ABSTRACT
THE VERY NATURE OF modem urban society virtually guarantees that at any given time there will be people experiencing various degrees of social isolation. Over ten percent of the letters to Jinsei Annai express some aspect of this problem. Some complaints are from people who feel lonely after a change in their lives has isolated them from a previous network of companionship. Other correspondents seem to have a more basic problem; they think of themselves as so shy and socially awkward that they can't, or at least they don't, make and keep friends. After a brief selfdescription, their letters often began with taijin kankei ni nayandemasu, "I am bothered by relations with others," or a nearly identical phrase.
