By Linda Sieg
That's what Yoji Kawamura figured after retiring at the age
of 62 and deciding that part-time work and his new hobbies of
photography and computers weren't enough to fill his days.
Like a small but growing number of older Japanese singles,
Kawamura has turned to an online matchmaking service in search
of someone to share his "second life."
"When you reach my age, the scope of your activities
shrinks and you can only meet people within a narrow circle,"
said Kawamura, sipping coffee in a cafe in Tokyo. "If you want
to go outside that circle, you don't know how."
A former taxi driver who divorced 26 years ago and is now
65, Kawamura signed up with U.S.-based online dating service
Match, part of Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp.
last July.
"My horizons have widened and my life is richer because I
can make friends," said the goateed Kawamura, who is now dating
three women, two of whom are nine years his junior and one who
is 62.
Launched in Japan in 2004 and now boasting about 840,000
members, Match began targeting the mature market after
seeing the fastest growth in membership among the over-50 set,
an age group once thought over the hill when it came to
romance.
Although nearly half of Match members in Japan are aged
30-39, another 9 percent are aged 50 and over.
"It used to be considered that people aged 50 and over
didn't talk about love. People would say, 'No way, you're too
old'," said Match Japan President Katsuki Kuwano.
"These days, it's become acceptable for people in that age
group to talk about marriage and love."
CULTURAL CHANGE
The growth of Japan's graying population is partly behind
such changing views. Already one in five Japanese are aged 65
or older and the percentage is expected to double by
mid-century.
Older Japanese have become more at ease with the Internet,
while the numbers of people who have never married or who
divorce, often after decades of marriage, is on the rise.
"With an increase in the divorce rate and more and more
people accepting second marriages, that has definitely
changed," said James Farrer, a sociology professor at Sophia
University in Tokyo.
"I think there is a cultural change in the way these things
are talked about in the media," he added. "There is a sense
that older people are sexual, and it's legitimate to talk about
it."
Adult children who once expected to live with their parents
and discouraged them from remarrying are also more supportive.
"People are living longer and more families are nuclear.
There are more people like me who are living alone," Kawamura
said. "Adult children are now keen for their parents to find
someone to be with. Then they don't have to feel anxious."
(Editing by Megan Goldin)
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