This city is creating a dating app to promote marriage and childbirth amid population drop
Dating for marriage.
Tokyo City Hall is developing a unique dating app, Tokyo Futari Story, to encourage residents to consider marriage and parenthood and tackle the country’s initiative of increasing population after decades of decline.
The app’s name derives from “Futari,” which means “two people” in Japanese, a nod to the hope that pairings can emerge through the dating program.
Tokyo Futari Story will be released before the end of the year with access to cellphones and computers.
Interested singletons could be asked to reveal their height, job, education, driver’s license, tax records to prove income and a signed form that says they’re ready to get married, reported the Associated Press.
While Tokyo City Hall declined to comment on the dating app, it is sponsoring a series of events to provide a platform for singles to meet, couples to seek marriage counseling and partners to share their love stories, which can be transformed into Japanese comics or songs.
Officials hope their push for romance will not go in vain, given the recent decline in marriages and childbirths.
As The Post previously reported, Japan’s birthrate has been declining for more than four decades since 2023 as the desire for marriage and parenting has fizzled out and financial stresses have increased.
Last year, there were 474,717 marriages, which decreased by 6% from 2022, while childbirths totaled 727,277, a 5.6% decrease, as explained by health ministry data.
The ministry noted the results have proven to be the lowest since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899.
Japan’s government has tried to combat people’s reservations about expanding their family life by implementing cash payments and free child care for families.
They’ve even lightened up on their immigration policy, allowing foreign workers to enter the country in the hope that they will help resolve the labor shortage.
