Japan // Current TV

Scary Things

In keeping with the spirit of the Halloween season-I would like to share my deepest... more

alovejoy
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7 months ago
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Incredible “Ghost the Shell” Cosplay by Omi K Gibson

"Top Japanese Cosplayer Pays Tribute to Motoko Kusanagi: Omi K Gibson is one... more

Agent_Alpha
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7 months ago
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3 comments

20 millions tons of tsunami debris headed for U.S. shores

illions of tons of debris washed out to sea by the tsunami that ravaged Japan in March... more

joeeddy
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7 months ago
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7 comments

Over 20 Radioactive Hotspots Found in Tokyo … Despite Government and Media Attempt to Cover Up Spread of Radiation

I noted last week that Tokyo and the adjoining city of Yokohama were found to contain... more

FreetobeyoUandme7
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7 months ago
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Are We the Next Japan?

There's no shortage of debate as to whether the Obama administration and Congress... more

Swisher
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8 months ago
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6 comments

Residents of Japanese town contaminated by Fukushima refuse to return

mark mackinnon HIRONO, JAPAN— From Friday's Globe and Mail Published... more

squarethecircle
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8 months ago
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19 comments

Japanese Synchronized Gymnastics Is Insane (VIDEO)

They always take it to the next level. Thanks, Japan. [Ed. note- This video has... more

dryeraser
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8 months ago
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Japan Discovers Plutonium Far From Crippled Nuclear Reactor

—Trace amounts of plutonium were found as far as 28 miles from the damaged... more

joeeddy
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8 months ago
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The Herbivore's Dilemma - Japan panics about the rise of "grass-eating men"

Ryoma Igarashi likes going for long drives through the mountains, taking photographs of Buddhist temples and exploring old neighborhoods. He's just taken up gardening, growing radishes in a planter in his apartment. Until recently, Igarashi, a 27-year-old Japanese television presenter, would have been considered effeminate, even gay.

Japanese men have long been expected to live like characters on Mad Men, chasing secretaries, drinking with the boys, and splurging on watches, golf, and new cars.

Today, Igarashi has a new identity (and plenty of company among young Japanese men) as one of the soushoku danshi—literally translated, "grass-eating boys." Named for their lack of interest in sex and their preference for quieter, less competitive lives, Japan's "herbivores" are provoking a national debate about how the country's economic stagnation since the early 1990s has altered men's behavior.

Newspapers, magazines, and television shows are newly fixated on the herbivores. "Have men gotten weaker?" was one theme of a recent TV talk show. "Herbivores Aren't So Bad" is the title of a regular column on the Japanese Web site NB Online.

In this age of bromance and metrosexuals, why all the fuss? The short answer is that grass-eating men are alarming because they are the nexus between two of the biggest challenges facing Japanese society: the declining birth rate and anemic consumption. Herbivores represent an unspoken rebellion against many of the masculine, materialist values associated with Japan's 1980s bubble economy. Media Shakers, a consulting company that is a subsidiary of Dentsu, the country's largest advertising agency,estimates that 60 percent of men in their early 20s and at least 42 percent of men aged 23 to 34 consider themselves grass-eating men. Partner Agent, a Japanese dating agency, found in a survey that 61 percent of unmarried men in their 30s identified themselves as herbivores. Of the 1,000 single men in their 20s and 30s polled by Lifenet, a Japanese life-insurance company, 75 percent described themselves as grass-eating men.

Japanese companies are worried that herbivorous boys aren't the status-conscious consumers their parents once were. They love to putter around the house. According to Media Shakers' research, they are more likely to want to spend time by themselves or with close friends, more likely to shop for things to decorate their homes, and more likely to buy little luxuries than big-ticket items. They prefer vacationing in Japan to venturing abroad. They're often close to their mothers and have female friends, but they're in no rush to get married themselves, according to Maki Fukasawa, the Japanese editor and columnist who coined the term in NB Online in 2006.

Grass-eating boys' commitment phobia is not the only thing that's worrying Japanese women. Unlike earlier generations of Japanese men, they prefer not to make the first move, they like to split the bill, and they're not particularly motivated by sex. "I spent the night at one guy's house, and nothing happened—we just went to sleep!" moaned one incredulous woman on a TV program devoted to herbivores. "It's like something's missing with them," said Yoko Yatsu, a 34-year-old housewife, in an interview. "If they were more normal, they'd be more interested in women. They'd at least want to talk to women."

It may be that Japan's efforts to make the workplace more egalitarian planted the seeds for the grass-eating boys, says Fukasawa. In the wake of Japan's 1985 Equal Employment Opportunity Law, women assumed greater responsibility at work, and the balance of power between the sexes began to shift. Though there are still significant barriers to career advancement for women, a new breed of female executive who could party almost as hard as her male colleagues emerged. Office lechery, which had been socially acceptable, became stigmatized as seku hara, or sexual harassment.

