Grass Fed 2: Herbivore Men
and Japan’s Troubling Economy
writer:
Kyojiro Kagenuma, editor: BeijaFlor
First
posted at MGTOW Red Pill Forum on Feb 18 2014
Reposted at
Going Your Own Way Forum on Feb 20 2014
In this
article, I want to share the significant impact of the Herbivore Culture on
Japan’s economy.
“Won’t Someone Think of
the Children?”
In
retrospect, it’s quite amazing how the Herbivore Culture could slip through
societal awareness for so long without attracting attention. The first
indicator were the Parasite Singles phenomenon back in 2000 but it was largely
ignored, then the rise of the Otaku Culture between 2001 and 2007 (Azuma, H
2009) and Japan's high suicide rates; these were all indicator of a larger
problem that society did not see.
The reason
why the last 5 years there has been significant interest in Herbivore Men is the
primary concern of Japan’s Birth Rate Crisis. Japan could not ignore this. To
give you an idea, a local school in Nanmoku, 85 miles from Tokyo, had 1,250
first graders 50 years ago. In 2012, it had only 37.
Where are
the children? There are no children.
2010 began
what has become the dramatic effect of the Herbivore culture which saw the
population shrinking with negative percentages in annual population growth.
With the birth rate of 1.39, Japan will see a future with more elderly unable
to retire, a national debt of 1.1 trillion dollars that they cannot hope to pay
without a much needed labor force, and the government not able to support
Japan’s social welfare.
As more and
more Herbivore men “Go Galt” and simply refuse to marry and father children,
what many observers predict is a financial catastrophe of a colossal scale.
Japan is of course worried, and people inside and outside of government are
proposing plans to encourage more men and women to marry and have children.
One example
is from Morinaga Tokuro, an economic analyst who in 2012 proposed an absurd
Handsome Tax saying “If we impose a handsome tax on men who look good to
correct the injustice only slightly, then it will become easier for ugly men to
find love, and the number of people getting married will increase.” Under this
proposal, the wealthy and handsome Herbivore Man will be taxed 80%. (Beth, 2011 Handsome Tax)
He was not
joking; the Japanese are just that quirky.
Death and Taxes
I doubt
very much any further tax imposed on the Herbivore men would have any effect. A
married salaryman with an annual base salary of 10 million Yen (approximately
US$100,000) would receive and allowance of 30,000 to 40,000 Yen or $300 - 400
monthly from his wife.
The average Herbivore man can earn 6 million Yen
annually; after income tax, this would yield 3.6 million Yen or $36,000 net,
which amounts to 300,000 Yen or $3000 monthly. Deduct monthly cost of living at
the outskirts of Tokyo, which is 120,000 Yen, the Herbivore Man will still have
a disposable income of 180,000 Yen, or $1800 - about 5 times more disposable
income than if he was married. (Note: These figures are approximate. Since May
2013 the exchange rate has fluctuated around US$1 = 100 Yen.)
If we
consider the Handsome Tax of a Herbivore man who is earning 10 million annually
and is taxed 80%, with other factors constant, his monthly disposable income
would be 46,000 Yen or $451; still higher than the allowance a married
salaryman would be likely to get from his wife. I must clarify that the
Japanese Government gives many incentives to married couples with children and
I gave an overly simplified example. However, it is worthwhile to see that even
with taxes imposed on wealthy and handsome Herbivore men, it will likely not
have any impact considering the heavy cost of having children that includes
food, day care, school tuition, housing, car and insurance.
Add to
this, the rising trend of suicide in men and work-related deaths due to
depression, job loss and fatigue. In 2009, 32,845 Japanese killed themselves,
70% of them male (Brown,AM 2010). Japan has an average suicide rate of 30,0000 people annually
for 14 years straight until 2012 with an average of 10,000 deaths due to
overwork (Demetriou, D 2009). The National Police Agency attributed 1 in 4 suicides as
financially motivated where borrowers of financial loan kill themselves so that
their loan can be paid off with their life insurance. Japan’s suicide
rate is one of the highest in the world according to the World Health
Organization, with no indication of decline.
