Fast tracking love and marriage

Kato is sceptical about this new business-like matchmaking service and said that ‘modern corporate agents cannot do what I do’. Kato is proud of her record, with photos of clients who found love through her on display at her home office in Tokorozawa, Japan. — Noriko Hayashi/The New York Times

TRUE love may be priceless. But in Japan, 20-somethings are flocking to marriage agencies that promise a fast track to the altar – and charge a premium for it.

For hundreds of years, through the post-World War II era, Japanese marriages were brokered through omiai, a practice in which matchmakers – usually relatives, family friends or bosses – linked singles in their orbit.