Tokyo government to launch dating app to boost birthrate

Is it just me, or does this sound like a series of additional hurdles for these poor souls to have to go through? The commenters in the article were absolutely correct- surely there are better measures to help this kind of thing?

What mindless government officials come up with these absurd ideas!?

Japan has plenty of dating apps. Another is not needed.

Oh, I doubt most people would be willing to toil through these government-implemented barriers. Users will required to …

Submit documentation proving they are legally single

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Sign a letter stating they are willing to get married

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Submit a tax certificate slip to prove their annual salary

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Sit for an interview will to confirm their identity

There is an app for that too now. This will do nothing to increase the birthrate. Tokyo at .9 now.

What is up with these bureaucrats?

Typical Japanese way to overcomplicate things and then wonder why it hasn't succeeded. Why would people willingly give up so much personal info and be pressured to get married? So what's next, you get kicked out of the app if you've met 3 people and still haven't picked a mating partner?

Hahaha... I laughed a lot when I read this. Knowing it'll be a government app it won't work, for starters. Then they'll ask you to hook it up to your MyNumber card if they ever get it off the ground.... I mean, if you're able to input your information, switching between zenkakumoji and hankaku, plus entering a bunch of PINs sent to addresses that need verifying by checking the app, which you can't submit to without the PIN. And we all know how great the government is with private information, too. The only reasons I didn't laugh harder at this was, a) they are using our taxes for this, b) they are doing this instead of taking actual measures to increase the desire to find a partner and possibly create a family. Reinstitute tax breaks for families? Nah... let's make a government dating app!

When I first came here as a single guy, I thought Japan was a dating paradise. How ironic.

The app will be criticized for not being LGBTQ inclusive.

I have forwarded this link to several friends outside Japan.

You can’t make this stuff up! It’s like an SNL skit.

May I suggest a nude tattoo check during the in-person interview?

Users will be required to submit paperwork that they are single and looking to get married... if you're not laughing then you should join these politicians. Typical Japanese political disassociation with reality. I'd run for PM in Japan but I'm not Japanese. Japanese women just don't want the BS role that many men expect them to act out now a days. With all the social media and advanced communications women are not communicating. I think Japan may need to close its borders again for 200 years. Go back to a Feudal system and live off of what can be produced domestically. Women were pretty tough back in the day... as much as you might think men ruled them, I believe women had power too... but behind the scenes. That is how women rule... they work together with unwritten rules that rule men. So pick your century.... this one is all screwed up.

I literally was looking at the picture of the two Pikachu's on the top page and reading the title of this article and automatically thinking they were related, and expected to see the smiling Pikachu's when I clicked the article.

I am so disappointed. I am pretty sure more people would sign up for this app if they used them!

There is no way in hell I would share my tax slip to sign up for a dating app!

Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

Willing to get married (only if they can find the right partner), that doesn't mean anyone can force them to marry and have babies. Some people they just choose to live together. JGovt solution always have dissociation with reality.

Paid family leave time, childcare at places of employment, socialized healthcare and education, would all help increase the birthrate.

I've never used dating apps and am clueless about them. Is "I want to get married and have babies" much of a thing on them? I presume that is the theme of this one, not "I looking for fun" or "look at how attractive I am".

If it guarantees that the other person is single and has the salary they claim they do, this app could be more reassuring for women. As a man, my fear with a commercial dating app would be it wasting my time and screwing money out of me by charging me for chats with an AI "woman". Ashley Madison had a tiny number of actual women users, so this is not a baseless fear.

Why do you have to disclose your private information to the government? In addition, you have to go through an interview. Feel like a job interview.

Getting married for money isn't going to solve families staying together. Who thought of this dinosaur?

Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

“Hey lets make a dating app, something there are already a million of out there, but lets make ours extra difficult and annoying to sign up for so nobody will actually use it.”

One despairs for the future of this country when realizing that this isn’t the brainchild of some small town government in rural Tottori Prefecture where everyone is over 70 and still getting used to using email, but rather the country’s biggest city and center of everything.

Hilarious and terrible idea. This will end up wasting a lot of tax money. Tinder and Bumble are already out there. Dating apps are actually part of the problem, not the solution.

