What's a 'grass-eating male'?

I heard the term “grass-eating male” a few days ago, while on a trip to Japan. Our historical tour guide, who asked to be called Mr. Tomo and with whom we spent a couple of days, explained that the two biggest challenges facing Japanese society are the decline in birth rate and anemic consumption.

Intrigued by Mr. Tomo’s pronouncements, I did some research on the term and found out that in 2006, Japanese female journalist Maki Fukasawa coined the moniker “grass-eating male” or soushoku danshi to describe today’s young Japanese men in a series of articles about marketing products to guys under 35.

“Grass-eaters” are herbivorous males, according to an article on the Straits Times blog site by Kwan Weng Kin. “They will happily graze alongside their female companions and are not given to forming deeper relationships. In contrast, ‘meat-eaters,’ or carnivorous men, home in on their prey.

Kwan said that the term has gained wide usage in Japan during the past years because its definition has grown as well. “It is generally agreed that “grass-eaters” do not see women as sex objects; they are gentle in the relationship with the opposite sex; they prefer to be indoors rather than outdoors; and they tend to be delicate by nature. Grass-eaters are also said to be not terribly positive in their attitude toward love or sex, and are more interested in fashion or their own hobbies rather than falling in love. Also, the grass-eating male is likely to have a sweet tooth and an ardent interest in food.” 

All these personality traits, which the Japanese media tags as a lack of ambition among the new breed of men, translates to the non-status-conscious consumers that their parents once were during Japan’s bubble economy in the 1980s.

Followers of world news know that Japan’s economy is stagnant at best, that their political foothold has been rapidly slipping into the crevice between China and the United States, and that its northeastern coastline is still struggling with the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and an ongoing nuclear crisis. 

According to our guide, Mr. Tomo, the reaction to the failure of Japan’s men to take the reins, even symbolically, has evolved from whispers of curiosity to charges of incompetence by Japan’s own domestic media. He said newspapers, magazines, and television shows have been fixated on these so-called “herbivores.” “Have men gotten weaker?” was the theme of a recent talk show on Japanese TV. “Herbivores Aren’t So Bad” is the title of a regular column on the Japanese website, NB Online.

According to Fukusawa, “Grass-eaters prefer to putter around the house. They are more likely to spend time by themselves with their video games, 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 are often close to their mothers and have female friends, but they are not in a rush to get married themselves.” Hence, the decline in birth rate and the benign consumerism.  

Straits Times blogger Kwan adds: “If young Japanese couples increasingly stay away from fancy restaurants, do not buy clothes to impress their dates, give each other fewer presents, and give cinemas a miss, it means a major setback for personal consumption, which in Japan is traditionally fueled by younger consumers.”

A recent survey by the Research Institute of Industry and Regional Economy and other surveys have found that fewer young Japanese these days crave their own cars, a fact that spells trouble for the Japanese carmakers. The country’s birth rate — already a major headache for national planners — will also suffer.

But Mr. Tomo lamented that young Japanese women share the blame in this avenue. “Young ladies today are very conscious of economics,” he said. “For a man to meet their standards, he must first pass three prerequisites: 1) He must not be an eldest son because in Japan eldest sons continue to live with their parents even after marriage because they are tasked with taking care of them; they much prefer second or succeeding sons; 2) he must already be a homeowner no matter how small a condominium unit it is; 3) he must be youthful and handsome. It is very hard to have all of that as a young man,” he added.

 Roland Kelts, a Guardian UK correspondent, said, that so-called grass-eating men have been tagged in the media over the past few years as hikikomori (socially withdrawn boys), uninterested in meat, fleshly sex (as opposed to virtual sex), and physical or workplace competition. “Anyone who has watched Japanese or Korean pop videos knows, the popular image of men in Asia, seen from a Western perspective, is more effeminate than macho, rife with makeup, stylized hairdos and choreographed dance steps. Even so-called punks in Japan lean more to Vivienne Westwood than Malcolm McLaren — more familiar with fashion spreads than spitting in the street.”

Truly ironic because Japan was rebuilt from the ashes of the Second World War into an economic and technological powerhouse with historically unprecedented speed on the backs of laborers, mainly men, building the rails of the country’s amazing bullet train, for example. 

Kelts, a Japanese-American and long-time Tokyo resident, theorized that this generational malaise of young Japanese men and their indifference to sex is because Japanese women have become stronger socially and economically at the very same time that Japanese men have become, “More mole-ish and fully absorbed in virtual worlds, satiated by the very technological wizardry their forebears foisted upon them, and even preferring it to reality.” 

I did bump into countless men on the streets, subway stations, restaurants and shops in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka — everywhere it seemed — with head-turning (at other times, head-scratching), really out-there, avant-garde, stylized hairdos as Kelts had described.  A curious thing because easily half of them were dressed in somber, black business suits with crisp white shirts and traditional ties. I asked Mr. Tomo about this because I didn’t think corporate men in traditional suits wouldn’t go out on a limb that way. “I expected daring hairdos to go with flamboyant clothing but never imagined them going particularly well with stuffed business shirts.” 

“That’s the only way young men nowadays can have some individuality in Japanese corporate culture. Over the years corporations have had no choice but to loosen the rules on matters of dress, or rather hairstyle, to not be so — how do you say it, oppressive? — because the workload and the work hours are already very difficult. These young men don’t have nice cars, don’t have girlfriends, and don’t make babies. What else can they do but fix their hair strangely for some excitement? But I am surprised that you are surprised,” Mr. Tomo said to me. “We are not so different. You have Justin Bieber — big star! You know Justin Bieber?” He put his palm with fanned-out fingers across his forehead to mime Bieber’s old hairdo. “He has Japanese-like hair and I think he wears makeup — good for TV,” he added, chuckling. “Maybe he’s a grass-eater too.”

I could neither confirm nor deny Bieber’s grass-eating status.

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