SEEKING ROMANCE: Mr Kawamura, like many Japanese seniors, has joined a matchmaking site in search of companionship and, maybe, love. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

This is what Mr Yoji Kawamura figured after retiring at the age of 62 and deciding that part-time work and his new hobbies of photography and computers were not enough to fill his days.

Like a small but growing number of older Japanese singles, Mr Kawamura has turned to an online matchmaking service in search of someone to share his 'second life'.

'When you reach my age, the scope of your activities shrinks and you can only meet people within a narrow circle,' he said, sipping coffee in a cafe in Tokyo. 'If you want to go outside that circle, you do not know how.'

A former taxi driver who divorced 26 years ago and is now 65, Mr Kawamura signed up with US-based online dating service Match.com last July. 'My horizons have widened, and my life is richer because I can make friends,' said Mr Kawamura, who is now dating three women, two of whom are nine years his junior and one who is 62.

Launched in Japan in 2004 and now boasting about 840,000 members, Match.com began targeting the mature market after seeing the fastest growth in membership among the over-50 set, an age group once thought over the hill when it came to romance. Although nearly half of Match.com members in Japan are aged 30-39, around 9 per cent are aged 50 and over.

'It used to be considered that people aged 50 and over didn't talk about love. People would say, 'No way, you're too old',' said Match.com Japan president Katsuki Kuwano. 'These days, it's become acceptable for people in that age group to talk about marriage and love.'

The growth of Japan's greying population is partly behind the changing views. Already one in five Japanese is aged 65 or older and the percentage is expected to double by mid-century.

Older Japanese have become more at ease with the Internet, while the numbers of people who have never married or who divorce, often after decades of marriage, is on the rise.

'I think there is a cultural change in the way these things are talked about in the media,' said Dr James Farrer, a sociology professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Still, an image of online dating services as shady fronts for sleazy one-night stands and prostitution lingers.

'I haven't told my children because I think it's best to meet someone naturally,' said Match.com member Naomi, 52, a divorcee who signed up in February.

REUTERS