Old News About Local Governments in Japan as Matchmakers

choi

Miho Inada, Japan's Lonely Singles Seek Romance from the Government; Falling birthrates have yielded the office of matchmaking; 'They need help.' nWall Street Journal, July 20, 2024, at page A1.
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/j ... ion-dating-a13052d9

Excerpt in the window of print: She tired of meeting men who looked better on dating app photos.

Note:
(a) Ōmiya, Saitama  埼玉県 大宮(市) is named after Hikawa Shrine 氷川神社. (Kanji 氷 has several Japanese pronunciations, including hi which, however, is archaic.)
(b) "Yurika Adachi ]a woman] * * * filled out an online form and booked an in-person appointment at the Saitama Rendezvous Support Center. * * * Adachi met a man her age. She said she wasn’t impressed by his photo, but Ri Adachi had a solid job as a systems engineer."
(i) They share the same family name now, because law in Japan mandates a married couple (MUST) use the same family name, either his or hers. (The English verb mandate, like another verb require, dictates that the verb in the clause be the dictionary form (as the word "should" is omitted.) Further, the report is after the fact (marriage). When Yurika sought help her family (or maiden) name was not Adachi.  
(ii)
(A) Saitama Rendezvous Support Center  SAITAMA出会いサポートセンター
(B) Japanese-English dictionary:
* de-a-i 出会い 【であい】 (n): "(1) meeting; rendezvous; encounter; (2) meeting for the first time; coming across"
   ^ The corresponding verb is de-a-u 出会う.
   ^ 「出会う」と「出逢う」の違いは？それぞれの意味や正しい使い方を解説,  ビジネス用語ナビ (ie, Business 用語 Navigation), Jan 20, 2024
https://metalife.co.jp/business-words/2257/
("まず、「出会う」は基本的に偶然の出来事を表すため、予定通りに会う場合には「会う」を使うべきです。また、「出会う」は初めて会うことを主に指すため、以前会ったことがある人と再度会うことを表す際には、「再会する」や「再び会う」などの表現を使うべきです。"

my translation: [I am unconcerned about difference between 出会う and 出逢う.] Firstly, 出会う occurs when two persons meet by chance, and 会う means pre-arranged meeting. Further, 出会う mainly means meeting for the first time; if two persons met before, and now meet again, it is 再会する, 再び会う etc.
* サポート is katakana for support.
* センター (where ー signifies a long vowel for katakana -- a long vowel for hiragana is a horizontal bar over the vowel written with English alphabet) is katakana for center.

(c)
(i) "The nation’s population has been falling since its peak in 2008, falling by more than 800,000 a year."

demographics of Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan
(section 3 Vital statistics)

One can see that Japan's population indeed peaked in 2008, and has decreased since then -- the decrease having accelerated: Only in 2022 the decrease (when compared with the previous year) was about 800,000, which increased to ~850,000 the next year (2023).
(ii) in Comparison:

Brady E Hamilton, Joyce A Martin and Michelle JK Osterman, Births: Provisional Data for 2023. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Apr 25, 2024
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr035.pdf
("The total fertility rate was 1,616.5 births per 1,000 women in 2023")

Total fertility rate (TFR; the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime -- by "children," it measures live births), in other words, is 1.6 per woman in the United States. Without immigration, a nation needs 2.1 per woman. TFR for 2023: China (1.16), Japan (1.26), S Korea (0.72), Singapore (1.05), and Taiwan (1.22).
—--------------------
OMIYA, Japan—Yurika Adachi, a 39-year-old nurse, grew tired of swiping fruitlessly on dating apps and petitioned local government officials last year to help her find a husband.

First, the bureaucrats had a few questions.

Adachi filled out an online form and booked an in-person appointment at the Saitama Rendezvous Support Center. She presented her photo ID to an official to verify her identity and dug out her tax document as proof of income. Adachi went to another office, to obtain a document showing she was indeed single. “I wasn’t bothered,” said Adachi of the government rigmarole. She dreaded meeting one more man whose photo on the dating app looked better than the guy did in person.

Japan makes plenty of cars but not enough babies. The nation’s population has been falling since its peak in 2008, falling by more than 800,000 a year.

“If radical action isn’t taken, Japan (and many other countries) will disappear!” Elon Musk posted in alarm on X in June.

Because married couples produce 98% of the babies in Japan, local governments have added matchmaking to their list of public services.

It cost Adachi about $100 for a two-year plan. She didn’t need that long to meet a man her age. She wasn’t impressed by his photo, but Ri Adachi had a solid job as a systems engineer. They had lunch and took a long walk in the park.

He liked her cheerful smile, and she liked his easygoing conversation. “Even on the first date,” she said, “I felt very comfortable with him.”

People seeking a marriage partner list their hobbies, income and location, among other details. Some local governments give a test to determine values, personal traits and behavior patterns for computerized matching.

Tokyo officials will soon introduce an app employing artificial intelligence to match up singles. The planned app will require matchmaking applicants first be cleared online via camera and sign a sworn statement saying they are committed to getting married.

“It sounds like too much trouble,” said Natsuki Tomigawa, 28, who works in the tourism business and uses commercial dating apps.

In some places, making such a match has proven difficult. The city of Akitakata in western Japan has spent a decade trying to encourage marriage, yielding 59 couples. The city calculated that it spent more than $6,000 on average to shepherd each marriage. Not all of the couples had children. Some couples divorced.

Local governments have different requirements for matchmaking services.

Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, is one of the most strict. A volunteer chaperone is required to accompany prospective couples on their first date. The chaperones usually stick around for the first half-hour to help break the ice and make sure there is no funny business.

Chaperones also enforce local rules: The couple are forbidden from exchanging names or phone numbers on the first date, which is limited to two hours. Later, the man and woman—there are no same-sex services offered—tell the chaperone whether or not they liked their date partner. If both did, the chaperone shares names and contact information.

“I tell them these are all for your safety,” said Naomi Atarashi, 64, a veteran chaperone.

She typically asks the couple to look at each other for three seconds and then give their impressions. “They’re usually very shy and tense,” Atarashi said. “They need help to start conversations.”

The chaperone program is among Japan’s most successful. Its 200 chaperones help around 100 couples tie the knot every year, about 2% of marriages in the prefecture. Its birthrate, however, hit a record low last year[, in line with the national trend].

Atarashi, the veteran chaperone, said people signing up for matchmaking are increasingly older and looking for a companion not to have children but to share their later years.

She recently accompanied a woman in her late 40s, who had been once married. Another time, she supervised a 63-year-old man who had never married.

“Our initiative to tackle the low birthrate is turning into something different,” Atarashi said with a sigh. “It’s good, though, that this will help reduce the number of elderly living alone.”