Abstract
Social and Cultural Geography:
In this paper, the author highlights recent changes in men and masculinities in Japan with a special eye on how they relate to the reshaping of contemporary Japan's geographical imagination as well as homegrown nationalism. Recent drastic socio-economic changes in Japan hit younger generation, which may affect the gender identity and behaviour of young Japanese men who are no longer able to rely on post-war family models defining men as breadwinners. As such, one must wonder what sort of new gender role model is in the process of being constructed. The author picks up three types of new masculinity; "herbivorous boy", "otaku" and "neo-(pettit) nationalist". It is crucial to examine how new emergent types of men and masculinity will effect future social, economic and political change in Japan.
