Tokyo hopes new Tinder-like match making app will curb population decline

Shawn Knight · Thursday at 2:21 PM

Bottom line: Let's cut right to the chase. Japan's population has been declining for nearly a decade, with birth rates hitting a new all-time low of 1.2 children per female in 2023. Officials are concerned, so they've decided to launch a match-making app in hopes of helping people find partners and grow the population.

The Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, said the fee-based app will be operated by a private contractor and is expected to launch sometime this summer. The dating app will feature a robust registration process designed to avoid the pitfalls of more casual dating apps.

For example, users will be required to submit a photo ID and provide proof of income. Applicants must also answer 15 questions relating to their background such as educational and occupation history, submit to an interview with the app's operator, and even sign a statement affirming they are seeking a marriage partner rather than a casual relationship.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike justified the proof of income requirement, claiming it'll help match users and allow them to envision a future together. The strict stance could backfire, especially against men with low incomes.

Saki Ito, who oversees the dating app review website Match Up, said males with lower incomes are less likely to find partners on dating apps, adding that females tend to seek out males with higher incomes. It's no surprise, then, that Ito believes the government would have better luck focusing on policies that boost incomes and encourage marriage through economic incentives.

Dating apps and workplace encounters are among the most common ways for locals to meet, but the online approach can be sketchy. A 2021 survey from Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co. found that six out of 10 dating app users had falsely represented themselves on their dating profile.

A separate survey by the metropolitan government in 2021 noted that more than two-thirds of Tokyo residents interested in marriage aren't actively seeking a partner.

Image credit: Andrey Grushnikov, Masood Aslami

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Tokyo hopes new Tinder-like match making app will curb population decline

The Talking Tech · Thursday at 2:26 PM

Japanese people are a very self-conscious culture and perhaps they are realizing having kids is only a disservice to their young the way the world is going.

NumberNine · Thursday at 2:39 PM

Dating apps are designed to keep you swiping. Every successful match is lost engagement and lost engagement is lost revenue. A non-profit app wouldnt have these issues, but it also wouldn't be making anyone any money so...

GodisanAtheist · Thursday at 3:25 PM

NumberNine said:
Dating apps are designed to keep you swiping. Every successful match is lost engagement and lost engagement is lost revenue. A non-profit app wouldnt have these issues, but it also wouldn't be making anyone any money so...

- Unlike the US some other countries and especially Japan seem to still have a sense of national pride and identity left outside of a greed driven ego centric race to the bottom. If this is a home grown app, I have no doubt it will be built to actually achieve its intended purpose.

Whether or not it succeeds vs the host of other factors that are likely preventing young Japanese from having kids is another story entirely.

trparky · Thursday at 3:41 PM

Yeah, good luck with that. To solve the population decline in Japan, they're going to have to change the corporate work culture first.

Who the hell has time to have a family when you have to wake up in the morning, grab the train, sit on the train for however long, go to work for an obscene amount of time, go out to the bar with the boss because yeah, you're expected to do that. Drink until you're plastered because as long as the boss is still standing, you better still be drinking. Because if the boss is still drinking, you better still be drinking as well. Get on the train to go home, sleep while on the train, get home and crash for maybe four hours. Wake up and do it all over again.

stewi0001 · Thursday at 3:48 PM

My understanding is that the cost of living is ridiculously high, especially in the Tokyo area, that they cannot afford to have a multiple kids. Obviously, Japan is not the only country with cost of living issues. The question in my mind, is it possible to reduce the cost of living instead of increasing minimum wage and etc?

Tvvatus · Thursday at 4:01 PM

GodisanAtheist said:
- Unlike the US some other countries and especially Japan seem to still have a sense of national pride and identity left outside of a greed driven ego centric race to the bottom. If this is a home grown app, I have no doubt it will be built to actually achieve its intended purpose.

Whether or not it succeeds vs the host of other factors that are likely preventing young Japanese from having kids is another story entirely.

Japan has a sense of identity left outside of a greed driven ego centric race to the bottom? Their low population is almost entirely because of their work culture, what do you call a work culture where the company requires you to dedicate your life to it? Greedy

trparky · Thursday at 4:19 PM

Tvvatus said:
Japan has a sense of identity left outside of a greed driven ego centric race to the bottom? Their low population is almost entirely because of their work culture, what do you call a work culture where the company requires you to dedicate your life to it? Greedy

There's a phrase in Japan... The Salary Man.

trparky · Thursday at 4:20 PM

Japan: Death by Work

NumberNine · Thursday at 4:31 PM

GodisanAtheist said:
- Unlike the US some other countries and especially Japan seem to still have a sense of national pride and identity left outside of a greed driven ego centric race to the bottom. If this is a home grown app, I have no doubt it will be built to actually achieve its intended purpose.

Whether or not it succeeds vs the host of other factors that are likely preventing young Japanese from having kids is another story entirely.

I'm with you on this. If anyone could succeed at this or at least invest the maximum possible effort, it would be Japan. I suppose the real question is the perceived coolness factor of being seen on the app.

antiproduct · Thursday at 6:42 PM

Looks like they just made free daycare for kids age 6mo-2yr, so I'd imagine that would help a lot too. Daycare is damn expensive.

VaRmeNsI · Thursday at 7:45 PM

They will fight the symptoms rather than the cause: socialism.

BbN48 · Friday at 2:00 AM

VaRmeNsI said:
They will fight the symptoms rather than the cause: socialism.

...What?

You are saying "socialism" is causing population decline?

EdmondRC · Friday at 9:21 AM

The Talking Tech said:
Japanese people are a very self-conscious culture and perhaps they are realizing having kids is only a disservice to their young the way the world is going.

Every country in the world right now, expect a few stupid Western countries are worried about population decline. The planet isn't dying, and it can easily support 10X the population we have now. In fact, the planet is getting greener and greener. The whole concept is a manufactured and manipulation tool by some very wealthy elites who really like it when we are subservient to their whims.

antiproduct · Friday at 12:01 PM

BbN48 said:
...What?

You are saying "socialism" is causing population decline?

That's funny, seems more like late stage capitalism going on there more than anything else. But brainwashed people are going to vomit words they don't understand at any problem they don't understand I guess.

VaRmeNsI · Friday at 2:49 PM

BbN48 said:
...What?

You are saying "socialism" is causing population decline?

Yes.

BbN48 · Friday at 4:22 PM

VaRmeNsI said:
Yes.

Might wanna reconsider...

MasterAce · Saturday at 2:38 PM

The whole western world has gone off the rails with hookup culture, only fans, feminism, lgbt and what not.

TempleOrion · Saturday at 5:26 PM

MasterAce said:
The whole western world has gone off the rails with hookup culture, only fans, feminism, lgbt and what not.

Jesus wept.

TempleOrion · Saturday at 5:30 PM

VaRmeNsI said:
Yes.

How exactly? LMAO

J Oelschl · Saturday at 5:52 PM

The problem is pretty simple. It is simply way TOO EXPENSIVE to have children. They need to make the cost of living more reasonable.

VaRmeNsI · Saturday at 10:02 PM

J Oelschl said:
They need to make the cost of living more reasonable.

But then we can't have money printer go brrrr anymore?

MasterAce · 2024-06-09T04:44:45-0400

TempleOrion said:
Jesus wept.

If you want to put an religious spin on it, then sure.

The fact is that we’re too busy partying while the very society under us is crumbling. The western world was built on good old straight church marriages and nuclear families. And now people are tearing it all apart.

Can the western man, and democracy with him, die of extinction?

Tokyo hopes new Tinder-like match making app will curb population decline

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