Keito Kobayashi has swapped his usual work clothes for the uniform of his second job as a volunteer firefighter. He is, the caption in the calendar says, only doing what comes naturally – keeping his family and his village safe. Seigo Fujiwara’s picture shows him staring into the middle distance, his head swathed in a traditional tenugui. The 29-year-old surveyor is looking for a woman with a “beautiful smile” with whom he can travel the world.
They and 10 other men from Otari are the faces of Japan’s ticking demographic time bomb. They hope their calendar poses will generate interest from potential love matches and help end their search for love and companionship.
Finding a partner in Otari, a village in Nagano prefecture in Japan’s northern Alps known for its dramatic scenery and some of the best skiing in the country, is proving a thankless task for Kobayashi and his friends.
Its population is about a third of what it was in the 1950s; in the past decade, the number of residents has fallen from 3,734 to 2,795, including fewer than 180 children of primary and middle school age.
According to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, its population will fall to just over 900 by 2060 if current demographic trends persist. As of last March, just 275 men and 218 women in their 20s and 30s lived in Otari.
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