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  • [music playing]

  • FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER):

  • Here in the Japanese countryside,

  • some of Japan's most eligible bachelors

  • are waiting to meet their mates.

  • The mayor is here.

  • Parents are here.

  • Eligible bachelors and bachelorettes are here.

  • FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER):

  • They've even summoned the city's mascots, the great warrior

  • Masamitsu and his wife.

  • [speaking japanese]

  • [speaking japanese]

  • FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER):

  • This is one of many events organized each year

  • by the Japanese government to get young people to hook

  • up, shack up, and make babies.

  • Japan's overall population is dropping

  • and the government is panicked.

  • Without young people to shore up the country's tax base,

  • the coming decades could see Japan spin

  • into an economic death spiral.

  • Emma, a 29-year-old bachelorette,

  • traveled two hours from the city of Tokyo

  • with the hope of meeting the farm boy of her dreams.

  • [speaking japanese]

  • FRANCESCA FIORENTINI (VOICEOVER):

  • Emma has one hour to play the field,

  • but comes up empty-handed.

  • FRANCESCA FIORENTINI: So what's next for you, Osaka?

  • Maybe start from close to where

  • I live, like Tokyo, maybe.

  • - Well-- - Yeah.

  • Well, keep trying.

  • Yeah.

  • See ya.

  • See ya.

[music playing]

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