Japan launches dating app to promote marriage, birth rate

In a renewed effort to curb Japan’s rapidly declining birth rate, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has unveiled plans to launch a dating app as early as this summer.

Disclosed by a government official, the unusual move is part of a broader initiative to encourage marriage and family formation among the city’s residents, a response to the country’s shrinking population.

The new dating app, unique in its verification process, is expected to require users to submit documentation proving they are legally single. Users must also sign a letter affirming their willingness to get married.

The Japanese government is keen to ease the dating-to-marriage process by providing a tax certificate for intending users to verify their income earnings and budgeting hundreds of millions of yen to ensure the dating app yields maximum success.

“We learned that 70 per cent of people who want to get married aren’t actively joining events or apps to look for a partner, We want to give them a gentle push to find one,” a Tokyo government official said.

Japanese authorities budgeted 300 million yen (nearly $2 million) to support young people in getting married and having children in 2024 through phone applications. This amount was 100 million yen more than 2023’s budget, indicating the government’s desperation to increase Japan’s population.

The app users would be mandated to register their marital status, indicating that they are legally single and intend to get married.

Personal information such as height, education and work background must also be accurately registered.

“The declining birthrate is in a critical situation. The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend,” chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated.

According to data released by Japan’s Health Ministry on June 5, 727,277 babies were born in Japan in 2023, down 5.6 per cent from the previous year and the lowest since the country started recording the statistics in 1899, the Associated Press reported.

Last year, Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as births, and the country’s fertility rate—the average number of babies a woman has in her lifetime—was 1.2.

It isn’t just births that are falling either. The Health Ministry’s recently released data also showed that the number of marriages fell by 6 per cent last year, to 474,717, the AP reported. Japan’s low birth rate has been closely linked to the lower marriage rate, as births taking place outside of marriage are rare in the traditional society.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been vocal in his concerns about the country’s falling population. He has advocated for measures such as increasing child care support, improving work-life balance and promoting immigration to supplement the declining workforce—with many of the measures seeking to incentivize young couples to start families by offering more support.

Thirty-two per cent of 50-year-old men in Tokyo are unmarried, while 24 per cent of the same age bracket of women are still single, according to the country’s capital unmarried rates.

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