There is a lot of talk about mental issues in HN. Sometimes from a societal point of view, sometimes medical, etc. So it's part of that interest for people here, I suppose. There's a lot of talk about health, and nutrition too. HN is definitely not what I thought it was either.

Personally, I know a significant number of people ( not just in Japan ) who work from home, glued to a keyboard.

I do too on occasion -- as I assume is the case for many people on HN. But I must travel more than I like for work as well.

At any rate, these people always looking at a screen, they don't think of themselves as hikikomori. And mostly aren't, in fact they may have an uncle, or a son, or a niece, or next door neighbour, who really is, and makes life very, very difficult for people related to them, or living with them. So, not hikikomori, yet these work-from-home types can have close to zero interaction with the outside world other than a couple of holiday trips per year, and the occasional shopping weekend with wife / husband / partner.

I think some of them wake up one day and think they're going to end up like their neighbour. Others want to know how to get their son out of the room.

The thing is, hardly anyone talks in person to anyone else about it in so-called real life.

Maybe many in our line of work can be in situations that relate to the problem. Isolation in the age of hyperconnectivity is ironically very real.