Where coffee is found, love will find a way. That’s the inspiring message from news that a new cafe has opened in Tokyo’s fashionable shopping district for singles to meet.
Here’s the story.
You may have heard that Japan’s population is aging and declining.
Nearly 40% of young unmarried Japanese say they don’t want a relationship.
A survey found that almost 40% of unmarried Japanese men in their 30’s were still virgins. This gave rise to what’s been called the “40 year old virgin” crisis in Japan.
There’s even been an effort to demystify Japanese women to men by having single men draw live nudes.
And the average Japanese family has only 1.2 children.
That’s about 1/3 less than in the US.
There’s even said to be almost 500,000 shut-ins in Japan called hikikimori who hardly ever leave their homes let alone date.
Could a new style of cafe called Aiseki Cafe in Tokyo’s Ginza district be an answer?
Aiseki means in Japanese “sharing a table with someone you don’t know”
Here’s how it works.
When you come in you’re shown to a table with only two seats: one for a man and one for a woman.
東京都・銀座に、男女相席で婚活できる「相席カフェ」登場 – 女性は500円! http://t.co/DGFOwnN2uX | https://t.co/GPsEu8cfew pic.twitter.com/JeTZoc2rBu
— 【相互】婚活｜最高な出会い (@e_deai_japan) August 5, 2015
You chat, flirt, sip coffee and eat cakes, and then after 30 minutes you get rotated to the next person to repeat the process until you’ve found someone to make the sacred connection with: sharing your cell number.
Men stay seated, women rotate to new tables.
Oh, and if you’re a woman, great news!
You get unlimited coffee and cake for only 500 yen, one-fifth of the price for men. Cha-ching!
When in Japan try it here:
3F Shinnaka Building, 1-15-1 Akabane, Kita-ku, Tokyo; 03-6454-4701; www.aiseki-ya.com.
What do you think — will it work?
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