The herbification of the Western world is not just an American phenomenon; Japanese men — heirs of Samurai and Kamikazes — are herbifying straight into an anime-tastic fantasyland of celibate extinction.
Reader Eric sent me a link to a videogame blog discussing an article written by a BBC reporter called “Is Japan a dying nation?”
I’m no social psychologist, so I wouldn’t dare to come up with an explanation for why Japanese couples aren’t having enough babies. But one theory is that Japanese women are increasingly reluctant to marry, because they think Japanese men have shown themselves unable to adapt to the needs of a new, more flexible society – and have retreated into a fantasy world of comics, video games and animated pornography where they feel less threatened.
The BBC article is all the talk on the internet in Japan, and has riled dishonored Japanese men to stand up and defend their manliness. The blog at the link highlights the reactions of indignant Japanese men to the article by posting a representative sampling of the comments they’re leaving on a popular bulletin board:
-Make reality more interesting than games please.
-Yeah I can live on games alone.
-If everybody became obsessed with games then we would live in a peaceful society.
-Reality does not want to deal with me you idiot.
-The world in the monitor is reality. The world we live in is just imaginary.
-To be honest, I don’t want a (real) woman.
–Love Plus is reality.
-There are too many Japanese people anyway so decreasing the population would be just right.
-But the 2D world is ideal.
-Oh and its OK to be obsessed with movies and books then?
-My (2D) girlfriend is Aika-san. She lets me meet her whenever I want and greets me with a smile if I forget a date – and she does not cost money. Thats all I need.
-His words are racist.
-I’m 30 and earn 3.5 million yen (35K USD) – how am I supposed to get married?
-Why is somebody from a declining country (England) telling me this?
-The decline of the population has nothing to do with games or manga.
-My partner is Hatsune Miku. I would do anything for her and we are thinking of having kids.
-I tried to face reality and it became Love Plus.
-We must fight reality!
-They should make a game for the DS called “lets face society”
-A country of Neets (England) being worried about Japan?
-Not sure about England but the hurdle to getting married over the past 20 years in Japan is gone up too high – socially and financially.
-Unless there are more job positions then I cant face reality.
-Girls in games wont cheat on us.
-The solution is to make reality in games.
-I’m too busy with work to think about getting married.
-But Sanya is too cute.
-Solution is simple – make it so that anime and manga characters can get pregnant.
To my Euro and American readers, any of these complaints sound familiar? The Japanese, Rushtonian K-style, have simply taken the Great Beta Retreat one step further. I would say that Japanese men need game, but really, when you’re this far gone (“make it so that anime and manga characters can get pregnant”) you’re not ready to accept the Good Word of Game into your life.
If China wanted to invade and occupy an aging and increasingly celibate cartoon porn-addicted Japan right now, they would find an easy go of it. I think the Chinese know this.
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