{"id":304,"date":"2009-06-08T22:10:47","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T13:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/?p=304"},"modified":"2009-06-08T22:16:40","modified_gmt":"2009-06-08T13:16:40","slug":"h-men-additional-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/2009\/06\/08\/h-men-additional-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"H-men, additional thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"grassHoly cow! Just by using the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153herbivore men\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in my blog, I got almost 400 hits yesterday. That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t my intention at all, but checking my logs there were a ton of Google searches for that phrase. I wanted people to read my blog, but I never thought one reference would create such a stir. This more than tops the Google searches for things related to the naked man festival (I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start to tell you some of the search topics that end up pointing to my blog). Well, as my tag says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be careful what you dream of, it may come up and surprise you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (with all due respects to The Icicle Works<\/a> whose lyric is lifted for my tag).<\/p>\n

I found the CNN article interesting, as did apparently at least 380 other people who bothered to search and then click my site.<\/p>\n

I asked my interpreter about the phenomenon described in the article. Yes, I have an interpreter. It makes me sound pretty important doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? My interpreter, who is shared with my team, is really helpful as a cultural bridge as well. She knew what I was talking about and described the following:<\/p>\n

Recently the number of young men who are not greedy for hunting girls is increasing. Such kind of men is called as “Herbivore Men” or Sousyoku-kei-Danshi or “\u00e8\u008d\u2030\u00e9\u00a3\u0178\u00e7\u00b3\u00bb\u00e7\u201d\u00b7\u00e5\u00ad\u0090”(\u00e3\u0081\u009d\u00e3\u0081\u2020\u00e3\u0081\u2014\u00e3\u201a\u2021\u00e3\u0081\u008f\u00e3\u0081\u2018\u00e3\u0081\u201e\u00e3\u0081\u00a0\u00e3\u201a\u201c\u00e3\u0081\u2014) .<\/p>\n

On the contrary, girls are impatient against such attitude by men’s. Therefore girls are more aggressive to get their mates than ever in Japan. The activity to get married which is called “Kon-Katsu” or “\u00e5\u00a9\u0161\u00e6\u00b4\u00bb” has become active vigorously among young ladies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to worry, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s married and has two kids, with the oldest in high school. Considering she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only 25, it is quite remarkable. I should also add that she reads this blog.<\/p>\n

I got a comment from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christopher\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I wondered who that was. I noticed his email address included the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sanfranclubkid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I knew folks who would include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153club kid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in their address. 10 years ago, maybe I would have known someone but still it is very unlikely. That was before I checked my access logs to see that I had so many hits. I reckon Christopher was someone who found his way to my site via Google. Christopher noted:<\/p>\n

I saw the article and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool; be who you want to be and do what you want to do. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not hurting anybody, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just being themselves. The only unfortunate thing about that, was that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jay\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in SF, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be his boyfriend, cuz he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hella cute!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, thanks for the comment Christopher. I liked the article<\/a> too. I agree, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great to be who you want to be and do what you want to do. I said it was fascinating and perplexing, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say it was bad.<\/p>\n

The article<\/a> also comments on the socioeconomic aspects of the life of younger people in Japan. I did not originally post that portion, but it is important to understand the whole context so be sure and read the whole article.<\/p>\n

Fukasawa said the group does not care so much about making money — a quality tied to the fact that there are fewer jobs available during the current global economic recession.<\/p>\n

Japan’s economy recently saw its largest-ever recorded contraction and has shrunk for four straight quarters. Blue chip companies Sony, Panasonic, Toyota and Nissan all reported losses in May, and most are forecasting the same for the current fiscal year. Though still low by international standards, Japan’s reported 5 percent unemployment is the highest since 2003.<\/p>\n

Hori agreed economics has played a role. When he finished university, “a lot of my friends were trying to work for a big company that pays well and I wasn’t interested in that. I am kind of struggling financially and my father is not very happy about it,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Starting salaries are very low right now, and I have friends working their tails off making nothing. If they were interested in raising a family, they could not afford to do so. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure a contributing factor to the herbivore men is the fact that they cannot traditionally support a woman in the manner in which she expects to be supported and cannot even come close to supporting a family. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take the wind out of your sails pretty quickly. I think the expectation of Japanese women is changing, but there is a lot of societal pressure (I mean a LOT) to conform to expectations. So perhaps grazing on grasses instead of hunting buffalo is a natural reaction.<\/p>\n

\"grassChristopher did bring up another point that is part of the perplexity. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The only unfortunate thing about that, was that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jay\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in SF, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be his boyfriend, cuz he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hella cute!<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Christopher said. But indeed, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the rub. Jay doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be your boyfriend. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interested in guys. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a clumsy, skinny, metrosexual with great hair and snappy clothes that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be bothered with a girlfriend. If you ever come to Japan, Christopher, you are going to have to recalibrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holy cow! Just by using the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153herbivore men\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in my blog, I got almost 400 hits yesterday. That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t my intention at all, but checking my logs there were a ton of Google searches for that phrase. I wanted people to read my blog, but I never thought one reference would create such a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “H-men, additional thoughts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-experiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}