative, but it should go without saying that no one should form their overall view on a subject because of one book. I do think there is a lot of lessons to be drawn from the observations therein, and what's impressive is the overall breadth of the book, as opposed to its depth, which I don't think goes quite deep enough. That said, for a mere cent I can't complain. (In an also chilling moment of prescience, the author touches on issues with the Fukushima reactor, regarding an employee who tried to raise red flags on problems there.) A wide variety of topics are discussed: from economy, to the sex district, to the population issues, to work life, family life, the dating scene and the difficulty women have (and his interviews with single women were especially appreciated), the culture surrounding alcoholism and health services -- while this is a book about hikkikomori, be ready to learn a lot about ancillary subjects which at first glance, might not seem relevant, but all tie back to the subject at hand.

I'm looking to widen my understanding of Japanese culture, so I bought this book at .01 cent on the used market. I feel it's just as important to examine the darker aspects of a culture (as unpalatable to the eternallly-optimistic-brightsided crowd as that may be), as well as its best aspects. So while quite a few found this book lacking or inaccurate, I still think there's great benefit to weighing Zielenziger's "negative" portrait. It was especially his very wide view of the greater Japanese economy that was much appreciated. This book being published in 2005 during the height of the boom in the US, it's somewhat ironic that at the time of this review, the bank of Japan has instituted negative interest rates.

Quite frankly, I can't imagine painting a happy picture of a country whose economic predicament limits the choices and the futures of its citizens. If the book comes off as pessimistic, it's because the reality is quite stark, which makes it realism, not pessimism, and that's a critical difference. Had Zielenziger chosen to focus on what he found great about Japan, very little is going to obscure the real statistic of a declining population.

If anything, the phenomenon of hikkikomori brings to mind the haunting mouse experiments in overpopulation conducted by Calhoun (which in part inspired O'Brien to write The Secret of Nimh, for those who like useless trivia.) I mention it only because in Calhoun's experiments, mice who chose to no longer participate in the overcrowded mouse utopia withdrew in similar style to the hikkikomori, and the mice who withdrew were dubbed "the beautiful ones". Coincidence? But I digress.

In the end, an easily readable book on the subject, and I would read more from this author.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Quite good.

ByMoon July 11, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

So few research books available on hikikomori and modern social trends in English generally so this is a good starter for any non-Japanese interested in the countries horrendous silent epidemic of shut-ins and so called parasites and how a whole new culture has been born out of truancy and social withdrawal here. I gave it 3 stars because I felt the writer had only been able to interview and talk with semi-EX hikikomori people and there was not enough written on the effect that sheltering hikikomori had on parental and sibling dynamics. I've lived in Japan 25 years and married to a Japanese man for most of those years with a son who was hikikomori so i have a very personal curiosity in how hikikomori is presented. While the writer has lived here a decade or so and has knowledge, he has no personal insight from a subjective perspective, he is "looking on" and as such there is, to me a cold objectivity to the book.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Interesting, I certainly read it several times.

ByButsurigakuon March 9, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A really great look at a part of Japanese culture that most Japanese would prefer remain hidden, but some parts, like the bits about parasite singles and other Japanese rat-race dropouts, feel sort of tacked on. The author has a tremendous amount of sympathy for the hikikomori, and obviously less interest in (and sympathy for) other forms of social withdrawal. The only problem with that is a big part of his argument is that these kids are extra-smart and extra-sensitive and that Japanese society needs to heed their plaintive warnings if it wants to stay relavant on a global scale, but then the other groups of young people with different coping mechanisms are just whatever, maybe there because an editor told him it was required to make the book complete. They are definitely not handled with the same sensitivity. It makes one think that he got a bit too emotionally involved in the work and is reaching a bit too hard with the conclusions, which detracts a bit from his otherwise interesting analysis.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

great insight supported by stats

Bydragonflyon April 26, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The author has lived in Japan for seven years and seemed to have understood its culture and economy sufficiently enough. I traveled Japan and thought this book helped have a bit more of an insight into the Japanese culture.

First three chapters of the book are on hikikomori, which are also used to describe the book as a whole, but these chapters have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the book. It is like two separate books in one.

This is an economic and cultural analysis of the declining Japanese economy supported by statistics and the author's own views. It also draws stark comparison with South Korea. I had no idea there were such fundamental differences in their economies and people.

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OUT OF HERE

ByThomas Dunnon December 5, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A critique of contemporary Japanese society which, the author opines, suffers in large measure for not having come to terms with its defeat in WWII. Moving stolidly on in traditional ways, in denial of defeat, buttressed against the emerging global economy, Japan has alienated hundreds of thousands of its young men, who have literally "shut out the sun," retreating each to his own room to drop out of a highly prescriptive world in which he cannot function.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

great book about obscure subject

ByFekketCantenelon August 15, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This not only teaches a lot about the hikikomori and related disorders, but sheds some light on Japanese culture to which we're not usually exposed. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in Japanese culture and/or helping the mentally ill.