NPR report on Japan’s herbivore men
NPR has finally discovered the “herbivore men” that the Japanese media seems obsessed with lately:
“It’s not so much that men are becoming more like women. It’s that the concept of masculinity is changing,” says Katsuhiko Kokobun. From his perch at Guzzle, the popular Harajuku hair salon he owns, Kokobun is at the front line of the latest trends.
Over the years, he has seen more and more men coming into the salon — men who he describes as “more modest, less demanding, kind of passive; they accept what they’re told.” He’s noticed that nowadays they’re demanding more traditionally female treatments. “We do have eyebrow plucking and facials for men,” he says, smiling. “Eyebrow plucking is very popular among high school boys.”
It is, perhaps, no coincidence that Yasuhito Sekine’s eyebrows are perfectly groomed. The changing tastes of Japanese men are quite literally what take up his days. He works for an Internet service provider and operates Sweets Club, an online group for men who like desserts. Set up in January, it already has about 1,000 members who congregate — online and in person — to debate the virtues of different brands of strawberry shortcake. It’s something that Sekine says would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.
“Back then, lots of men liked desserts, but it was considered uncool. Cool men had to like alcohol or spicy food. I’ve discovered my father likes eating dessert, but he never showed it in the past,” Sekine says.
Listen to /read the full story here.
[hat tip to Philip G. / photo credit to the dudes at Reddit]
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I don’t live in Japan but the couple of times I have visited I didn’t notice this much, maybe the hair. I guess if I lived there maybe my perception would be changed. I wonder if Japanese women now see this as the norm.
PS: I like cake, desserts. I don’t hide it but then again I am not Japanese and not in my later years.
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Gah – what is the country coming to? I saw loads of host bars in nakasu in fukuoka and they all have these girly looking men on the posters. I wanna see more proper blokes with rugged beards like in those samurai films there!
*strokes beard*
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Indeed, Beards = Manliest of manly men.
Like my grandpa who was pampered lazy person!
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Hmmm… replace shortcake with cheesecake and I think you’re on to something. Until that happens, Mifune Toshiro is still the role model for bad-assery.
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It seems to me like the two sexes work completely independent of each other in this country. This article talks about the changing perception of what’s masculine, but I wonder how the ladies feel about that? Do they like these guys who sit around and talk about strawberry cake? Do they want a man who worries so much about his eyebrow and nails? Likewise, I see so many women that I think need to tone down on the make-up and re-check their fashion. It seems like they get all their “kawaii” advice from their girlfriends and so they think they’re cute, but in reality that’s not how the guys see it.
I just think there should be a bit more communication between the sexes.
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“I wonder how the ladies feel about that?”
It depends on their time of month.
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That photo comparison is so completely unfair. I mean how can you compare Kurosawa’s historical creations against the Metrosexual men of Japan? Are they serious? Why don’t they use something more contemporary of Kurosawa’s time, of the guys who began to adopt Western suits for business – such as can be seen in a more contemporary of Kurosawa’s film, “The Bad Sleep Well” ????
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That photo comparison might be completely pointless, as “JAPAN TODAY” guys must be “host” and thus they are considered predators of woman, that is, carnivore men.
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It’s not limited to Japan, certainly in terms of looks. The current load of Western young male movie stars are all very inoffensively emasculated as well. Lots of young pretty-boys. There was a recent article in a newspaper about this very phenomena, but I cannot recall the paper.
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I agree at least as far as entertainment is concerned. The industry just responds to what the female market wants and they seem to want this type. On the other hand when I walk through the streets in my neighborhood I find this look to be quite common among average young men. I don’t see this as often back in the US. But I think your point is correct, that this is not unique to Japan.
Having said that, if I had to picture myself in a relationship with a guy, like ya know if I ended up in prison or something, I would definitely go for one of the Japanese guys over a western guy. Maybe it’s the hair, just seems close enough to pass for female if you had to. Japanese men seem just slightly prettier, ya know if you had to pick I mean.
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I know. Just look at the number of successful transvestites in East Asia, where “successful” is defined as “actually disturbingly hot” rather than “looking like a sad guy in drag.”
As regards “western” men, this sort of emasculation (ahem: reconstruction of the male image) is seen in metrosexuals as well. In general it is a case of degree, more than anything.
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them ‘back thens’ look tough no doubt, but it’s not like even they had the stature or physique to back up their looks. japanese are just built differently, instead of putting up a tough guy facade it’s far easier to just play to their strengths and go with a more feminine approach.
