Tokyo government dating app achieves 265 marriages
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The AI-powered dating app was launched by the Tokyo government in 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
- The Tokyo government’s AI-powered dating app launched in 2024 has led to 265 marriages and has 16,000 registered members, aiming to boost Japan’s low birth rate.
- Applicants must prove they are single and pass an online interview to join, ensuring users are serious about marriage.
- Despite more marriages, Japan’s birth rate hit a record low in 2025, with deaths more than double births, highlighting ongoing demographic challenges.
AI generated
TOKYO – A total of 265 couples have married after meeting on an artificial intelligence-powered dating app launched by the Tokyo government in 2024 to lift Japan’s low birth rate, according to official data.
TOKYO Enmusubi went live in September 2024, after a survey found that around 70 per cent of people interested in marriage were not actively engaging in matchmaking.
To overcome this reluctance and ensure that only people interested in tying the knot joined, those signing up had to prove that they were legally single and pass an online interview, among other conditions.
As at June 30, the app had 16,000 registered members – whittled down from around 36,000 applicants – and 760 couples in “serious relationships”, according to government data released in July.
A total of 265 couples had married.
The government quoted one woman with the pseudonym “Turtle” as saying she tried the app “as a last chance” as she approached her 40th birthday.
“After going on several blind dates, I met my current husband at the end of August, and we started a serious relationship in mid-September,” she said.
“I accepted his proposal at the end of December.”
The number of babies born in Japan to Japanese nationals hit a new record low of 671,236 in 2025, in the 10th consecutive annual decline, government data showed in June.
Deaths were more than double that at 1.6 million, while the fertility rate edged down 0.01 percentage points to 1.14, although marriages inched higher, the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry numbers showed. AFP
