Most experts blame Japan's hikikimori crisis on Japan's employment woes, not "girlfriend software". I'll try to summarize... Japan traditionally viewed education as guaranteeing a job, and jobs as very secure (e.g. you have a job for life). Due to Japan's stagflation, many youths saw their parents laid off, or themselves were unable to find a job. However the traditional expectations on them did not change. Japanese youths became disenfranchised with a system that pushes them along the same old academic path despite reduced job prospects at the end, and expectations that blame them for the greater economy's woes. Those unmeetable expectations extend into relationships.

tldr; bad ecomony -> no job; no job -> no date; no job + no date -> give up