Men would
rather die than make their friends and families financial slaves. Herbivore men
would rather live alone than be enslaved in this fashion.
The Downward Spiral
Understandably,
Morinaga Tokuro’s proposal seemed desperate. Well, Japan is beginning to feel
desperate. I read an article in the New York Times (Harney,A 2012) where the writer, Alexandra Harney proposed,
- subsidizing public day care in an attempt to make child care more affordable
- employ younger, more skilled labor and discourage overtime in favor of family time
- employ more women, and give incentives for women to return to work after childbirth
Wow, talk
about the fastest way to ruin a country. Her suggestion is echoed by many
writers of her kind in the western world. Instead of arguing her suggestion, I
would like to point out that this writer absolutely did not address the actual
problem i.e. young men and women are not having babies, there are no new
families because they don’t want to make a family and, this is the most
important part, Japanese women don’t want to work.
In a 2011
article in Time Magazine, Sylvia Ann Hewlett said that data from the
Center of Work-Life Policy showed that Japanese women with college degrees are
74% more likely to voluntarily quit their job, and that 63% of those who quit
cite that “their career was not satisfying enough.” (Hewlett, SA 2011). A government survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in
2013 showed that 1 in 3 of women wants to settle down and just remain a
housewife (JapanToday2011).
Both
Hewlett and Harney argued that Japanese women are being sidelined because of
societal pressure to be stay at home mothers, stated that day care is
expensive, and advocated flexible work hours – all to accommodate women,
willfully ignoring that the many of young Japanese women do not want children
and simply do not wish to work.
If the
Japanese government continues to push pro-women policies in the workforce while
disregarding the birth rate crisis and Japan’s aging and shrinking tax base,
Japan would likely plunge further into debt, the cost of living would rise and
people would have to work longer hours to try to earn more, resulting an
increase in fatigue, stress, mental problems and work-related suicide.
Only this
time, it’s the women in the workforce who are going to kill themselves, or at
least kill each other. I’m not saying that’s a good thing though.
Made In Japan
How would
this affect Herbivore Men? Nothing that wouldn’t affect everyone else twofold.
Herbivore
men are generally cautious and wary of their future and the economy, looking
toward preservation and sustainability rather than consumption and conquest.
Necessity is the mother of invention and in Japan’s worsening economy, the
preservation and sustainability of Herbivore Men, which is in direct contrast
to the Japanese women’s indulgence and decadence provide that necessity in
which ingenuity and innovation to thrive.
So far, the
pro-women policies spouted by Shinzo Abe do not seem to adversely affect
Herbivore lifestyle. In fact, though Japan's marketplace has traditionally
catered to women, the Herbivore men are becoming a growing consumer market in
Japan with many products that are specifically designed for them. If this trend
continues, then we should see a shift in purchasing power from women to men.
Bear with
me on this; what this would do is create new products and services that are
uniquely male-oriented, just as video games had been uniquely male for the best
part of 30 years. We can see today how video games have grown from a geek
culture to global culture, all thanks to Pong, Pac Man and everyone with a
penis. The Otaku culture, another pre-dominantly male space and industry, is
estimated to have market size of 2 trillion Yen in 2005 (Web Japan 2005).
Men created
an industry when no industry existed before.
Sony, JVC,
Casio, Toyota, Honda, Canon, Ricoh, Nintendo, Olympus, Panasonic, Seiko; the
list just goes on and on of the many things Japanese made which are held with
great esteem once or still. It was the Japanese automotive, electric and
electronic products that made them rise from a nuclear testing ground to the
third largest economy in the world paved by men’s ingenuity and innovation.
What Shinzo
Abe, and other vagina worshippers like him fail to see, is that the solution
does not lie with pandering to women but instead the government and the economy
needs to encourage men. What the Japanese have forgotten is that at the end of
the Second World War right up to Japan’s economic boom in the 1980’s, what made
Japan so prosperous and advance is their inclination towards ingenuity and
innovation carried out by the men of Japan.
Back then,
when you had something that said “Made in Japan”, you knew it was the best. Here’s
hoping that our brothers in Japan find the same ingenuity and innovation to
bring them out of economic abyss.
References
Azuma, H
2009 Otaku Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press.
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