While Japanese television is well-stocked with variety shows, live music shows and contemporary and historical dramas, some of the programs might be hard for us to categorize. Like ダーツの旅 Darts no Tabi, a show that throws a dart at a map of Japan then sends a camera crew to that location to see what interesting people they can find there, or a similar show that will pick a certain train line in Tokyo and get off at every stop, looking for interesting businesses to showcase on TV. There’s another popular show called Mote Mote 99 that actually aims to help people find love. As Japan’s population falls, it gets harder for men living in rural parts of the country to find women to marry, so this program organizes a hundred or so women who are open to the idea of marrying someone from a rural region of Japan and sets up formal “speed dating” type activities so the bachelors in the town can get to know the women. In addition to being a good excuse for the small towns featured on the program to promote the benefits of rural living on national TV, they show has brought quite a few couples together.
Wanted: women who will marry random men and move to Tohoku.
