Japanese bachelors look for new image

Tokyo - Japanese men can save the nation's low fertility rate. But marriage consultants say that men need to undergo reconstruction before the bachelors can be considered eligible for marriage. That's the hot new market in Japan right now: helping to polish the appearance of 30-something men, helping to improve their manners and communication skills and even building a sense of urgency to find lifelong mates, according to Nikkei Associe magazine.

Bridegroom School, a non-profit organisation based in Nagoya, offers lectures and seminars covering those topics. Kiyoharu Ohashi, marriage consultant and lecturer at the school, basically tells the participants that they are running out of time and they need to get a move on.

Men can get a better education or a raise in annual income, Ohashi says, but they can't fight their age.

The 37-year-old lecturer tells his students to tackle partner-hunting with the same vigour as they do work. Men are to consider themselves as sales representatives selling merchandise - themselves - and women are the presidents of their best clients.

"Women have been slowly but surely polishing themselves," Ohashi says. "But men have not changed much and follow the same lifestyle and appearance as their 50-something counterparts."

Consequently, he says, Japan is at a high risk of becoming a nation of lonely old men. Sunmark Life Creation Co opened a finishing school for men in November, offering a series of courses focusing on manners and appearance, and offering tips for dates. Fourteen sessions in basic and practical courses cost 140,000 yen (46,000 baht).

Other schools and services help men get their face waxed, colour-coordinate their clothes and assess the personalities of women.

Although men can invest in their clothing all they want (and that is one of the first steps finishing schools and services recommend), they mostly need to build on their conversation skills, industry experts say.

Sadly enough, the communication skills many men lack is given as one of the reasons for the low marriage rate, leading to the worrisome low-fertility rate, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Japan recorded a record low-fertility rate (i.e., the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime) in 2005 at 1.25, down from 1.29 the year before.

To help boost men's communication skills and encourage the nation's youngsters to find a mate for life, the ministry has decided to enlist the help of marriage consultancies, which have built up to nationwide membership of about 600,000 people.

The market is already worth 60 billion yen, with nearly 4,000 businesses registered in Japan, according to ministry research.

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