"I don't suffer for not having a lover," she tells the women's weekly. "I've got
lots of girlfriends and we hang out together on our days off, so I'm not
lonely."
Yukari is indeed, not alone, going by what AERA has to say. Yukari is
apparently one of the growing number of young - but getting older quicker than
they think - Japanese who are taking their time to find love or even just lust.
These people are, however, plagued by a society that places importance on those
who are popular.
"Following all the different descriptions of what makes up 'popularity' in the
different women's magazines creates Hell for the unpopular," writer Yumi
Toyozaki says. "Only a very select few can follow everything recommended to
make women popular with the opposite sex. Nobody wants to be called 'ugly."
Toyozaki, however, says it shouldn't matter what people look like or how others
react to them.
"Should people be discriminated against because people of the opposite sex
aren't smitten by them? Is an ability to turn on someone of the opposite sex
really that great?" she says. "Forget about all that and enjoy life being
unpopular."
Guys, it seems, have for years been heeding advice like Toyozaki is now giving
gals. Where it would once have been shameful to admit to being a virgin at 30,
now virginity is almost worn as a badge of honor. "Densha Otoko," a wildly
popular Japanese movie dominating the local box office, tells the story of an
awkward otaku's attempts at wooing a woman to get his first-ever girlfriend
even though he's well into his 20s. The trend appears evident overseas, with
the United States currently enthralled by the movie "The 40 Year Old Virgin," a
film that tells the story of a middle-aged man trying to "do the deed" for the
first time in his life.
Hidemi Horikoshi, a writer on Culture for the Unpopular for a popular portal
site, says the time has come for a new look at love.
"Until now, the market for love has always honed in on the winners. But
there're other forms of love out there," she tells AERA. "There are people
whose ideal date doesn't involve sitting in a classy restaurant with an ocean
view. Some people may like a love story that involves lying around at home all
day reading manga."
Copyright 1999-2005, Mainchi Daily. Used with permission. All rights
reserved. Ryann Connell is a Staff Writer and Senoir Desk Editor for the
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