A Dearth of Masculinity in Japan
FEMINISM is a worldwide phenomenon. Japan, for instance, has a record low birthrate and relations between the sexes are showing the same symptoms as secularised Western society. Things are so bad, Japanese women have been publicly swooning on social media over Shabani, a male gorilla in the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens:
For many Japanese women, especially busy working mothers, an “ikemen” [handsome guy] who is also an “ikumen” [nurturing father] is their dream come true, as evidenced by the enduring popularity of Japan’s top pop idol, Takuya Kimura, who is now 42 and a dad of two.
There has been a trend among Japanese male celebrities to emphasise that they are good and loving fathers, and Shabani’s popularity may be the latest addition to that trend.
[Shabani] was born in the Netherlands 18 years ago and came to the Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture, in 2007 as a gift. In human terms he would be in his mid- to late-thirties, the age most men, human or ape, are at the height of their strength and virility.
And what has proven more endearing for adult women is that Shabani’s wife Nene is 24 years his senior, who bore his son aged 40 – a surprising age for a female gorilla to give birth, according to the zoo. (more…)



