JAPAN-SOCIAL-LIFESTYLE-HIKIKOMORI

This picture taken on March 8, 2018 shows Ikeida, a 55-year Japanese man who has chosen to shut himself completely away from society, posing for a picture in Tokyo. Ikeida leaves the house once every three days to buy food, shuns deliveries to avoid human interaction and has not seen his parents or younger brother for 20 years. The 55-year-old has chosen to shut himself completely away from society — such a commonplace phenomenon in high-pressure, conformist and workaholic Japan that there is a word to describe it: “hikikomori”. / AFP PHOTO / Kazuhiro NOGI / TO GO WITH Japan-social-lifestyle-Hikikomori,FEATURE by Natsuko FUKUE