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Japan's Solution to the Birth Problem: Matchmaking Initiatives with Artificial Intelligence
The government continues to look for creative ways to encourage its citizens to have children, and now it will invest in funding projects that will try to find better matches.
Others believe that a better way is to support working women.
At the current rate, by the end of the current century the country's population will fall to only 53 million
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News agencies
Wednesday, 09 December 2020, 10:35
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Photo: Reuters, Editing: Tal Reznik
Japan plans to accelerate its low birth rate through funding matchmaking initiatives based on artificial intelligence.
Last year the number of babies born in the country was below 865,000, the lowest ever.
The rapidly aging country has been looking for many years for ways to change the trend, and next year the government will allocate two billion yen to local authorities to increase the birth rate.
Many of them already offer matchmaking services, and some have already installed artificial intelligence systems in the hope that they will offer more sophisticated ways of gathering information on matchmaking seekers.
Existing systems today are limited to criteria such as income and age, and these provide results only if there is a perfect match.
According to local media, the newer and more advanced systems will take into account factors such as hobbies and values.
"We are specifically planning to offer assistance to local governments that are running or starting to run matchmaking ventures with AI," a government official told AFP.
"We hope this will help reverse the decline in the birth rate in the country."
Japan's population is expected to fall from a peak of 128 million people in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the current century.
The government is working quickly to ensure that the shrinking workforce can meet the rising welfare spending.
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Sachiko Horigucci, an anthropologist at Temple University in Japan, believes there are better ways, such as helping low-income people.
She cited a recent study and a link between low-income people and those who are not interested in romantic relationships.
"If they are not interested in dating, the matchmaking is not expected to be effective," she told the BBC.
"If we want to rely on technology, achievable robots for caring for the household or children may be more efficient."
Experts have long pointed to the lack of support for working mothers in Japan, who are still expected to do all the housework and raise children in parallel with their jobs.
The government has said it wants to put more women in full employment, but the gender gap is only widening.
According to the World Economic Forum, Japan was ranked 121st out of 153 countries in the 2019 Gender Equality Report, down 11 places from a year earlier.
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