[ricardobayes]

Interesting you bring up southwestern Europe, here we have people that are almost the same as hikikomori, as in, living with parents up until 30-35 years of age, not studying, not working.

But the main difference is, since so many people share the same experience (young adult unemployment), it's not looked down socially.

Actually, this kind of phenomenon and the environment it creates (e.g. many people hanging around in evenings, doing a botellón), contributes a lot to how Spanish people and culture is perceived - carefree, "lazy", siesta-loving, night owl.

My point is just that almost the same phenomenon can either be viewed extremely bad, or good.