News Stories
Closing in - Japan
29/10/2007 11:15 am
For some people in Japan, their room is their world…
Shion, a young Christian, longed to get into one of the top colleges in Japan. University entrance exams are offered only once a year. Shion didn’t pass.
He then enrolled in a 12-month course to prepare for the next exam, and failed a second time. He was devastated.
When Japanese boys don’t follow a set path to an elite university and a top corporation, they often feel they’re a failure.
Like many other young men in Japan, Shion responded by withdrawing to his bedroom. His parents supported him. His mother cooked for him. He didn’t go to school. He didn’t have a job. He didn’t have any friends.
Shion was suffering from a problem known in Japan as hikikomori (‘withdrawal’). It refers to people who remain in their room for six months or longer and don’t have any social life.
An article in The New York Times says doctors estimate that between 100,000 and a million Japanese suffer from withdrawal.
Shion had the rare privilege (in Japan) of growing up in a solid Christian family. His parents, who could see what was happening, prayed that God would draw Shion out of his isolation.
One day Shion agreed to go with them to a Bible study led by an OMF missionary. Gradually, God used the friendship to bring Shion back into a proper relationship with his family and with God.
If you were to meet him today, you’d never know Shion had been withdrawn. People respond well to him as he ministers at his university and in our youth church. He recently led his friend Takezo to Jesus.
The imprisoned soul is now an effective evangelist!
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