Japan has of late been experiencing an explosion in population of a native ruminant — “herbivore men.” Dubbed this by Maki Fukasawa, a Japanese culture columnist, herbivore men are remarkable for their impecunity, thrift, fastidiousness, and, most bizarrely, their asexuality. CNN.com reports on the etymology of this curious epithet:

“In Japan, sex is translated as ‘relationship in flesh,’” [Maki] said, “so I named those boys ‘herbivorous boys’ since they are not interested in flesh.”

The blog Anxiety Index offers this description of herbivore men, one which highlights the features they share with their American counterparts, hipsters:

In Japan, there’s been a lot of buzz recently around soshoku-kei danshi, which translates as herbivorous or “grass eating” men. Political correctness aside, this term refers to the growing number of men age 20 to 34 who display less “masculine” traits than the “meat eaters” dominating the preceding generation. But before you start envisioning an overdue triumph of feminism in Japan, the reasons for — and results of — this shift in gender attitudes are not particularly positive.

Soshoku-kei danshi are generally considered to have a combination of the following attributes (based on research conducted last year by Tokyo-based market research firm Infinity): lack of ambition at work, preferring to avoid competition; limited life aspirations; low interest or even a negative attitude toward love, sex, dating and marriage; extremely tight with money (saving for the future is a high priority); and sensitivity and concern about their appearance, from fashion to hair and personal care.

Forsaking relationship in flesh doesn’t mean, however, that Japan’s herbivore men seek leafier release (à la the Bible’s Onan); as if taking their cues from Plato’s Symposium, they profess a courtlier love for the fairer sex than is to be enjoyed between the sheets.

It's not easy being green: one of Japan's "herbivore men."

Such chastity has become an unlikely fad among young Japanese men, who have done  American metrosexuals one better. Whereas metrosexuals mimic the color-coordinated plumage of the flamboyant set as a way of flying under the gay-dar of wary appletini-sipping urban Gueneveres, herbivore men really, truly just want to be friends:

Typically, “herbivore men” are in their 20s and 30s, and believe that friendship without sex can exist between men and women, Fukasawa said.

The serene detachment from carnality that herbivore men so assiduously cultivate along with their looks has won them as many detractors as admirers. Many of the latter, surprisingly enough, are Japanese women:

The term ["herbivore men"] has become a buzzword in Japan. Many people in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood were familiar with “herbivore men” — and had opinions about them.

Shigeyuki Nagayama said such men were not eager to find girlfriends and tend to be clumsy in love, and he admitted he seemed to fit the mold himself.

“My father always asks me if I got a girlfriend. He tells me I’m no good because I can’t get a girlfriend.”

Midori Saida, a 24-year-old woman sporting oversized aviators and her dyed brown hair in long ringlets, said “herbivore men” were “flaky and weak.”

“We like manly men,” she said. “We are not interested in those boys — at all.”

Takahito Kaji, 21, said he has been told he is “totally herbivorous.”

“Herbivorous boys are fragile, do not have a stocky body — skinny.”

Older men counsel their herbivorous juniors to set aside their ruminant ways. Cultivating a taste for gamine flesh, these older men claim, would reconnect them with their masculine prerogative and teach them the thrill of the hunt.  About such advice herbivore men remain dubious:

Fukasawa said Japanese men from the baby boomer generation were typically aggressive and proactive when it came to romance and sex. But as a result of growing up during Japan’s troubled economy in the 1990s, their children’s generation was not as assertive and goal-oriented. Their outlook came, in part, from seeing their fathers’ model of masculinity falter even as Japanese women gained more lifestyle options.

Former CNN intern Junichiro Hori, a self-described herbivore, said the idea goes beyond looks and attitudes toward sex.

“Some guys still try to be manly and try to be like strong and stuff, but you know personally I’m not afraid to show my vulnerability because being vulnerable or being sensitive is not a weakness.”

Older generations of Japanese men are not happy about the changes. At a bar frequented by businessmen after work, one man said: “You need to be carnivorous when you make decisions in your life. You should be proactive, not passive.”

Fukasawa said the group does not care so much about making money — a quality tied to the fact that there are fewer jobs available during the current global economic recession.

The herbivorous lifestyle choice is, then, for many Japanese men a forced one as Japan’s economy remains becalmed in the doldrums following the disaster that befell it in the 1990s. Zero-percent overnight lending rates and “zombie banks” famously led to Japan’s lost decade, the economic lethargy of which has permeated just about every facet of Japanese culture, breeding strange personality tics and tendencies.

Discussing otaku — young Japanese men whose response to Japan’s socioeconomic malaise is near-autistic absorption in computer games, anime or some other electronic pastime as opposed to celibate foppery — Ian Buruma writes in the June 11 edition of The New York Review of Books (warning: gated) that

the lapse into solipsism among young Japanese is too common to dismiss as just another fad. [...] It is a deliberate rejection of reality, a flight into make-believe. And this, in turn, is echoed in the behavior of the Japanese government itself. One of the most commonly cited reasons for the depth and length of the economic slump that started in the 1990s was the refusal of the government to acknowledge the disastrous state of Japanese banks, as though the problems would go away if everyone pretended that things were all right.

Neglect as an expression of wishful thinking stands as the common thread binding together herbivore men and zombie banks. The latter are as heedless of their duty to lend as the former to their duty to couple, a situation leading to dessication of the culture generally — desiccation that the latest worldwide recession has only aggravated. Again CNN.com:

Fukasawa said the group does not care so much about making money — a quality tied to the fact that there are fewer jobs available during the current global economic recession.

Japan’s economy recently saw its largest-ever recorded contraction and has shrunk for four straight quarters. Blue chip companies Sony, Panasonic, Toyota and Nissan all reported losses in May, and most are forecasting the same for the current fiscal year. Though still low by international standards, Japan’s reported 5 percent unemployment is the highest since 2003.

Hori agreed economics has played a role. When he finished university, “a lot of my friends were trying to work for a big company that pays well and I wasn’t interested in that. I am kind of struggling financially and my father is not very happy about it,” he said.

The strange case of the herbivore men represents a peculiar application of contemporary exhortations to environmentally sound practices; in Japan, the greening of the economy starts with young working-age men themselves.