How many japanese hikikomori are aspies?

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I have read unconfirmed reports stating that autism is almost five times as common in Japan as in the United Kingdom and I have seen it implied several times that a somewhat high percentage of the (in)famous group of young people living completely isolated from society in Japan would have AS.

Anyone have any information about this? Except for visiting the plastic surgeon twice a year I've been living as a "hikikomori" or equivalent, for five years or so now. Up until I withdrew from society I was outgoing, went to a lot of parties and had friends even though some were of different age groups than my own. I used to do latin dancing and was actually better than 90% of neurotypicals at it but I never felt satisfied by it and I couldn't relate to a normal life so one day I just broke off all contact with the outside world and stayed at home day and night. Still I never leave the house, ever.

What's hikikomori? Literally?
I wouldn't be surprised... an island population resulting in genetic concentration, the highest suicide rate in the developed world, lotsa unspoken social rules, the whole 'loosing face' thing...

how can you loose face when you haven't got one?

I sometimes fantasize about complete withdrawal... but how do you get your supplies, etc?

I think it means "shutting oneself in" or something like that. Apparently since the late 80's Japan has faced a growing problem of young people who one day just refuse to go to school and then stay at home until their parents die, basically. There's a lot of factors and the number of hikikomori is too great, some estimate it at more than 500 000, for it to be just aspies. A common thing is that the eldest son with the highest expectations is broken by the inhumane japanese education system but there must still be, even though this category might be NT, aspies who react that way too. The total number of young people living outside of normal society in Japan, if you include even those who aren't 100% hikikomori, is past one million people.

Sometimes I think that, with my strange background and inability to identify with other aspies in the western world, that maybe one among that million in Japan is someone with a brain similar to my own. Someone I'm never going to meet because he will never leave his house and he probably doesn't speak english.
One of my few hopes in life is to one day meet someone who I can immediately recognize as kin. Someone, anywhere, who is so similar to me in my way of thinking that we could have been related. If such a person existed anywhere in the west I would have found him by now since he would no doubt be on the internet as well writing in english.

I'm not sure that it is too high a number, if you include autism traits. I'm seeing proportions like 1 in 150 folks is affected (?) with some level of ASD, and if you throw in genetic concentration due to isolated island population, you might actually end up with a skewing of the proportion.

Inability to identify is part of our description... I'm certainly having difficulty identifying with a lot of the folks here, too, and I'm only moderately AS (so I've been told, anyway). I'm a homesteading, donkey driving, lesbian, buddhist Aspie... how many do you think there are of those in the world?

So... have you thought about studying Japanese, just in case that fellow is on-line?

I studied japanese in high school, for a few months. I still remember some of it. There were a lot of greasy haired anime nerds in my class, even though I felt disgusted by them I enjoyed those classes. I want to pick up self studying japanese but I am totally worthless at finding good study material on my own.

I've heard the RosettaStone language instructions are good... I certainly see them in the airports when I travel.

I'm hopeless at language. I'm a picture thinker, apparently.

I'm still thinking on the hikikomori and wondering if we don't have the same phenomenon here... so many parents write in to Dear Abby wondering about their stay-at-home, don't contribute adult children. We just don't study it or have an unusual word for it, they're usually insulting words. Though I write that and wonder if hikikomori might not be insulting in Japan...?

Then there's all the hill hermits... though many of them are schizoid rather than AS... could be true in Japan as well. Are there hill hermits in Japan? With our large national parks, we've got quite a population of them in this country.

Some japanese blame hikikomori on a long tradition of glorification of the hermit ideal. It was seen as noble in japanese culture to seek solitude. However I doubt that explains it. Also yes, hikikomori were 10 years back or so viewed as something very negative but apparently people have become more understanding lately even if it's still a great social stigma.

The phenomenon exists in the west too, of course. In my case I know it's to a large degree because of AS that I don't leave the house, that's one of the reasons why I'm interested in the hikikomori phenomenon.

I've noticed that Japanese and a lot of Asians in general have this formal, sort of emotionally distant, matter-of-fact public demeanor. My current psychiatrist is like this and I have a really hard time dealing with it. His lack of emotional response to me in his tone of voice or facial expressions subconsciously feels like disapproval, like I'm being judged in his mind for being an emotional basket case in front of him. I always get defensive / angry and refuse to share anything with him.

