If you frequent Japanese social media, you may have encountered a slang expression with a bittersweet meaning: bocchi (aloneness). You can find the word in expressions like bocchi nomi (drinking alone) and kuribocchi (alone on Christmas). People use ‘bocchi’ to poke fun at themselves, express a genuine sense of isolation, or a little of both.
Japan widely enables bocchi culture. Living and eating out alone here are commonplace, with some restaurants even designed for eating in silence. Meanwhile, various forms of entertainment seek to replace real social connection with paid or virtual substitutes. Some people, especially nature lovers, even seem to be embracing the bocchi lifestyle with pride.
But behind the flippancy of bocchi culture is an epidemic of loneliness affecting up to 40% of Japanese people. Prolonged loneliness can lead to mental health struggles such as alcoholism, and foreigners contending with linguistic and cultural barriers are also at risk.
What is Bocchi Culture?
The word bocchi is short for hitoribocchi, from hitori (one person) and bocchi, a word said to derive from houshi (Buddhist priest). While these origins carry some fairly Zen connotations, the modern day word suggests a more pathetic kind of loneliness. Bocchi can be used to express sadness about being alone, but it can also be used in a humorous, self-deprecating way.
One popular example of bocchi’s more tongue-in-cheek usage is the term kuribocchi. The kuri is short for kurisumasu (Christmas). In Japan, Christmas is not a day traditionally spent with family, but a romantic holiday similar to Valentine’s Day. So referring to oneself as kuribocchi is a way of highlighting that you are dateless on this day of love. The word pops up frequently during the festive season as single Japanese people bemoan their lack of partner.
Bocchi can be worked into plenty of other expressions, too. Bocchi meshi (eating alone) bocchi ramen (eating ramen alone) and similar foodie examples are especially popular.
How does Japan Enable the Bocchi lifestyle?
Solo dining and enjoying the holidays without a partner are not unique to Japan. However, several elements of Japanese culture and infrastructure support and enable a solitary way of life.
In Japanese cities, single people tend to live alone. Sharing a home with friends or housemates is unusual, and living with a partner before marriage is less common. Even university students tend to find apartments by themselves when they leave campus dormitories rather than living with peers.
Loners in Japan are well-catered to in daily life. Most restaurant chains offer plenty of single-occupant counter seats, while private internet and manga cafe rooms are designed with individual customers in mind. Elsewhere, the country’s infamous host and hostess bars provide paid company in the absence of a genuine date.
Many forms of Japanese entertainment are also designed to appeal to lonely consumers. The Japanese idol industry encourages para-social relationships between artists and fans that can border on obsession. Online games known as dating sims, in which the player aims to woo a virtual love interest, are popular for both men and women. Such outlets provide a controlled substitute for the messy world of real-life romance.
It’s easy to see how these trends might lead to isolation for individuals who aren’t otherwise socially outgoing. As in many countries, the pandemic exacerbated this situation.
Foreigners and Loneliness
Foreign residents of Japan are just as likely as locals to embrace bocchi culture, deliberately or otherwise. For all the excitement of starting a life in a new country, foreigners will need to build a social network from scratch.
Both urban and rural placements can be isolating in different ways. An English teacher at a countryside school, for example, might be the only foreigner in town. Foreigners working in the city, on the other hand, can easily fall into the solo lifestyle enabled by urban amenities. Those with limited Japanese are likely to be isolated by the language barrier and by less tangible cultural differences. All of these factors can make forming both working and social relationships a challenge.
Shared housing, language exchange groups, and other organized social events are all widely available to foreigners in Japan, but many introverts may find it much easier to slip into the Bocchi way of doing things. After all, plenty of locals are in the same boat. In Japan, you’re never alone.
Does Loner Equal Loneliness?
Loneliness is estimated to affect four in ten Japanese people, and 1.46 million are believed to be socially withdrawn. One of the most worrying effects of isolation on this scale is the number of lonely deaths in elderly people, around 68,000 of which are recorded each year. In 2021, the Japanese government appointed its first Minister of Loneliness to address these troubling statistics.
But do all individuals who go it alone consider themselves lonely? While kuribocchi and bocchi tanjoubikai (loner birthday party) suggest a depressing lack of company, other uses of the term are more positive. Bocchi kyanpu (camping alone), the act of pitching a tent in the wilderness on your own, is seen as a rewarding way to escape into nature. The long-running documentary show Hiroshi no Bocchi Kyanpu (Hiroshi’s Solo Camping Trip) recently popularized this trend. Similar social media hashtags like bocchi no mori (alone in the forest) also celebrate the peace of being at one with nature.
There is, of course, genuine joy to be found in doing something one loves alone. For anyone who sincerely wants to enjoy bocchi ramen, bocchi karaoke, or bocchi just-about-anything, Japan is the perfect place to be.
But the fact remains that loneliness is an epidemic in Japan. It’s clear there’s a fine line between valuable alone time and simply being isolated. And while it can be fun and healthy to indulge in your own hobbies alone from time to time, it’s always possible to go a bocchi too far.
If you’re struggling with feelings of loneliness, you can reach out to TELL Japan for free support.
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Am I wrong to say bocchi is being promoted and/or normalized instead of togetherness/commune?