The rise of culturally specific dating apps

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A new dating service has emerged in Japan, aiming to circumvent a ban on married couples having different last names.

During a series of matchmaking events held this spring, all participants shared the same last name. The concept, according to organizers, is simply that “two people who already have the same last name won’t have to worry about which one to use after marriage.”

Are you a Sato, Suzuki, Tanaka or Ito?

The current Japanese civil code, which dates back to the 19th century, specifies that a husband and wife must have the same last name. Although there are no stipulations as to what name the couple will adopt, in the country’s male-dominated society, it is the man’s in 95 percent of cases. While critics say it affects women’s job prospects and contributes to Japan’s low birth rate, conservatives argue that any changes would undermine the traditional family unit and sow confusion among children.

Regardless, this leaves young couples with added pressure when trying to find a life partner. Four in-person gatherings in Tokyo, each focused on one of Japan’s most popular surnames — Suzuki, Tanaka, Sato or Ito — “provide a rare opportunity for people sharing a surname to meet someone they could legally marry without either person having to change their name,” news site The Mainichi said.

It’s not hard to see the appeal. A recent survey conducted by Asuniwa, a Tokyo-based association that advocates for a distinct surname system and co-organizes the events, as well as the dating app Pairs, surveyed 2,500 people aged 20 to 30. They found that 36% of women and 46% of men “felt resistance” to changing their surname, while a smaller proportion had doubts about changing their partner’s name. Around 7% said they would separate if neither partner wanted to change their surname, while just under 6% said they would “wait until the (separate surname) system is legalized” to marry.

“I hadn’t given much thought to the idea of ​​marrying another Suzuki, but I now understand why it’s a safe option,” Taisho (pseudonym) Suzuki, a 33-year-old company employee, told the Guardian. “I don’t want to give up my last name when I get married, and I know a lot of women feel the same way about their name.”

For others, it is more of a novelty. “To be honest, I’m not too keen on keeping my maiden name, but I thought it would be fun to meet another Suzuki,” said Hana (not her real name) Suzuki, a 34-year-old nurse.

“Access the app before bed”

For potential couples in Iceland, the problem is with your partner. With a population of only 330,000, the risk of associating with someone genetically similar to you is high.

“Today, as social networks and apps widen the dating pool,” many people turn to a website “to ensure they are not swimming in the same gene pool,” the Wall Street Journal said.

Tracing a person’s lineage in Iceland is “particularly difficult because surnames are not an indicator of historical family lineage.” Usually, a person’s last name is the father’s first name, followed by “son” or “dottir”.

Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders, is an online database that contains the complete genealogy of 720,000 Icelanders, living and deceased. Although the 12th-century landmark wasn’t originally designed for dating, it spawned a spinoff app that lets users hold their phones together to instantly find out if their family trees are intertwined, sparking the slogan “click the app before you bump into bed.”

China’s parental trap

In China, meanwhile, some parents are taking matters into their own hands to find partners for their children.

There is a long tradition of outdoor, in-person “marriage markets” where parents post the handwritten resumes of their single children in hopes of finding suitable partners.

Many are now “increasingly turning to online platforms to ‘find a daughter-in-law’ or ‘find a son-in-law,’ turning the search for a partner into direct negotiations between parents,” the South China Morning Post said.

“Instead of trying to persuade young, single adults who resist matching,” a few “sharp-eyed companies” are now “directly targeting a different demographic: anxious parents with strong purchasing power.”

Quarterly membership costs 399 yuan (£43), for an online profile listing an individual’s age, education, occupation and income, as well as property ownership status and expected timetable for marriage, prioritized over personality traits, hobbies and interests.