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20 days ago
The rise of Japan’s 'girlie man' generation Forget the salarymen, Japan's new 'herbivore' generation of males believe that life is far more important than work Yasuo Takeuchi makes an improbable radical. Skinny, wearing jeans, a striped sports shirt and a baby blue cardigan, he is fidgety and talks in a near whisper. He is 33, works for a major publisher in Tokyo and inspired a label now applied to a new generation of Japanese men. He is the archetypal soshokukei danshi, “herbivorous male” or Ojo-man “girlie man”. Herbivores are shy and quiet. They seek the friendship of women and spurn aggressive dating. They are thrifty and abhor consumerism. They like quiet evenings in with friends rather than drinking till they vomit in the izakaya bars of Tokyo. They are the antithesis of the macho Japanese salarymen, on whose long-suffering shoulders modern Japan was built. Early, non-Japanese descriptions of the herbivore put them in the category of freaky Japanese cultural sideshows. ...30 days ago
The future Japanese Emperor Prince Hisahito touches a rabbit as his parents Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko look on during their visit to the Ueno Zoological Gardens near my neighborhood in Tokyo on Monday.34 days ago
Microsoft is celebrating the release of Windows 7 in Japan with a Burger King promotion for the Windows 7 Whopper which consists of seven stacked beef patties for 777 yen
40 days ago
A view from the shore of Miyake Island some 150 km south of Tokyo Diving with dolphins in the Izu Islands It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting on the beach, struggling to strap on a pair of oversize flippers. When they are securely in place, I waddle down to the water's edge and gingerly step into the sparkling, crystal ocean lapping Miyake Island. A shrine lies half buried by a lava flow from one of the many volcanic eruptions that occur on Miyake Island. "Ready to go?" asks Shuichi Taguchi, the owner of Dolphin Club TAG and my instructor for the day. Snorkeling gear in place, he and assistant guide Motomichi Takahashi lead our small group out of the protected shallows of the cove near Miyake's ferry port. We glide over pockets of spongy coral, where electric -blue fish dart in and out of crevices in which occasional spiny sea urchins are to be seen. On the ocean floor, a bloated sea slug makes slow progress toward safety in a forest of leafy seaweed that looks like ...41 days ago
Ha ccho Dejima Island on Lake Chuzenji in Nikko is ablaze with autumn color.
