“Migration spouse-hunting” is increasingly common in Japan
years of attending match-making parties, a professional in Tokyo explains, she has not found any suitable marriage prospects. “I’m tired of going to these events and not meeting anyone,” she gripes. So she has decided to expand her pool of prospective partners by looking for love outside the capital. To that end she has filled out an online profile detailing her name, job, hobbies and even weight on a match-making site that pairs up single urbanites with people from rural areas.
The rural bureaucrats are playing cupid in the hopes of stemming emigration. The population is shrinking in 40 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Young people move from the countryside to cities to go to university or look for a job. As a result, the dating pool in rural areas is becoming ever tinier—a situation that encourages even more young people to move away.
The difficulty of finding true love in the countryside is compounded by a gender mismatch. In 80% of prefectures with declining populations, young women are more likely than men to relocate to cities. This means that whereas there are more single women than men in big cities like Tokyo, bachelors outnumber spinsters in rural areas. Many men in the countryside are “left behind”, laments a government official in Akita.schemes are quite new, making it hard to assess whether they work in practice.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Unions at France's EDF call another strikeUnions at state-owned utility EDF said on Saturday they will go on strike again ...
Read more »
Angolan oil production is in declineAngola's state-owned energy giant is trying to sell off some of its bizarre assets, including a convent in Portugal
Read more »
Progress is possible in America’s ongoing war on povertyMany Americans are struggling to live out their own version of the American Dream because of forces beyond their control
Read more »
IZ*ONE Leads, TWICE Debuts at No. 4 on Japan Hot 100IZ*ONE soars to No. 1 on this week's Billboard Japan Hot 100 with 'Vampire,' the South Korean/Japanese girl group's third Japan single.
Read more »
Rising support, and expectations, lift hosts Japan at World CupJapan coach Jamie Joseph is not sure if his team is more globally popular than N...
Read more »
Jubilant Japan on brink of first World Cup quarter-final with Samoa winKotaro Matsushima scored a bonus-point try deep into injury time as Japan moved ...
Read more »