Herbivorous boys and Anti-marriage boys (Yuma Yamada and Tomohiko Ebashi)

What do you think about a man who does not choose to get married in Japan? This trend has been continuing since several years ago from now. Some social scientists have determined a man who is not able to get married to be called “herbivorous boys” (alternatively, they are called “Soushoku-Kei-Danshi” in Japan), which means a man who does not have a courage in having a relationship with girls. On the contrary, we define the man who is not afraid of getting married. For those who choose to stay as a bachelor, we sometimes call them “Anti-marriage Boys”. In this post, we would like to discuss about definitions of each type of men who do not marry, and compare and contrast each type of men. Also we would like to inform you of survey results through our research.

 

              First, “herbivorous boys” are men who are not encouraged to have relationship with women. This is because men’s inactive attitude toward action and personality is similar to herbivore animals’ images. Herbivore animals have a peaceful image in the wild, where flesh-eating animals live. This image could be fitted to today’s images of boys. For example, they tend to avoid concerning about love and fighting with other boys in order to make relationship with girls. On the other hand, there are men who are totally afraid of women, or have no interest in them at all. It is sometimes said that hormones in the body is being collapsed by modern disease, but they may be uninterested in women because of their unreliability. Some may even think that love is not necessary unless if you are planning to marry in the future.

The main reason of herbivorous boys’ increase is because of social changes in the recent years. In Japan, for past 20 years, national economy has been declining and not wealthier than the age of bubble economy in 1980’s in Japan. Therefore, people couldn’t make and spend money easier than that age, and do not use money for partner such as birthday party, Christmas present, and in other events. However, people still have an image that having a relationship with women would require a large amount of money, so people do not take action in making relationships with women because of economic problem. Due to this national problem, boys tend to think of the usage of money even more carefully than before. Many boys are now looking for a partner who has the similar value in spending. In our survey, we have researched on the values which teenage girls seek on boys.

In our survey, we have asked questions on images of the men in present/former age, and researched on the differences between two ages. We had the answerers to choose from multiple selections. In other questions, we asked whether if men are: active/passive in making relationships, childish/adult, good at/bad at domestic works, cool/cute, and brave/timid. After we got results from 19 teenage girls, we tallied them up. We first got a result that men in present age are not very dependable economically. On the contrary, we got a result that men who lived in former age were imaged a lot dependable than those of present age. From this result, we can suspect that a man in present age is unreliable economically, and undependable for women.

 

Secondly, we found out that the appearance of “herbivorous boys” is, as boys choose not to have a relationship with a girl, could be seen as a social change for women. In our present society, woman has a right to work in company with the same authority as men. It becomes a major change in the image in terms of gender. Women could work outside just like men do; on the contrary, men are not forced to work outside anymore instead of working domestically. Moreover, this social change has shifted the roles of men and women. Women in present have shifted the role of men, who are looking for a way in making a relationship with woman. However, men in present have shifted the women’s position, which only required them to wait patiently for men’s approaches.

In our survey, we got a result that fifteen percent of girls answered that men in present age are passive when it comes to constructing a relationship. On the contrary, another fifteen percent of girls said that women in present are very active in constructing a relationship.

Therefore, social change has shifted relationship between men and women. On the other hand, those who choose not to marry have an anxiety in marrying a woman who has a different value of life. Through our survey, we have found out that although there are more than twice girl who want to marry, boys tend to avoid marrying a girl. Boys feel that going out with a girl he love, but marrying her would be a difficult thing to consider, in terms of houseworks. In our survey, we got a result that about fifty percent of girls voted on “former girls were better at domestic works than present age”, and no one has voted on the fact that “present girls are better at domestic works than former age”.

 

In conclusion, we found out that there are various definitions to “soushoku-kei-danshi” and “anti-marriage boys”. All of the boys have a right to choose whether it he want to marry or not, but it is a fact that Japan is always facing a low-birth and high-aging problem. We cannot neglect this huge problem, but we cannot force them to marry a woman. Since the world is gradually becoming tolerant to anyone, the number of homosexual people would rapidly expand, which is a good social movement from the old idea of sexism. Although Japan is said to be a sexism country even now, but it is sure that the women are gaining an equal power as men. Now, some women even have a power over men workers. As the rights of men and women become more equal, the definition of masculinity is becoming more and more unbalanced. Traditional Japanese family composed under a stubborn father, but now men are losing their goal in building a relationship with women. Gender equalization was a revolutionary event, but it has done negatively in some ways from men’s point of view.