Maybe the hikikomori phenomenon is related to this. It's easier to completely vanish from public view than to feel harshly scrutinized by society for having issues.

From the Wiki:

So I'd imagine your answer is "Very Few". Probably it has the same or slightly higher incidence than in the general population which (interestingly) is the highest in the developed world at 1.2 - 2.2% for PDD diagnoses.

The Japanese show us that some 'Aspie Traits' such as seeking seclusion are actually alot more biologically/psychologically normal than one would think.

I lived as a low level western Hikkomori equivilant last year, although I still went to work and outside I didn't really do much social stuff. Its boring as hell =/

I have a high intelligence and strong self of sense. Every other aspie I ever met in my life were those who were more or less shoved into support living by their parents and never complained. They were pushed around like cattle and clearly didn't understand much about themselves.

I guess I'll have to search elsewhere then for the answer to why I can't enter society, because I was once social.
At least the japanese phenomenon proves that there might be other reasons to why I live like this, even if society is different here. Because I lived like a complete hikikomori for five years.

Marshall... sounds like your therapist is more Aspie than you! The Battle of the Aspies. Who will be more distant and cut off? Which one will appear more uncaring? I knew a therapist like that once. I wouldn't tell him anything either.

Sounds to me like you know why you're the way you are, Zoonic. I think you're looking for a culture to feel connected to, a kind of ancestral lineage? I myself feel in line with the chan/zen hermit tradition.

Have you read 'Cave in the Snow'? About a western buddhist nun who did a 12-year solo retreat in a cave in the Himalayas. It's written by Vicki Mackenzie. And buddhism can be so delightfully logical...

Japanese culture is vastly different from Western culture in some ways... it could be that Japanese people tend to be more Aspie-ish anyway...

It could be more common... the genetic make up of Japanese people could be more susceptible to developing Autistic traits, but then again it could just be the social culture of Japan.

It's probably a great place for many Aspies to live.

In googling Aspie, buddhism I came up with a forum on e-sangha where an Aspie was talking about her (?) experience in Japan... she thought it was going to be great, because the social rules are so clear, even if numerous. Au contrare... she found that besides all the clear rules, there were lots and lots of unspoken rules she was having a hard time sorting out and to transgress there was a much bigger deal. One can't just say... Ooops, that's just how I am, sorry.

I think the unwritten japanese social rules have a lot to do with perception and sensitivity. Westerners in general and americans in particular are extremely unsensitive to detail and fine tuned behaviour, thus one reason why they are viewed as such a barbaric people by many japanese but also why they are seen as liberatingly cool and sexy by others. The crudeness of western men is what attracts some japanese girls I think. They think the clumsiness and awkwardness that results from the cultural clash is cute while others just think the more rough and aggressive social behaviour of westerners is cooler. Stupidity is commonly seen as attractive by some japanese.

One of the reasons I always felt a kind of connection to japanese culture is because I'm very sensitive and notice small things in people's behaviour. To be honest I can read and understand most cultures rather well.

In my dance classes for example, I was always the finely built, petit, silent and shy guy who perceptively picked up everything around me and had a hard time expressing emotion openly but I always mastered every move and coreography to perfection, much better than everyone else who were clumsy in comparison. On the parties, even though I was emotionally repressed, I was the natural center point, kind of a Michael Jackson figure acting very exhibitionistic on the outside while still keeping my true emotions to myself. Sometimes I feel embarrassed being so much more fine tuned and sensitive than others with so much natural grace but repressed emotion in public. This is something I think is also typical to many japanese, especially boys/men and something I could always identify with.

In western society, hyper empathic types like myself aren't even understood at all. People don't even see the phenomenon here, but I noticed in japanese culture this archetype is well known and sometimes even glorified. They see it as a sign of nobility and highly developed intellect.

It's interesting you describe yourself as hyper-empathic, and supposedly one of the distinguishing characteristics of Aspies is an inability to read/detect subtle unspoken social cues... I've heard of other Aspies who feel hyper-empathic as well, having difficulty with the emotional 'storm' in a crowded room...TMI as it were. Whereas I really don't pick up cues... even when I see the cues [facial expressions] I can't interpret them. And often when I am verbally told what is going on, I have a hard time connecting to the other's experience. I can be in a crowded room without emotional overload... it's the sheer noise that gets to me.

I wonder if this indicates two different connection problems... thinking of Aspism as different variations of brain wiring here.