As Japan's baby drought worsens, the State plays at matchmaker...

With fat black clouds hanging ominously overhead, a sludgy field of sweet potatoes in rural Japan might not seem the best place for a date with the woman of your dreams. Still, 33-year-old bachelor Naoki Nakai hopes to get lucky before the rain comes. "Yes, there could be someone for me here," he nods, glancing over at a long-haired beauty in knee-high boots. "There are some nice people here," he adds before his face darkens: "I think some of them are from the city."

In this remote corner of Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, men and women tug at yams while engaging in a courtship ritual as old as time. Jokes fly and shy looks are exchanged across muddy buckets, but today's good-natured flirting disguises a serious purpose. Japan has been hit hard by a demographic problem so severe it threatens to overwhelm the world's second-largest economy. As millions shun marriage and delay parenthood, local governments are turning matchmaker to the nation's lonely hearts. More...

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