Japan’s fix for a shrinking workforce? Corporate dating apps
Companies like Toyota are playing cupid, betting that matching staff with partners from supportive firms will prevent burnout and resignations
The services, which allow employees to meet partners from other vetted companies, are being presented less as lifestyle perks than as tools to address long-standing imbalances in the workplace, where single staff often shoulder heavier and less visible burdens.
“Single employees don’t say anything, but they are under strain,” said Yuichiro Kayano, general manager of the career design promotion department at Orient Corp, a major Japanese credit card company known as Orico, as quoted by The Asahi newspaper. “I was thinking about whether we could reward such employees.”
At many companies, late shifts and additional responsibilities are more likely to fall on workers without children or caregiving obligations, according to managers, while 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.