Amid Japan’s labour shortages and declining birth rate, the country’s employers are searching for new ways to retain workers, even embracing an unconventional addition to their benefits packages: corporate-only dating apps.
The services, which allow employees to meet partners from other vetted companies, are not presented as lifestyle perks but as tools to address long-standing imbalances in the workplace, where single staff often shoulder heavier, less visible burdens.
“Single employees don’t say anything, but they are under strain,” said Yuichiro Kayano, as quoted by The Asahi newspaper. “I was thinking about whether we could reward such employees.”
Kayano is the general manager of the career design promotion department at Orient Corp, a major Japanese credit card company known as Orico.
At many companies, late shifts and additional responsibilities are more likely to fall on workers without children or caregiving obligations, according to managers. Corporate benefits have typically focused on marriage, childcare and care for the elderly.
Against that backdrop, a growing number of firms have begun offering access to Aill goen, a corporate-only matchmaking app launched in 2021 by a Tokyo-based start-up backed by Asahi Media Lab Ventures.
More than 1,500 companies and organisations have adopted the service, including major employers such as Toyota Motor and MUFG Bank, according to figures cited by The Asahi newspaper.
Participation is limited to companies that meet criteria such as having established childcare leave systems and policies to promote women’s participation in the workplace. These companies aim to match employees with partners from similarly supportive working environments.
The underlying assumption is that mismatched work cultures are a key factor behind employees – particularly women – leaving their jobs after marriage or childbirth, and that pairing workers with partners from companies that offer comparable support could reduce that risk.
“If the company of the person they meet has strong childcare leave, it becomes easier to continue their career later on. It would be good if this eliminates people unwillingly quitting the company due to marriage,” Kayano said.
Toyota Motor framed the initiative as part of its broader approach to work-life balance when it introduced the app to its workforce in July.
“At our company, we believe that finding a partner who suits you leads to greater fulfilment in your private life, and that fulfilment can have a positive impact on work,” the carmaker said in a statement. “Based on this thinking, we expect Aill goen to provide a safe and high-quality place for meaningful connections.”
China Toyoshima, Aill’s CEO, has said the idea for the service arose from concerns about staff isolation and burnout, particularly during the pandemic.
“My goal was to create a platform that would make it easier for employees to achieve a work-life balance and, in turn, boost company growth,” Toyoshima said in an interview with Kyodo News in 2022. “Employers were worried about the mental health of their workers, who were largely staying at home with almost no physical interaction.”
At Orico, where more than 40 per cent of employees are single, the dating app was introduced last April alongside existing family-related benefits. Since then, 176 employees have used the service, and 17 have begun relationships, a result Kayano said exceeded expectations: “I can’t believe this many people are starting to date.”
Daito Trust Construction, a major rental housing builder, has taken a similar approach after single employees called for greater support as colleagues increasingly took childcare or senior care leave.
Last April, the company introduced an allowance of up to 30,000 yen (US$190) for employees who cover additional duties during such absences and also opened access to the dating app for staff.
About 60 per cent of Daito Trust’s roughly 3,000 single employees were in their 20s and 30s, an age group already comfortable with meeting partners through apps, the company said.
From May to November last year, 163 employees from the company used Aill goen and 14 began relationships, according to figures cited by Asahi.
The trend mirrors broader social change in Japan, where dating apps have become a mainstream route to marriage.
The results of a survey by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance released in November found that 30.4 per cent of couples who married within the previous year met through matchmaking apps, the highest share among all categories.
