Answer over 100 items for AI to match opponents
Must be a Tokyo resident or work/study in Tokyo
Tokyo Metropolis in Japan has unusually developed its own dating app as a local government and has officially started its operation.
On the 21st, local media including Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Tokyo Metropolis has officially launched an app developed with the purpose of providing a safe place for those hoping to marry to find a partner.
The eligible users are single men and women aged 18 or older who reside in Tokyo or work or attend school in Tokyo. To register, users must submit their photo, identity verification, proof of single status, and income verification documents.
The registration fee, valid for two years, is 11,000 yen (approximately 102,000 won). After users answer about 100 questions regarding values and other criteria, artificial intelligence (AI) selects suitable matches based on the responses. Governor Yuriko Koike said at a press conference the day before the app launch, "I hope many people find wonderful encounters."
In Japan, it has become common for young people under 30 who married in the past five years to have met their spouse through dating apps, with one in four reporting so.
On the 27th of last month, the Japan Agency for Child and Family Affairs announced the results of a survey conducted in July targeting 18,000 unmarried men and women aged 15 to 39 nationwide and 2,000 people who married within the last five years. The results showed that 56.8% of married respondents had experience using dating apps, while 26.8% of unmarried respondents had used them. Notably, 25.1% of married respondents said they met their spouse through a "dating app," followed by "work or job-related" (20.5%), "school" (9.9%), "introduction by friends or siblings" (9.1%), and "parties or group blind dates" (5.2%).
Last year, fewer than 500,000 couples married in Japan, marking the lowest number of marriages in 90 years. The birth rate is also steadily declining. According to the 2023 "Population Dynamics Report" released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the total fertility rate, which indicates the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime, was 1.20?the lowest since statistics began in 1947. In particular, the total fertility rate has been declining for eight consecutive years since 2016, with Tokyo Metropolis having the lowest rate nationwide at 0.99. Additionally, the three major metropolitan prefectures?Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa?also had rates around 1.1, showing that urban areas have relatively lower birth rates.
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