Japan isn’t the only country experimenting with publicly run matchmaking.
Singapore’s Social Development Network works to “facilitate marriages and nurture a culture where singles view marriage as a top life goal.” Its “LoveByte” Web site dispenses dating advice, allows people to search for other registered singles and advertises privately run speed-dating events.
Japan’s previous local government efforts to pair youth haven’t raised marriage rates, Dai-Ichi’s Matsuda said.
“The root problem is this: They don’t have financial stability,” he said. “That’s a problem with their employment opportunities that can’t be resolved by dating support.”
Fukui’s service will also compete with a host of private online dating services such as Tokyo-based O-Net Inc, which organizes events for its 38,000 members such as wine-tasting tours and “elegance” seminars for women.
Organized dating activities called konkatsu, or marriage-hunting, including 8am singles breakfasts, trash-picking by Shinjuku station in Tokyo, and Sunday morning book clubs, are also becoming popular.
Fukui had the lowest jobless rate in the first quarter among Japan’s 47 prefectures, at 3.3 percent, according to the statistics bureau. About 53 percent of Fukui’s women held jobs in 2007, versus a national average of 48.8 percent. The prefecture also had the highest ratio of dual-income households at 39.6 percent, against Japan’s average of 26.6 percent, census data from 2005 show.
The hope is that members from the Fukui Marriage-Hunting Cafe will pair off and help turn around the prefecture’s fertility rate, which dropped to 1.54 in 2008, from 1.93 in 1985.
“Our goal is to first help people meet each other and then support them as they get married and raise children,” Iwakabe said. “It’s all part of a larger plan to aid parents in the process of child-rearing.”
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