Emile Durkheim's Suicides

This project has been using both books and websites as a source, as well as primary sources, in form of statistics from OECD, and secondary sources such as academic books. This project would have liked to use more primary sources, but because of the language and geographic barrier, it was not possible to make interviews with families to hikikomoris, other Japanese persons to find out what they think of the social control in Japan or read suicide notes, which would have helped with defining the suicides.

The website OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), has been used to get statistics. The other websites used in this project have been for minor pieces of information. These websites are official governmental websites,

However since it was written in 1897 several of its content might be outdated along with some of its terminology, for example using integration and regulation, which today is sub-groups of the term ‘social control’ - a term which Durkheim does not use at all, in the chapters about suicide, although it is heavily implied. Along with it not having much data from Japan, or Asia in general, other than mentioning cultural practices, making the book harder (to some extent) to implement upon modern Japan.

Eiko Ikegami in the Taming of the Samurai sure has made a significant work gathering all the information. Also comparing certain social reality with the Western one. However, the book was written in 1995 so considering certain facts to be still present in contemporary Japan is still questionable.

1.3

The form of subculture this project is probe at is the informal kind. It is where there are no clear boundaries, no mainstream and there is not a social order. The subculture Hikikomori, do not have a physical meeting place, and not a ‘real’ virtual scene as well, as they do not seek other hikikomoris out or have an official forum or chat room. Meaning that all their interactions are online, mostly through different games and anime/manga forums. But since the hikikomori does not have an official ‘scene’ to debate and discuss their culture, the cohesion of the subculture is weak, if not nonexistent. This would usually mean, that it would not be counted as a subculture, however their numbers beg to differ, with approximately 1 percentage of the Japanese population who suffers from it. Online they might have a shared identity/avatar, which lay the ground for this project considering it a subculture. In this subculture they have indubitable diffuse networks, since no one is in charge or have control. The hikikomori subculture is esoecially marginalized, more so than other subcultures, since the hikikomori completely separate themselves from other social groups (Haenfler,