This is the first English translation of a controversial Japanese best seller that made the public aware of the social problem of hikikomori, or 'withdrawal' -- a phenomenon estimated to involve as many as one million Japanese adolescents and young adults who have withdrawn from society, retreating to their rooms for months or years and severing almost all ties to the outside world. Saitō Tamaki's work of popular psychology provoked a national debate about the causes and extent of the condition. Drawing on his own clinical experience with hikikomori patients, Saitō creates a working definition of social withdrawal and explains its development.