Vogue in Japan: Chinese brides

[thomas]

Reported by the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com/articles/66288.html), July 31, 2002:

Vogue in Japan: Chinese brides

Otsu City, Japan With his 50th birthday just around the corner, Masakazu Takagi faced a problem shared by legions of Japanese men in their late 30s and 40s: he had still not found a bride.

In a culture that celebrates youth like few others, where divorces were uncommon until quite recently and mid-life marriages even rarer, Takagi's bachelor status might once have been permanent. But, determined to preserve his family line, he scoured virtually all of East Asia on the Internet and settled on a bride in distant northern China.

=> http://www.iht.com/articles/66288.html

[moyashi]

ahhh, yes, mail order brides.

Many farmers living in out in no where land face this problem. No young ladies willing to work the land and soil their manicures.

This was also a theme for a bit while the "neruton" like shows were popular. "neruton" shows are like a super dating game type of situation. Pairing up 20 guys with 20 gals. last few shows I saw had men from Okinawa (fishermen and tabacco farmers) looking for ladies from Tokyo and other large cities. Too bad not too many fish would bite.

The flip side for these foreign ladies was that they thought they would be gaining a better life in rich-rich Japan. But much to manys dismay. They were just farming away and barely able to send a little home each month.

[thomas]

European farmers face the same calamity. Now, that even Eastern European ladies are no longer attracted to sweating away at the Western European countryside, farmers are putting out their feelers to SE Asian countries.