Singles in Japan on a marriage-hunting quest...

Millions of Japanese visited shrines all over Japan on Thursday night and Friday to bid farewell to 2009 and usher in the New Year. Among the throngs of people saying their prayers and making their wishes will be sizable numbers of people with just one wish on their mind for 2010 -- to get married.

  Some 3 million people were estimated to have descended on MeijiJingu Shrine, a particularly popular countdown spot in central Tokyo, to say their prayers and make wishes for 2010 and according to anthropologists, many of these wishes were to find a spouse.

  The government projected Thursday that Japan's population has declined further in 2009, with the number of Japanese babies born in the country in the year estimated to have decreased from 22,000of 2008 to 1,069,000, and the number of Japanese people who died in the country in the year is estimated to have increased for the ninth consecutive year to 1,144,000. More...

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