The demographic change is coming and it CANNOT be stopped. The good news is, it is going to affect all modern developed countries and Japan can get a head start on it before China, Russia, Italy, and the others! What they need to be doing is not hosing money at trying to avoid the demographic collapse, but invest the funds in things that will be beneficial after the collapse. Maybe Japan will have to allow very limited amounts of immigration to soften the blow whilst also investing in more automation.

I actually am of the opinion that Japan's resilient survivalist mentality will once again manifest itself at the right time and they will get through it. Sadly right now the Oyajis are in the way and will make the process more difficult/expensive. They need to get young people running the show both in business and politics. Stop all the endless cultural welfare for the elderly and start prepping for the future.

I have a Japanese friend involved in this.

Basically just for rich well off people

Why?

More pathetic nonsensical waste of tax payers money .

I despair with this LDP brain dead party .

Many social media users expressed skepticism over the plans, with one saying, "is this something the government should be doing with our tax?"

Old news socialism for the rich deja vu ; they have been doing it for a while.

Dentsu needs that corporate welfare. Most certainly the results will be the same.

https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-government-dating-services-2016-10

https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/10/03/japans-state-owned-version-of-tinder

Just a nothing burger on offer here!

How about reducing living taxes in Tokyo?

Provide interest free loans for apartments?

Free travel for families on Tokyo’s public transport?

There are so many ways but the narrow mindedness just doesn’t allow for it.

You can imagine a conversation at one of the dozens of fruitless meetings where this came up.

Sato: So, we're rushing headlong toward the demographic cliff. Should we tackle the roots of the problem, or just attempt to paper over the issue and pretend it never happened if it fails?

Suzuki: I think we all know the answer to that.

Tanaka: Great. We'll do app then. I saw a survey somewhere showing that most people want their kids to get a job in the civil service, so they must trust us. Naturally, a dating app designed by the government couldn't possibly fail.

Honda: We'll get the re-employed retirees to design it, ensuring all the text is crammed onto the front page so users won't have to navigate to other pages. And we'll need a mascot. Throw in a fax number for good measure.

Kawasaki: What'll really hook 'em is a neat feature where they need to submit a whole lot of paperwork to register and provide their personal information, which I can leak by leaving a USB stick at a snack in exchange for a bit of extra service.

Sato: I think we're on a winner. Suzuki, you requisition 800 million yen from the budget and we'll get straight to work in FY2026.

Who want to be an unemotional loveless marriage,but an unemotional Japanese leader

Boy, the ability of these guys to observe and analyse the situation is worse than I thought it was. Dating apps are not going to solve the problem of rampant inflation, stagnant wages and crippling taxes. The reason people are not having babies is simply because they cannot afford to.

To be fair the required aren't so different from introduction agencies which charge people a fortune to find them a spouse.

At least this is free

Of course they ask for proof of income.

This story is a good reminder to men, everywhere in the world, if you want to get married to a woman, you had better have either a high income or a high income potential. Woman do not marry down.

which I can leak by leaving a USB stick at a snack in exchange for a bit of extra service.

LOL. Nice one

This kinda reminds me of Chinese style arranged marriages

Where do I sign up?

Biology shows, If we are talking about births (making children) :

no need to be single

no need to be married

no need to have a minimum income

If you wish to:

make women (or men) feel reassured because psychologicallys scared of others

make parenthood segredated by income (!)

remove love from sex

Running for that additional dating app !

Please let me repopulate Japan (getting divorced next month).

If all they want is more kids they should probably make a dating app more focused on playing around rather than marriage.

More waste of taxpayers money!

Pay more, give people capacity and security to raise children and it'll come naturally. Anything else is just lipstick....chome...chome...

Please let me repopulate Japan (getting divorced next month).

With your opinions? How could your wife let such a catch get away?

This idea surely comes from a bureaucrat that thinks that everybody in Japan has the same safe, nicely paid job as he (because it's a he).

