Out of isolation

At a retreat deep in the hills, hikikomori come together to cook, farm and, after years of seclusion, gingerly step back into the world.

In 2017, soon after Kodai Yoshimura left his quiet hometown near the Sea of Japan for the bustling city of Osaka, something in his mindset began to shift.

His freshman year at Kansai University was supposed to be a time of new experiences and friendships. Instead, Yoshimura found himself losing interest in his studies. He began skipping class and started spending more and more time holed up in his apartment, where hours passed with him glued to his PlayStation 4, often until 3 a.m.

As first-person shooter games like Call of Duty absorbed his days and nights, he began avoiding people and venturing into public as little as possible. Within a few months, he had become a hikikomori, a social recluse. “It’s not like I was bullied or anything. I just didn’t want to see other students,” says Yoshimura at age 26, recalling those days of isolation. Soon, though, he’d find help in an unusual place and turn his life around in a matter of months.