Some Japanese Males Start Mellowing Out, Making The Rest Of The Country Nervous

“Ryoma Igarashi likes going for long drives through the mountains, taking photographs of Buddhist temples and exploring old neighborhoods. He’s just taken up gardening, growing radishes in a planter in his apartment.” This sort of 20-something male would be completely unremarkable in Seattle or Munich. But in Japan, these “soushoku danshi” (literally, “grass-eating boys”) are precipitating a national debate about masculinity.