Have they ever tried to analyze why people don't have kids anymore? The same bureaucrat doesn't even know that half of the job contracts in Japan are not permanent but mostly baito level with minimum wages. Then comes the other 20 or so reasons that no one in the government will ever pay attention to.

"Let's make an app so it looks like we work", same bureaucrat's team concluded.

An excellent use of taxpayers money to make more taxpayers. Bravo.

any time a government releases an app for anything, you can guarantee it’ll be absolute rubbish. Governments are incapable of doing these kind of things. Meanwhile a 12 year old nerd in his bedroom can make an app that actually does work in the real world.

First マイナンバーnow　what are you going to call this マイデート。

Yes! The answer to declining population is bureaucracy! Kids these days just love signing forms and getting them registered and approved, and then gathering other forms for the govt to approve, reject, or send back with corrections.

(　ＴДＴ)

Sarcasm aside, how about the govt does the following which could indirectly boost the population:

raise wages to support a family

reduce working hours so people can actually see their family or date

boost social welfare so that people aren't constantly worried if they'll be able to support a family

connect local trusted elders as volunteers for daycare to lower costs (which should be free, imho)

-since social pressure is strong against, then require people take maternity and paternity leave, as well as leave after a 7 hour shift (at the latest).

Reduce the tax burden. Decrease working hours...or at least adjust them to match the countries you do business with. Abandon the company is your guardian. Allow people to go home when their tasks are completed. Regulate working hours and conditions. Sit back and Chill as Japanese people start procreating again.

Promoting economic growth, community events, and traditional values is the most effective way to raise birth rates and marriage.

Totally insane idea. If it's births you want setup an app for hooking up for an unprotected good time.

Yes, of course, because the low birth rate is related to not have an app that requires to provide extensive personal information. No, the issue is not the struggling economy, the lack of housing, the extra long working hours that don't left time and energy to socialize, and of course the culture that demands that the women left everything to become just house wives, dropping years of study and experience.

Well I even know wealthy single men who don’t want to marry, let alone have kids. The best you can do is make it as easy as possible for those who want to marry and have kids.

This has got to be the stupidest idea yet. How about a dating app for unprotected fun if births are all that's important?

No good for me. One look at me and there goes the chance for a date. If I were one of the Rolling Stones, it would be a DVD and a long night's sleep.

This app is going to be used instead for married men and married women to hook up

Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

> Stating one's income is common on Japanese dating apps, but Tokyo will require a tax certificate slip to prove the annual salary

anything else?

how about a 50 page essay on why they want to date someone and get married?

why not a virtual urine test, where someone watches you pee in a cup on zoom?

maybe throw in finger prints and a copy of one's passport?

how about 3 forms of blood tests and 2 STD tests as well?

Maybe have them give a speech before hand?

Seeing young people seem to need their mothers to go to school with them. Go to interviews with them. Go to work on first day with them. Resign with them. Perhaps return to family match making would be easier. That said many young people aren’t interested in marriage or adding a child to their life. I would say many are mistakes after a night out on the town. That’s how they seem to be when they are out at midnight with their young ones enjoying their life instead of being home having the child in bed by 8pm so their brains develop more. How about adding support to gay marriages so adoption becomes more viable as well as gay lesbian shared custody laws to establish families legally. Unlike many of my straight friends, many of my gay friends want a family.

Seems to me alot of Japanese ladies want kids but aren't interested in marriage to J- men , so how about a sperm bank and free fertilization procedures

Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

* *Stating one's income is common on Japanese dating apps, but Tokyo will require a tax certificate slip to prove the annual salary

anything else?

how about a 50 page essay on why they want to date someone and get married?

why not a virtual urine test, where someone watches you pee in a cup on zoom?

maybe throw in finger prints and a copy of one's passport?

how about 3 forms of blood tests and 2 STD tests as well?

Maybe have them give a speech before hand?

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Best post on this thread! Nice one mate!

Basically a match-making service. They'll probably make people pay to use it, too.

There is no mention of whether this app is only for Japanese or gaijin can also apply.

The Japanese government getting involved in dating apps.

I hope the guys doing the my number aren't involved in this.

It's the effort that counts right? Wink ;P

Can married people use the app??

asking for a friend.