not only does she have to grapple with her own social struggles, nao is also plagued with an unhappy family life. her father, unable to find a job in japan, falls into a state of depression – withdrawing from the world and going into a state of social seclusion, or hikikomori – and attempts suicide twice. her mother is constantly absent from the house, busy with her new job at a publishing firm, which she has taken up to compensate for her husband's unemployment.