Dating apps are becoming one of the most popular ways for people in Japan to meet their spouses, at least for those in their 20s, recent surveys show.

A survey released by an organization promoting ¡°Good Couples Day¡± ¡ª a celebration held on Nov. 22 each year since the date can be read phonetically as ii f¨±fu in Japanese, which directly translates to ¡°good couple¡± ¡ª showed that 24% of couples in their 20s had met their marriage partner through a dating app.

For the youngest group of participants in the survey, which collected data from 1,000 married individuals over the age of 20 across the country in September this year, it was the most popular way to meet a partner, along with meeting through work, which was selected by the same percentage.

The dating app¡¯s share for couples in their 20s was considerably higher than for other age groups in the survey, and the apps were selected by only 9% of the overall respondent pool. Across all age groups, the most popular way to have met a partner was through work (33%) or through a friend (27%).

Similar results could be seen in the data released by major insurance company Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance on Wednesday, which showed that 20.7% of its respondents in their 20s had married a partner they met through a dating app. The survey was conducted in October and received responses from 1,620 married individuals over the age of 20 across the country.

But the growing popularity of such apps can be seen across the entire participant pool as well when narrowing down the time frame to couples who have married within the past year. Nearly 30% of marriages within the past year have been the result of a dating app match. And the apps were the most popular way to meet a partner for a second year in a row among couples that married within the past year, beating out other options such as through school or work.

According to the insurance company, this is most likely due to use of dating apps to meet new people having become a new norm especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most common motivation for using such apps among those who later married someone they met through an app was that they could easily meet new people (53.9%), as well as being able to pick people of their choice (44.1%).

The fact that they weren¡¯t meeting anyone through work also played a major factor (29.4%), suggesting that, across the board, the ease of meeting a wide range of people was the biggest pull for app use. The results underscore a major shift over the past few years in how young people meet their partners.