The government in Japan 's capital will launch a dating app in an effort to promote marriage and boost the falling national birth rate. The fee-based app by the Tokyo Metropolitan government will be launched as early as this summer, officials announced on Tuesday.
Users will have to undergo a thorough registration process which will require them to submit documentation to prove they are legally single and sign a letter confirming their willingness to get married. The app will also require users to provide a tax certificate slip to prove their annual salary.
Each user would be made to enter 15 items of personal information, including height, educational background and occupation following a mandatory interview with the app's operator. Another official told AFP news agency that the app would provide a "gentle push" for the nearly "70 per cent of people who want to get married" but weren't "actively joining events or apps to look for a partner". The move comes as births fell for the eighth consecutive year to ,, a drop of 5.
In , Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as new babies. Earlier surveys found a large number of dating app users reported misrepresentation of marital status and false profiles which necessitated the thorough scrutiny of the new app's users. About 90, babies were born in Tokyo in β a Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike attributed the decline in births to a low marriage rate.
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