Japanese "Herbivore Men" (men who forsake sexual and romantic relationships with women) have been referenced and talked about here often before. One thing that hasn't been brought up much (possibly for being out of the scope of this sub) is the large-scale economic impact of this behavior.

For those who may not be particularly versed in Japanese social issues, I'll provide a bit of background. For the past decade-and-a-half, there's been a growing trend of men in Japan forsaking sexual and romantic relationships with women, either permanently or until they're well into their 40's. Because of this trend, more and more Japanese citizens are going on with life without getting married and having children, which is having a negative effect on the birth-to-death ratio in the country. This is bad for a number of reasons, chief among them is as more people enter into retirement, there needs to be a large base of working taxpayers in order to pay for all of the services retired people need (such as healthcare). As the workforce retires, there are less and less young people available to pay into the system, which is causing strain not just on the local Japanese economy, but also the global economy as a whole. From the original /r/Economics thread, The Washington Post has a good summary detailing the problem.

Another issue that's brought up in the article are the social pressures that face both men and women. Once a man and a women get married, it's expected of them to immediately begin having children. While the wife is expected to quit her job and stay home to raise the children, the husband is expected to work and provide for the family. Coupled with that stress is the expectation for the husband to turn over his ENTIRE paycheck to his wife, and only receive a small allowance for himself.

With the global economic collapse of 2008/2009, the concept of "lifelong employment" in Japan has evaporated away. Many individuals work at temporary or part-time jobs, which don't pay nearly as well as the full-time jobs that went away. That disparity doesn't work well with the above cultural norm. Coupled with the social pressures placed on the wife to quit her job to care for her children, instead of doing both like the rest of the modern world, you can see why this problem began in the first place.

I hope for Japan's sake that they ditch those antiquated social norms in favor of more modern familial expectations. It takes two to provide for and raise children, and it's unfair on the husband to not only be the only one to work to provide for the family, but also to have exactly no say on what is done with that money. It's equally unfair for cultural expectations to expect the woman to leave the workforce entirely and become an economic burden.

I'd like to hear some of your opinions on the topic; what are your thoughts?