咱们平时说的“宅男、宅女”可能充其量就是周末假日不爱出门的人，但是在日本，有那么一群年轻人，他们因为某种原因把自己关在家里，可以几个月甚至几年都不出门。这样的群体叫做“蛰居族”。

As many as a million young people in Japan are thought to remain holed up in their homes - sometimes for decades at a time. They had become "withdrawn" or hikikomori.

日本有多大100万的年轻人窝在家中，有时一窝就是几十年。他们这是成了自闭症或“蛰居族”。

In Japan, hikikomori, a term that's also used to describe the young people who withdraw, is a word that everyone knows.

在日本，蛰居族（hikikomori）这个词人尽皆知，该词也用来形容那些脱离社会、有些自闭的年轻人。

They want to go out in the world, they want to make friends or lovers, but they can't.

他们想要出去融入外面的世界，想要交朋友或者谈恋爱，但是他们做不到。

These young people were often from middle-class families, they were almost always male, and the average age for their withdrawal was 15.

这些年轻人通常都来自中产家庭，大部分都是男性，而且开始自闭的平均年龄为15岁。

Symptoms vary between patients. For some, violent outbursts alternate with infantile behavior such as pawing at the mother's body. Other patients might be obsessive, paranoid and depressed.

蛰居族的症状因人而异。一些人会交替出现暴力行为和幼稚行为，比如抚摸母亲的身体。还有一些人可能会有强迫症、偏执或抑郁症。

The trigger for a boy retreating to his bedroom might be comparatively slight - poor grades or a broken heart, for example - but the withdrawal itself can become a source of trauma. And powerful social forces can conspire to keep him there.

促使一个男孩把自己关在房间里的原因可能并不严重——例如，成绩不好或被人伤了心——但“蛰居”这个行为本身可以成为一个创伤来源。而强大的社会力量可能会火上浇油，让他继续闭门不出。

One such force is sekentei, a person's reputation in the community and the pressure he or she feels to impress others. The longer hikikomori remain apart from society, the more aware they become of their social failure. They lose whatever self-esteem and confidence they had and the prospect of leaving home becomes ever more terrifying.(Source: BBC)

“世间体”（sekentei）就是这样的力量之一，指的是一个人在社会各界中的声誉以及想要要给别人留下深刻印象的压力。“蛰居族”远离社会的时间越长，他们就越会意识到自己在社会中的失败。他们失去了曾经拥有的自尊和自信，而走出家门的前景也变得更加可怕。

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（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

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