Japanese embracing digital detox

"Digital fasting" — an attempt to stay off the Internet for a set time — first became a trend in the United States and elsewhere a few years ago. Also known as "digital detox," the idea is now catching on in Japan.

Koji Takanashi, 32, works for Allied Architects, Inc., an Internet-related company in Tokyo. Since last year, he's been Net fasting on weekends. He often goes to the seaside not far from Tokyo with a colleague.

In late July, he went to a deserted island in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he gave stand-up paddleboarding a try. His job keeps him glued to a computer on weekdays. "That's why I try to spend my weekends in nature," he said.

Koji Takanashi on his paddleboard- Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun

Immersed in a whole new environment, he comes up with new, effective ideas for work, Takanashi said.

Other people start their digital detox when they begin raising children. Ryuka Okubo, a company employee in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, stopped opening her laptop on weekends last year when she returned to work from maternity leave. When she takes her infant son out for a walk, she sometimes leaves her smartphone at home.

"I have closer relationship with my child [without my smartphone around]. It's a breath of fresh air," Okubo, 29, said.

The ubiquity of digital media makes it easier to make social connections — but at the cost of feeling bound to those connections at all times. Moreover, because such media are an incomplete substitute for face-to-face communication, people can develop fatigue or stress from use.

According to a study conducted last year by Tokyo-based Neo Marketing, about 30 percent of respondents in their 30s say they need a vacation from social media. Among those in their 20s, the figure was 40 percent. The results reflect widespread fatigue from digital lifestyles.

In November, a 45-year-old company employee took a six-day, five-night vacation to the Kansai region's Ise and Shima areas. During the trip, he unplugged from the Internet and switched off his smartphone. In his spare time, he re-read some of his favorite novels.

The man said he ordinarily spends every single day entangled in a wired lifestyle, whether sending e-mails from a company computer or connecting to social networks via smartphone after work.