Chapter 12

For men, who ceded the societal spotlight to women and plummeted to an overwhelming minority, the early modern era was a history of hardship. In European upper classes, pure-bloodism led to jointly managing scarce young boys as breeding stallions. In Christian (especially Catholic) nations, churches centralized protection: from infancy, boys were raised in male orphanages, and at 15, dispatched in groups to women-only villages for seed supply. However, public backlash against nuns monopolizing men, plus tragedies of entire orphanage groups wiped out by Red Death outbreaks, led to its decline. Eventually, men were imported from colonies and milked dry until their bodies broke. Ironically, this accelerated mixed-race unions, making racial discrimination less severe than in Yusuke’s world.

By the 20th century, human rights movements birthed male protectionism, transforming society. The world population was 70–80% of Yusuke’s original. In better-off regions, men comprised about 10% of the population; Red Death-ravaged Western Europe was especially low, at 2.0–2.5%.

Japan’s population grew through the high-growth period (1950s–late 1960s) via war boom, peaking over 80 million. But the bubble burst brought recession, shifting to gradual decline. Men made up 3.3%—better than most advanced nations, yet still a 1:30 ratio. 1978 stats: 79 million total. With declining birth rates, projections warned of dropping below 70 million by the 21st century.