Japan panics about the rise of "grass-eating men"

Article here. Few other articles I have read point out the no-win situation men in modern societies face when it comes to place in society/gender roles. Men who do what they have been told to do since childhood about being less aggressive or ambitious, less motivated by sex-seeking in relationships, doing things that are less stressful than the traditional male roles require, etc., suddenly get criticized and minimized for it. However if they go back to being the way they were before in these areas, they will also get criticized and minimized. There's no winning for losing.

I can't blame these guys in Japan for taking a vastly different path than their fathers and grandfathers took. The result of doing so means a longer, healthier life and no worries about wives getting a divorce inside a day and taking off with the kids, a process that is, believe it or not, much easier for women to engage in in Japan than in the US, Canada, or Britain. Excerpt:

'Today, Igarashi has a new identity (and plenty of company among young Japanese men) as one of the soushoku danshi—literally translated, "grass-eating boys." Named for their lack of interest in sex and their preference for quieter, less competitive lives, Japan's "herbivores" are provoking a national debate about how the country's economic stagnation since the early 1990s has altered men's behavior.

Newspapers, magazines, and television shows are newly fixated on the herbivores. "Have men gotten weaker?" was one theme of a recent TV talk show. "Herbivores Aren't So Bad" is the title of a regular column on the Japanese Web site NB Online.
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Grass-eating boys' commitment phobia is not the only thing that's worrying Japanese women. Unlike earlier generations of Japanese men, they prefer not to make the first move, they like to split the bill, and they're not particularly motivated by sex. "I spent the night at one guy's house, and nothing happened—we just went to sleep!" moaned one incredulous woman on a TV program devoted to herbivores. "It's like something's missing with them," said Yoko Yatsu, a 34-year-old housewife, in an interview. "If they were more normal, they'd be more interested in women. They'd at least want to talk to women."
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Yoto Hosho, a 22-year-old college dropout who considers himself and most of his friends herbivores, believes the term describes a diverse group of men who have no desire to live up to traditional social expectations in their relationships with women, their jobs, or anything else. "We don't care at all what people think about how we live," he says.'