Masanobu Ota, a farmer in Ureshino, Saga Prefecture, and his wife Etsuko, married last year thanks to the help of a matchmaker — the prefectural government. Masanobu, 28, met Etsuko, 38, at a konkatsu (spouse-hunting) event held by the Saga Prefectural Government in November 2015. ...
One day in May, a woman in her 40s was browsing a tablet computer at a municipality-funded matchmaking center, searching for a prospective husband. She was surprised; the computer suggested candidates she wouldn't have otherwise considered. "It recommends people who were under my radar," she ...
A Kanagawa woman who started a crowdfunding project last year to bankroll her search for a husband is on course to reap the ultimate dividend. After meeting 11 suitors in the space of a month through the formal Japanese matchmaking tradition of omiai, 27-year-old Tomoko ...
A recent government survey showed that nearly one in four men and one in seven women will never marry. A growing number of people are struggling with finding stable employment that ensures a livable wage and, unlike decades ago, marriage now is one of ...
A group of experts advising the government on how to boost marriage numbers has said that companies should aid employees hoping to wed by holding events to help them meet potential partners, but it ditched a proposal to create a "marriage-hunting mentor" system in ...
The central government will expand the scope of its assistance to konkatsu spouse-hunting events to include those hosted by companies and other private organizations. Such support is currently limited to activities sponsored by municipalities. The central government hopes to encourage more people to marry, aiming ...
From tech products to movies, the recent advent of crowdfunding has allowed companies and creators to make their dreams a reality. But 26-year-old Tomoko Takebe has a more personal goal in mind — to find herself a husband. "I'm totally serious," Takebe, who has raised over ...
Deposit your money at a bank in northern Japan and you could get more than interest payments. You might end up getting married. This weekend, 184 depositors at Tsuruoka Shinkin Bank — single men and women with an average age of 32 — are invited ...
About 1,000 railway fans took part in Tetsukon, a matchmaking event especially for them, on Saturday near Tokyo, with about 100 men and women coupling. Saitama Railway Corp. and Tokyo Metro Co. jointly hosted the event in the city of Saitama to offer their unmarried ...
Over coffee and cake in a rural cafe in Kochi Prefecture, Hideyuki Tanaka, 40, plucked up the courage to speak with Eri, 14 years his junior. A pianist provided the ambience for the afternoon gathering of 18 singles, arranged by local government cupids, which eventually ...
Finding marriage partners is a problem shared by many young Buddhist priests, who have few opportunities to meet people of their own generation. An event was held last month at a restaurant in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, to help them find marriage partners. It was attended ...
Despite being located almost a stone's throw from the historic town of Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture and establishing itself as the gyōza capital of Japan, Utsunomiya was languishing in the economic doldrums for the much of the early 2000s. Nearly a decade later, the situation ...
