The Japanese Government Wants You to Date | Explorer

[music playing]

FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER): Here in the Japanese countryside, some of Japan's most eligible bachelors are waiting to meet their mates. The mayor is here. Parents are here. Eligible bachelors and bachelorettes are here.

FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER): They've even summoned the city's mascots, the great warrior Masamitsu and his wife. [speaking japanese] [speaking japanese]

FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER): This is one of many events organized each year by the Japanese government to get young people to hook up, shack up, and make babies. Japan's overall population is dropping and the government is panicked. Without young people to shore up the country's tax base, the coming decades could see Japan spin into an economic death spiral.

Emma, a 29-year-old bachelorette, traveled two hours from the city of Tokyo with the hope of meeting the farm boy of her dreams. [speaking japanese]

FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER): Emma has one hour to play the field, but comes up empty-handed.

FRANCESCA FIORENTINI: So what's next for you, Osaka? Maybe start from close to where I live, like Tokyo, maybe.

• Well--

• Yeah. Well, keep trying.

Yeah. See ya.

See ya.