Deposit your money at a bank in northern Japan and you could get more than interest payments. You might end up getting married.
This weekend, 184 depositors at Tsuruoka Shinkin Bank ¡ª single men and women with an average age of 32 ¡ª are invited to mingle in front of a tank of glowing jellyfish at a local aquarium for the lender¡¯s first ¡°konkatsu¡± (marriage-hunting) party.
The bank in Yamagata Prefecture, 500 km north of Tokyo, is facing a decline in population afflicting rural communities across Japan. The challenge is acute for ¡°shinkin¡± banks ¡ª cooperatives whose members are local residents and small businesses.
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