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An estimated 1.46 million working-age people in Japan are living as “hikikomori” social recluses, a survey by the Cabinet Office showed Friday.
The figure accounts for some 2% of the total population of people aged between 15 and 64 in the country. Some 20% became social recluses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the survey.
A Cabinet Office official warned that hikikomori “could happen to anyone.”
The estimate was based on a survey conducted in November last year on 30,000 people aged between 10 and 69 across the country.
