Regional And Local Specifications Of Online Dating

Every country has its own traditions of dating, meeting people, establishing relations and so on. Sure, such customs were necessarily transferred to Internet for using in cyberdating. Web community, as an open system of human connection, turned out to be a fruitful base for analyzing and forming a new cultural level of society. Let's take, for example, Japan, its society and the questions of online dating among such category of people as older singles. It can be stated without any doubts, that a small but growing number of older Japanese singles has turned to an online matchmaking service in search of someone to share "second life". 
What are the reasons of such dynamics? When people reach certain age, the scope of their activities shrinks and they can only meet people within a narrow circle. If they want to go outside that circle, they don't know how. Using Internet, their horizons can be widened and their life can become richer because they can make friends. Seeing such situation in the scope of business developing, some sites began targeting the mature market and finally reached the fastest growth in membership among the over-50 set, an age group once thought over the hill when it came to romance. Although nearly half of members of such sites in Japan are aged 30-39, another 9 percent are aged 50 and over. 
The growth of Japan's greying population is partly behind such changing views. Already one in five Japanese are aged 65 or older and the percentage is expected to double by mid-century. Older Japanese have become more at ease with the Internet, while the numbers of people who have never married or who divorce, often after decades of marriage, is on the rise. With an increase in the divorce rate and more and more people accepting second marriages, that has definitely changed. There is a cultural change in the way these things are talked about in the media and there is a sense that older people are sexual, and it's legitimate to talk about it.
Adult children who once expected to live with their parents and discouraged them from remarrying are also more supportive. People are living longer and more families are nuclear. Other online entrepreneurs eyeing the same market agree changing values are making it easier for older Japanese to own up to a yearning for romance -- and do something about it - “People in their 20s and 30s think it's important to find their own happiness, so they can understand their parents wanting to do the same".
Still, an image of online dating services as shady fronts for sleazy one-night stands and prostitution lingers. Such concerns are one reason why women make up only 40 percent of dating sites' members in Japan compared with 50 percent in the United States. Besides, some people are afraid that using the Internet to find someone makes them look like losers.
Online or off, the search for love can still be fraught with obstacles, including the potential for mismatched priorities. A sociological survey showed that Japanese men and women both put "shared values" as their top priority in a partner but men list "similar personality" second, while women cite income. So, like online dating in other countries, it is very decisive option in Japan society to put psychological similarity first above all other sides of personality.
(by http://abcnews.go.com)