The Japanese government wants to host local ‘speed-dating’ sessions for singles as part of its national campaign to encourage baby-making and curb a dropping birth rate.

The number of babies born in Japan fell to a record low last year, with just over one million newborns compared to 1.269 million deaths.

Along with more traditional stimuli like free nursing care, new fertility centres and increased paternity leave allowances, the government has also proposed playing matchmaker.

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Did Japanese PM Shinzo Abe get any dating tips from Bill Clinton in their recent meeting? Photo: Getty

While it won’t be the politicians themselves who run the dating sessions, local governments will be helped and financially incentivised to host the events.

The elderly make up 25 per cent of Japan’s population and by 2060 it is expected that 45 per cent of Japanese people will be over 65. There were 4.54 children born per mother in 1947, compared to only 1.43 in 2013.

By 2020, Japan hopes that 80 per cent of males will take paternity leave at some time in their careers to help raise their children. The figure for males taking time off for their new children currently sits at a meagre 2 per cent.

Online media channel VICE recently travelled to the country to find out why fewer couples are falling pregnant.

Services like no-strings-attached ‘cuddle cafes’ are hugely popular in the less romantically committed society, its reporters found.