But it was the bursting of Japan's bubble in the early 1990s, coupled with this shift in the social landscape, that made the old model of Japanese manhood unsustainable. Before the bubble collapsed, Japanese companies offered jobs for life. Salarymen who knew exactly where their next paycheck was coming from were more confident buying a Tiffany necklace or an expensive French dinner for their girlfriend. Now, nearly 40 percent of Japanese work in nonstaff positions with much less job security.

"When the economy was good, Japanese men had only one lifestyle choice: They joined a company after they graduated from college, got married, bought a car, and regularly replaced it with a new one," says Fukasawa. "Men today simply can't live that stereotypical 'happy' life."
---------------- More art Link ----------------------------------------------------------------------Ryoma Igarashi likes going for long drives through the mountains, taking photographs... more

MotherForTruth
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8 months ago
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23 comments

The Incredible Magic Of Makeup (PHOTO)

IT'S A TRAP! Fapping terminated...

dryeraser
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8 months ago
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0 comments

How To Make ALL The Faces And Emoticons (PHOTO)

Mother of god... the Japanese do not fck around when it comes to emoticons.

dryeraser
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8 months ago
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0 comments

60,000 people stood up against nuclear

An anti-nuc demonstration was held in Tokyo,from Meiji koen. 50,000 people were... more

squarethecircle
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8 months ago
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19 comments

Typhoon Roke hits Japan on track for leaking Fukushima

Typhoon Roke brought evacuation orders, downpours and fears of floods to southern... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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9 comments

“The horrible news from Japan continues to be ignored by the western corporate media.”

Can We Stop the Next Catastrophe? Ten Thousand Fukushimas The horrible news from... more

joeeddy
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9 months ago
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0 comments

Tsunami-Hit City Fights Back from Tragedy | Video

CNN... . Tsunami-hit city fights back from tragedy By Kyung Lah, CNN... more

EthicalVegan
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9 months ago
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1 comment

Grim search after 31 die in Japan typhoon

Rescue teams carried out a painstaking search Monday for the missing after a typhoon pounded western Japan leaving at least 31 people dead and more than 50 unaccounted for, local authorities said.

Torrential rain brought by powerful Typhoon Talas, which made landfall Saturday and was one of the deadliest in years, caused rivers to swell and triggered floods and landslides that swept away buildings, homes and roads.

Police and firefighters resumed a search for the missing early Monday, warning that the number of victims was set to rise as the continued threat of landslides and damaged access routes hampered relief efforts.

In the deadliest typhoon since an October 2004 storm killed nearly 100 people, floods triggered by Typhoon Talas gave rise to scenes eerily reminiscent of the aftermath of the March 11 tsunami that hit northeast Japan.

In Nachikatsuura town, a railway bridge was swept into a river, while TV footage showed splintered trees, crushed houses and cars tossed onto walls and buildings by the raging floodwaters that inundated entire neighbourhoods.

By Sunday, Talas had been downgraded to a tropical storm after it moved over Japan and into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the Meteorological Agency said, but risks of further landslides posed a threat to rescue and recovery efforts.

The storm came after new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was sworn in on Friday, replacing Naoto Kan, who was heavily criticised for the government's response in the aftermath of the March 11 disasters.

"We will do our best in saving lives and finding the missing," Noda told reporters Monday.

The Talas weather system, moving as slow as 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour, dumped 1.8 metres (six feet) of rain on a village in Nara prefecture for five days through Sunday, more than Tokyo's annual average rainfall, said the Yomiuri daily.

Wakayama prefecture was the hardest hit region, where 21 people were killed and 35 were missing. More than 200 rescue workers continued the search on the ground on Monday.

"We are struggling to get a hold on the current situation... electricity is out and destroyed roads are preventing our vehicles from going into affected areas," said an official at the fire department in Tanabe, Wakayama prefecture.

More at the linkRescue teams carried out a painstaking search Monday for the missing after a typhoon... more

JanforGore
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9 months ago
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1 comment

Typhoon Talas leaves 22 dead, 51 missing in Japan

Western Japan struggled Monday in the aftermath of Typhoon Talas, which swept across... more

sitsi
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9 months ago
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Air Conditioned Clothes to Fight Global Warming

A Japanese company is promoting air-conditioned jackets and shirts. Self-cooling... more

thedirtman
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9 months ago
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1 comment

Japan's parliament elects new prime minister, its 6th in 5 years

Japan's parliament elected Yoshihiko Noda as the country's new prime... more

Kristena
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9 months ago
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Why is "Confucian Culture" so wildly successful?

article examines East Asian nations and shows that their achievements might be rooted... more

googygood
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9 months ago
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