Japanese Herbivores: Men & Gender-Bending in Japan
There has been a lot of curiosity among editors about what's happening to Japanese men -- the herbivore phenomenon, or "soshoku-danshi." As I wrote for The Independent, Japan's 20- and 30- something males seem uninterested in careers and apathetic about the rituals of dating, sex and marriage. They spend money on cosmetics and clothes and even sit down on the toilet when they pee...
For the article, I interviewed Ushikubo Megumi, president of Tokyo marketing firm Infinity and author of "The Herbivorous Ladylike Men Are Changing Japan." Her company claims that roughly two-thirds of all Japanese men aged 20-34 are now partial or total "grass-eaters," and a long way from the classic twin stereotypes of 20th century Japanese masculinity: the fierce, unyielding warrior and the workaholic salaryman...
Ushikubo believes that the postwar corporate samurai is increasingly a carnivorous dinosaur, whose legendary dedication to the company -- at the expense of family -- is increasingly waning. Grass-eaters, by contrast, are uncompetitive and uncommitted to work, a symptom of their disillusionment with Japan's troubled post-bubble economy. "People who grew up in the bubble era (of the 1980s) really feel like they were let down. They worked so hard and it all came to nothing," says Ushikubo. "So the men who came after them have changed."...
In reality of course, the grass-eaters may be merely the latest flowering of an old tradition. Japanese culture has long had a strong element of androgyny: During the Tokugawa period (1603-1867), men played women and women dressed as men for the theater, while erotic art celebrated bisexualism and transgender role-playing.
The common element between the Tokugawa era and today, says Osaka-based philosopher Morioka Masahiro, is peace. "Japan has been free from any form of conflict since World War II, and that has liberated men from the need to be manly."
- read entire article here
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Pray that the Japanese would believe that Jesus is returning with a sword, a conflict they cannot escape, & one that should drive them to seek peace & reconciliation with God through Christ.
For the article, I interviewed Ushikubo Megumi, president of Tokyo marketing firm Infinity and author of "The Herbivorous Ladylike Men Are Changing Japan." Her company claims that roughly two-thirds of all Japanese men aged 20-34 are now partial or total "grass-eaters," and a long way from the classic twin stereotypes of 20th century Japanese masculinity: the fierce, unyielding warrior and the workaholic salaryman...
Ushikubo believes that the postwar corporate samurai is increasingly a carnivorous dinosaur, whose legendary dedication to the company -- at the expense of family -- is increasingly waning. Grass-eaters, by contrast, are uncompetitive and uncommitted to work, a symptom of their disillusionment with Japan's troubled post-bubble economy. "People who grew up in the bubble era (of the 1980s) really feel like they were let down. They worked so hard and it all came to nothing," says Ushikubo. "So the men who came after them have changed."...
In reality of course, the grass-eaters may be merely the latest flowering of an old tradition. Japanese culture has long had a strong element of androgyny: During the Tokugawa period (1603-1867), men played women and women dressed as men for the theater, while erotic art celebrated bisexualism and transgender role-playing.
The common element between the Tokugawa era and today, says Osaka-based philosopher Morioka Masahiro, is peace. "Japan has been free from any form of conflict since World War II, and that has liberated men from the need to be manly."
- read entire article here
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Pray that the Japanese would believe that Jesus is returning with a sword, a conflict they cannot escape, & one that should drive them to seek peace & reconciliation with God through Christ.