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colorful,
Play to their strengths, eh? Funny, that –
You mean as opposed to the feminine-dressed Kings and Queens of Europe with their white-faced makeup and wigs? Ever seen “Angels & Insects”??? How about “Amadeus”??? Napoleon was a midget! He played to his strength for sure, didn’t he?
Plenty of frou-frou going on in the West as well, my friend!
Fashion and tastes change. This is happening now, but it’ll change again.
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Napoleon wasn’t a midget.
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Ya know what I mean. His complex. LOL
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Napoleon was actually average height.
“It was widely thought that Napoleon was very short. However, it is possible the inaccurate translation of old French feet (“pieds de roi”) to English is partly responsible. The French measure of five foot two (5′ 2″), recorded at his autopsy, actually translates into five feet six and one half inches (5′ 6.5″) in English measure, which was about the average height of the Frenchman of his day. It is also probable that the men of his Imperial Guard, with whom he was usually seen against were very tall, creating the illusion that Napoleon was short.”
Source: http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/napoleon_bonaparte.htm
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The French,
so Napoleon WAS short. He was only 5′6″. Being a military man, he was short. Military men should be big, tall, and strong. Don’t have to be pretty, but tall. No wonder he had a complex.
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“Military men should be big, tall, and strong.”
So Napoleon was a military failure?
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“So Napoleon was a military failure?”
In the end, yes. Had his moments, true, but ultimately he was a failure.
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Well, ULTIMATELY the Roman Empire was a failure, the Mongolian empire was a failure, the Persian Empire was a failure, the Nazi Empire was a failure, the Japanese Empire was a failure the list goes on and on. All military empires are doomed to fail in the end, that’s why the call it the end.
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But up until then he was hardly a failure.
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Whoops, should’ve put a smiley face on the end of my post…
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Isn’t blog comment communication a bitch?
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Yeah! The age of Samurai ended far before and we are now going back to Heian era where aristocrat men also wore white-faced makeup and wrote fake eyebrows.
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go fuck yourself is all i can say to that. do you know what a samurai is well let me answer they’re fucken bad asses.
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Like hell you know anything about the real samurai.
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Japan Back Then ruled.
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This is not newsworthy and I don’t know why even foreign news sources are jumping on this “grass eating boy” thing as if it is news. A few years ago, the Metrosexual and the skinny indierock hipster look were super popular. It’s a fashion trend and trends pass.
Foreign male stars are just as “grass-eating” (passive, with perfect hair and “cute” hobbies like shopping) as Japanese stars. Look at Zak Efron. Look at the Jonas Brothers. Look at every beautiful guy on that show Gossip Girls. Look at basically every young, famous man in Hollywood.
The guys in the picture, by the way, are hosts, and hosts are the opposite of this “grass-eating boy” phenomenon. Host guys aren’t shy or scared to talk to anyone and they get girls like mad, though most girls don’t like to be seen with them outside of hotels (just like a lot of girls with foreign guys).
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Yup! Melrose Place, 90210, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, etc etc…….
Those kids coming out of the Disney programmes are all like that, too.
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I protest!
It’s unfair to compare modern Japanese men with Mifune Toshiro. It’s like saying modern western men are pussies when compared with Lee Van Cleef. All men are pussies in comparison.
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The actual report is more terrible than I expected… They seem to be not so careful in spelling person’s name and in a 20 years backward writing style. How significant are this report and NPR? Is this just a report for yokels who are often satisfied with hearing a story of urban deviants and their vice? I, as a person grown up in a rural area, often feel embarrassed with this kind of reports.
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It’s true and it’s fucking sad.
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The hervivore type is what you get when boys are raised by their mothers, and have little to no contact with their workaholic fathers. Weak limp-wristed losers who have no future. And people seriously wonder why nobody is having kids any more?
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Though the two may be related in a sort of a holistic sense, be careful not to confuse the metrosexual-analogue trends in fashion with the “herbivorous boy” trend in lifestyle.
The herbivorous whatnot is an attempt to give a cheap and catchy label to the trend of men being less aggressive in pursuing what was thought to be the universal masculine goal of being top dawg and scoring with the girls.
People are supposed to be shocked to find that all of a sudden, there are many men who are content to live life without being overly ambitious in getting ahead in their jobs or devoting their life to the pursuit of sex and marriage.
I’m sure the “carnivorous men” and hedonistic consumerist lifestyles would make at least a partial comeback if people suddenly had the spending power as they had back in the days of the economic bubble …
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