"Just the other day I had a date with a woman. We were planning on seeing a movie but it was such a beautiful day that I said, 'We can see a movie anytime, let's watch the sunset instead.' She was furious: 'Why didn't you say so in the first place?'"
She stalked off to see the movie alone, leaving him to stroll off into the sunset alone, more convinced than ever that alone is how he was meant to be. "As of now," he tells Josei Seven magazine, "there is no one who I'd want to marry." He's 41.
Another story from Josei Seven: "I'm a good cook. I'd make a perfect bride, if I do say so myself." She's 43. Seven years ago she broke up with the man she'd planned to marry, and has been alone since, caring for her mother, whose infirmity following a stroke is the main crimp on her social life. Another is her workplace, a culture center where "the only people I see are housewives. I'm thinking of having my eggs frozen."