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Feminism is on the rise in Japan. Julian Ryall reports that women are attacking men in increasing numbers, sometimes fatally.

Reports of women getting violent or abusing men have skyrocketed in Japan in recent years, with experts suggesting economic decline and a “calm and gentle” male culture shift may be driving the animosity. In 2014, 181 domestic violence complaints were filed by men in Japan, according to the National Police Agency. Last year, that figure soared to 1,571 complaints. South China Morning Post

The numbers of actual assaults are likely to be far higher. Japanese men do not come from a culture where reporting being beaten up by a woman comes easily.

In the three years to 2017, Japanese men have reported, in a study, a 134% rise in violence against them. They rarely report it, for a variety of reasons including that they have been made to feel partly to blame.

A lot of these cases seem to involve couples in their 40s and 50s, and that would be the generation that had such a good time as youngsters during the years of Japan’s ‘bubble economy.” Makoto Watanabe, associate professor of media and communications at Bunkyo University

There certainly have been changes going on in Japanese society and economic problems for the country are reflected in tensions in households.

Japanese society has changed a lot in recent years and young men today are more calm and gentle than in the past. Tomoko Suga, professor, Rakuno Gakuen University, Hokkaido

Japan has its own version of MGTOW, the “herbivorous men”. These are men who largely reject the need to pander to women and provide everything for them in a society that has largely adopted western-style feminist ‘equality’.

Like most countries, Japan is not good at providing refuges for men who suffer from domestic abuse.

Overall, Japan has seen a decrease in suicide in recent years. However, for men, there is a distinct increase.