I dunno—you could argue that, after WW2, most of the Japanese fighting spirit transferred over to the business culture. Even as late as the '80s, Japanese busi

I dunno—you could argue that, after WW2, most of the Japanese fighting spirit transferred over to the business culture. Even as late as the '80s, Japanese business culture was notoriously macho and aggressive. When I first read about herbivore men, it was framed largely as a reaction against '80s Japanese business culture more than anything else. I'd be more inclined to argue that herbivore men came out of the recession of the '90s; they saw how the bubble economy collapsed and said "screw this, I don't want any part of it".