Hikikomori Test (HQ-25)

Hikikomori refers to a state of prolonged and marked social withdrawal — a retreat from work, school, and social life that can last for months or even years at a time. The term was first coined in Japan, where clinicians in the late 1990s began describing young people who had shut themselves away in their homes, often communicating with the outside world only through a screen. What was once thought of as a culture-bound Japanese syndrome is now recognized across many countries, from South Korea and the United States to much of Europe. The core experience appears to travel: the gradual narrowing of a life until home becomes the whole of it.

To measure this pattern, the psychiatrist Alan R. Teo and colleagues developed the Hikikomori Questionnaire (HQ-25), a self-report scale published in 2018 and validated against clinical assessments of withdrawal. This test is based on the HQ-25 and organizes its questions around the same three dimensions the questionnaire identified. The items here are worded originally for this assessment, but the underlying constructs — and the research behind them — are the same.

The test reports three facets of withdrawal. Socialization captures how draining and uncomfortable direct contact with others feels — whether conversation, attention, and crowds cost you energy you would rather not spend. Isolation captures how far daily life has narrowed toward home and solitude, with hours or whole days passing indoors. Lack of Emotional Support captures the absence of people to confide in or lean on, and the quiet sense of standing outside every circle you belong to. Read together, the three build a single overall picture of how connected — or disconnected — you are from the world around you.

Withdrawal is not the same thing as introversion, and research on hikikomori has been careful to keep the two apart. A quiet, introverted person can be richly connected and content, while someone genuinely withdrawn may long for closeness and still feel unable to reach it. Modern connectivity complicates the picture further: a person can be online almost constantly — messaging, gaming, scrolling — and yet remain cut off from in-person life. Withdrawal is best understood as a spectrum rather than an on/off state. At one end sits the contented homebody who simply prefers a quiet evening in; at the other lies deep, entrenched isolation that has become hard to escape. Most people fall somewhere in between, and where you sit can shift with circumstance.

The comparison markers shown alongside your results are rough estimates rather than validated norms for this test. They are rescaled from published HQ-25 community samples, which sit well below the clinical hikikomori range, so a typical adult scores around 34% overall. Treat those markers as a loose point of reference, not a verdict — they suggest roughly where a general-population score tends to land, not what your score should be.

Finally, this test is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not a diagnostic instrument, and a high score is not a diagnosis of hikikomori or any other condition — only a trained professional can assess that, in the full context of your life. This assessment is not affiliated with Alan R. Teo, his colleagues, or any institution. If your own withdrawal is causing you distress, or if the people who care about you have raised concerns, please consider reaching out to a qualified mental health professional. Stepping back toward the world is easier with support, and asking for it is a strength rather than a failing.

References

• Teo, A. R., Chen, J. I., Kubo, H., Katsuki, R., Sato-Kasai, M., Shimokawa, N., Hayakawa, K., Umene-Nakano, W., Aikens, J. E., Kanba, S., & Kato, T. A. (2018). Development and validation of the 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire (HQ-25). Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 72(10), 780-788.
• Kato, T. A., Kanba, S., & Teo, A. R. (2019). Hikikomori: Multidimensional understanding, assessment, and future international perspectives. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 73(8), 427-440.