A game of rock, paper, scissors may not be your idea of romance, but it sends sparks flying Japan.  Well, that's the hope, anyway, with the marriage and birthrates are at record lows, and the population shows signs of dropping fast. 

Desperate means call for desperate measures. This past weekend, the government in the Gifu Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, organized a pre-Valentine's matchmaking party to try to bring together some of the many singletons there -- that's nearly a whopping third of adults under 50.

Not only are 61 percent of unmarried men aged 18-34 single, they don't even have a girlfriend.  And more than a third of teenage boys between 16-19 report to having no interest in sex. 

Clearly, the sexless state of affairs was crying out for an intervention. Cue a three-hour date-a-thon.  Held in rose garden, the event featured the aforementioned child's game as well as hour-long self-help sessions that, according to ABC News, included "makeup and styling lessons for women, dating role play and voice projection exercises for men."

“A lot of men don’t know how to make themselves appealing to women,” claims organizer Tomoyo Matsuda. “They only know to talk about their jobs and hobbies, but that conversation doesn’t extend beyond the first meeting. We prep them beforehand to make sure it does.”

Event attendee, 40-year-old Megumi Shiga blamed the strigent work culture for the current romantic malaise.

Needless to say, Japan is panicking. With more than a quarter of Japanese over the age of 65, the population is in dire straits, and expected to shrink by nearly a third in the next 50 years.

“The sustainability of the social security system is becoming very difficult,” said former Minister of Gender Equality and Demography, Kuniko Inoguchi. “We have to finance the pension fund and medical services through taxes and payment of the working generation. But [that number] is declining.”

Local governments are taking matters of the heart into their own hands, budgeting for online dating sites and offering cash incentives for couples who tie the knot.

Unfortunately for Shiga, this particular event didn't lead to a connection.  Still, she's remains hopeful, saying, “I need to be more aggressive or else, I’ll miss out on love.”

What's going wrong in Japan?  Does Cupid need to pay an emergency visit in the guise of a government, or is a sign of that work culture needs to scale back in favour of more play?