After two months with New Start, I found out about the “Rental Sister” program and tried to make contact with people at the agency. In the realm of creative problem-solving, some organizations and halfway houses like New Start employ young women to physically go to the houses of hikikomori and try to strike up a conversation from the other side of the bedroom door. The goal for these “rental sisters” is ultimately to reassure, befriend and then coax the hikikomori out of their bedrooms and to a place where they can get help. The program I contacted has two rental sisters and one rental brother, but only Ayako Oguri could speak English, so I chose to follow her. After she agreed, I went with her to all of her clients’ houses and tried to meet the hikikomori who had locked themselves in their rooms.

Me (middle) with Kenji Tanaka (left), a rental brother, and Ayako Oguri (right), a rental sister.

It was a very long process. Most of the hikikomori didn’t want to meet me at first, but I continued to go with the rental sister, standing at the door and saying hello outside of the house. Meetings between the hikikomori and the rental sister usually take around two hours. After two or three times, the hikikomori would eventually accept me and allow me to go in the house and wait in the living room. After visiting three to five times, they would then allow me to go into the room, join the meeting, and take some pictures.