In an effort to address the country’s decreasing birth rate, the Japanese government is planning to invest more in initiatives that could help drive its population, including an artificial-intelligence-powered matchmaking system, reported Reuters.
According to figures, the number of births in Japan last year fell by 5.8% with about 865,000 births. This is the lowest annual figure in the history of Japan.
Two factors contributed to this namely a decrease in the number of marriages and a spike in the age of marriage. Government data revealed that the number of marriages fell by 200,000 from 2000 to 2019.
The Japan Times noted that the country’s fertility rate was only 1.36 last year, which is below the needed rate to maintain the nation’s population. It is also one of the world’s lowest figure.
Local governments are making efforts to matchmake their residents, in an attempt to increase their birth rate. AI matchmaking systems are seen as a feasible way to achieve this goal.
However, previous iterations of such tools only take income and age into account. Moreover, these are known to only show results if they find an exact match.
To address these issues, the Japanese government will be funding matchmaking systems that allowing matching even without meeting income and age criteria. Moreover, half of Japan’s 47 prefectures have launched systems that consider hobbies and values for matching.
However, these more advanced and comprehensive searches are expensive. In the Saitama prefecture, the local government spent 15 million yen ($144,000) in March 2019. It showed some level of effectivity as 21 couples who met through the app were married.
A Cabinet Office official said, “We are especially planning to offer subsidies to local governments operating or starting up matchmaking projects that use AI. We hope that this support will help reverse the decline in the nation’s birth rate.”
The Japanese government will cover around 60% of the cost of these more comprehensive systems. This will be taken out of the 2 billion yen ($19 million) fund the government requested for next year’s discal budget which will be funneled to address the issue.
This number is confirmed by the official, saying, “We’re just disbursing money to fight the failing birth rate, it’s up to the local governments how to spend it.”
Aside from the decreasing birth rate, a rapidly aging population is also an issue the Japanese government has to deal with.
