As demographic changes make it increasingly hard for rural men to find partners, authorities in Niigata Prefecture have begun holding matchmaking events in which women from far afield are invited to meet a potential mate in one of Japan's major agricultural regions.
On a morning in March, 14 serious-looking men aged 26 to 42 exited a building in a snow-covered roadside rest area in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, to await a bus carrying more than a dozen young women from a nearby train station.
Earlier in the morning, the men living in the city of Niigata and its vicinity had gathered in the building's conference room to listen to advice from a matchmaking instructor. "Don't be afraid of being laughed at. When they (women) speak, nod in sympathy," Sosuke Takahashi, 43, said before the arrival of 13 women aged 27 to 38 from Tokyo for a two-day konkatsu spouse-hunting event.