Just when people thought that arranged meetings with the intent to find a marriage partner (o-miai) were becoming an anachronism in Japan, they’ve started to make a comeback for a group that some might think would make unlikely couples—Japanese women and Korean men. The Daily Sports online reports in Japanese that Japanese women are flocking to a marriage broker that sets up meetings with eligible Korean bachelors in Seoul and Tokyo.

The broker is an outfit called Rakuen Korea (Paradise Korea) headquartered in Seoul. They began arranging meetings between couples of different nationalities in 2002. The company had registered only two Japanese women as of January 2004, but just three months later, after the success of the TV drama Winter Sonata and the first visit of dreamboat Yon-sama (Bae Yong Joon) to Japan, there was a surge of interest from ladies with stars in their eyes. By the end of the year, Rakuen Korea had signed up 3,800 Japanese women. It’s a good deal for the girls, as they get to choose from among the 6,530 Korean men the company has signed up as members. (There is no word how many Korean women and Japanese men, if any, they had on the rolls.)

Buoyed by their success, the company opened a Tokyo branch last year. A total of 30 couples have begun dating on their own after an arranged meeting, but none have headed for the altar yet. The company makes it easy for the women get involved—there is no charge for them to register. But Rakuen Korea is not entirely altruistic, as it costs a man 100,000 yen to join. For every meeting, the women pay a 20,000 yen service charge, while the men are hit up for 30,000 yen. About half the Japanese women report they are looking to get married to a Korean man, while the other half say only that Japanese nationality is not a prerequisite for a wedding partner.

The Daily Post was present at a recent meeting at a Korean restaurant in a Shinjuku, Tokyo hotel. A 29-year-old Korean man studying in Japan met with a Japanese woman in her 20s who works in an office and is studying Korean. Dressed casually, they had a relaxed conversation while the Japanese manager of the local branch and his Korean assistants sat nearby. The woman told the newspaper that marriage was not her objective; she just thought it wasn’t necessary to limit herself to Japanese men. The Korean man said he didn’t consider it a marriage meeting. He just wanted to meet somebody nice.

The only unfortunate part of this story I can see is that it is a story at all. International relationships wouldn’t be newsworthy in other industrialized countries, regardless of the reason. And if this keeps up, we can hope that it will no longer be news for Japan and Korea either.