herbivore men in Japan?

Hi everyone. I've never been to Japan, but until now I've read a few articles about "herbivore men" issue in Japan.
It is said that many young men in Japan are satisfied with their virtual life of Mangas, Anime, Video games, so they don't look for social relationships, friendships, love relationships.

Is it the truth ?
Are there some people here who confirm/deny what I've just written?

Thank you for teaching your opinions and experiences. Have a nice day

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stoppe...

Is this one of the articles you read?

I'm also very curious. But why do they focus on Japan? I'm pretty sure it's happening elsewhere too.

Yes, it's true to a certain extent, but it's not unique to Japan.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405422/reference

(500) Days of Summer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022603/reference

The Social Network
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/reference

Lars and the Real Girl
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805564/reference

Monsieur Hire
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097904/reference

The word was popular in Japan, it is five years ago.

It is said that many young men in Japan are satisfied with their virtual life of Mangas, Anime, Video games

They are called as "OTAKU", not so many.

"herbivore men"
not compete, not fight, not aggresive, not show strong emotion (even if for love),
soft, gentle, mild, safe, etc.
they regard social relationships and friendships as important, because they do not want to have quarrels.

"herbivore men" is now popular in Japan.
you can see several interesting topics about young Japanese men in this forum. they are called as jerks by forein girls, because of their indecisive behaviors.

there are many herbivore women existing too.

@ bebegurl:

oh yes I found this article recently but actually I knew about herbivore men since a long time.
I guess that the reason why are they focusing on Japan, is because it must be more common in Japan.

I think that it is sad to see how Japanese are decided to sacrify their sentimental life to increase their work life. To me, the opposite should be done. Work is just a way to earn money and enjoy a comfortable life and raise the childs

I guess that the reason why are they focusing on Japan, is because it must be more common in Japan.

Again, I don't think so. Japan just has a word for it, that's all. Japan has words for everything.

"Again, I don't think so. Japan just has a word for it, that's all. Japan has words for everything."

Humm.. however there's no doubt that this phenomenon is more common in Japan than in the US, for example.

In the US everyone is obsessed by losing his virginity as soon as possible.

I've never lived in the Japanese society but I am pretty sure that in Japan the fact of being single or virgin isn't as negative as in the western countries.

@izquierda Whao there , Not everyone in the U.S is obsess about losing their virginity. So don't say "Everyone". Are you basing it on what you see on the Media? Really you'd be surprise to find innocent people here who don't care what people think about not losing it as soon as possible.

izquierda,

U.S.? Didn't you see my post as of 2013/10/22 12:12?

I've never been to Japan, but until now I've read a few articles about "herbivore men" issue in Japan.
It is said that many young men in Japan are satisfied with their virtual life of Mangas, Anime, Video games, so they don't look for social relationships, friendships, love relationships.
Is it the truth ?

You are mixing together several different tropes including herbivore men (which generally speaking are not interested in sexual relationships), otaku (people with obsessive interests), and maybe also hikikomori (shut ins).

Yes, there are small percentages of these types of people, but it isn't like some sort of epidemic. They probably exist in similar numbers to those in other countries.

I guess that the reason why are they focusing on Japan, is because it must be more common in Japan.

Probably not all that common (although the wikipedia page suggests that quite a large percentage of single men self describe themselves as herbivores). I think the foreign news mainly covers it because it fits the "weird Japan" narrative.

I think that it is sad to see how Japanese are decided to sacrify their sentimental life to increase their work life.

??? That isn't part of the herbivore man stereotype.

Humm.. however there's no doubt that this phenomenon is more common in Japan than in the US, for example.

I don't think you can make that assessment, it may just be that the names are different. Btw, this may not be some sort of new phenomenon. People like this have always existed, they are only now being clumped together into a group. Also I wonder their prevalence is related to the idea that gay men are still relatively closeted in Japanese society.

In the US everyone is obsessed by losing his virginity as soon as possible.

As the movies would have you believe. Do you live in the US? I'm wondering as you are French but you keep making statements about the US that sound too much like stereotypes pulled from movies.

I've never lived in the Japanese society but I am pretty sure that in Japan the fact of being single or virgin isn't as negative as in the western countries.

Being single is probably more negative in Japan than in other countries. Japanese society can outright hostile to single people in a way that definitely wouldn't fly in the US.

Yllwsmrf

"Japanese society can outright hostile to single people in a way that definitely wouldn't fly in the US"

Can you elaborate on this sentence? I don't quite understand in what ways.

Well according to my friends who are single that's Japanese, they said that sometimes being single at a certain age is frowned upon. Like people think there's something wrong with them, that's why they're still single.

What's always confused me is the amount of publicity Japan gets from sex. On the news, you see stories of cuddle cafes, or tentacle porn, or otakus marrying virtual characters. Recently, I've been seeing a lot about how Japan is seemingly not having sex at all. How a country can be having some of the weirdest sex and yet not have sex at all purplexes me.

In America, sex can be seen everywhere in the media that it's not hard to imagine why people may think Americans are particularly sex obsessed. However, Americans are also extremely sensitive to sex. It's complex.

To say that not all Americans are obsessed with sex is true. That doesn't mean that it's okay to not have sex though. Today on facebook, I came across a news article from slate. To be more specific, it was an advice article. A woman was questioning whether to stay in a relationship with a 30 year old virgin who wanted to wait to have sex with her. Most of the comments questioned the man's sexuality and mental state. The opinon of many was that there was something wrong with this man because he refused to have sex with a willing woman.

To call "herbivore men" a phenomenon strictly Japanese is ridiculous. While Japan may call it being herbivore, I think it's closely related to what we call asexuality, in which people simply are not interested in sex. This is global. I do not have any sources, but it is said that 1% of the world's population may identify as asexual. Asexuality is a sexuality similar to someone identifying as gay, straight, or bisexual.