The Japan Times – Oct 11, 2016 – The central government will expand the scope of its assistance to konkatsuspouse-hunting events to include those hosted by companies and other private organizations.
Such support is currently limited to activities sponsored by municipalities. The central government hopes to encourage more people to marry, aiming to improve the nation’s birthrate.
“We’d like to boost the momentum of marriage,” Katsunobu Kato, minister for creating a society enabling dynamic engagement by all people, told a news conference Tuesday.
The Cabinet Office has set up an expert panel to study concrete measures for such assistance. The first meeting will be held later this month.
The panel has 12 members, including Chuo University professor Hiroki Sato, Kochi Gov. Masanao Ozaki and Hitomi Okazaki, chief of Recruit Career Co.’s job research center.
They will look into the situation surrounding konkatsu businesses and draw up a proposal by the end of the year.
The central government began its support for konkatsu activities sponsored by local governments in fiscal 2014. Some ¥3 billion in subsidies has been distributed per year.