While the assumption is that children who live with their parents will contribute to the family and have careers of their own, a growing number of Japanese adolescents elect to stay home and do nothing. When parents are overly doting or choose not to stem developing antisocial behaviour an adolescent can withdraw to such an extent that they no longer leave the household at all. Conversely, with fewer children being born into Japanese families (Japans population fell by 19,000 in 2004) parents may concentrate the pressure to succeed onto a single child, usually the firstborn son, until that child has been pushed so far that they suffer a psychological breakdown and withdraw from society entirely. Compounding this problem, is the fact that hikikomori is considered a sensitive and even shameful topic: as such, parents may elect to