Romance

Netflix is debuting Japan’s first same-sex reality TV series called The Boyfriend starting July 9th.  Japan is the only country among the world’s wealthiest democracies that hasn’t recognized same-sex marriage, so producers of the series are hoping to change mindsets.

According to The New York Times, the show will feature nine men ranging in age from 22 to 36 living in a luxury beach house outside of Tokyo, a similar setting to Japan’s most popular romantic reality show Terrace House.

The contestants will operate a coffee truck together by day and cook dinner together at night, and occasionally go offsite for dates. This is a cultural shift in perception for Japanese men, who typically aren’t expected to cook and clean, leaving those duties for women. The show wants to highlight that the men participating enjoy cooking and seem to be pretty good at it.

Online scams are on the rise across New York state, according to its Attorney General Leticia James.

Local news WGRZ reported that scammers are using dating apps, social media, and unsolicited text messages to lure victims into making fraudulent purchases or investments. Referred to as “pig butchering” – the idea is for the scammer to befriend and form trust with the victim before taking their money.

"New Yorkers hoping to find romance and personal connections online are instead being taken advantage of and victimized by heartless scammers,” said Attorney General James in a release. “Sophisticated fraudsters are increasingly using dating apps and social media to trick users into bogus investment schemes.”

Bumble is giving 50 couples who met on its app a free wedding in Las Vegas.

According to People Magazine, the company announced its plan to celebrate couples who met via its platform with a free wedding, travel included. For one weekend, Bumble has rented out the famous Little White Chapel in Las Vegas and is turning it into a branded wedding venue for 50 lucky couples.

The chapel itself will be decorated in Bumble yellow, which the company is calling Little Yellow Chapel for the wedding weekend. The famous venue has hosted many celebrity weddings, including Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in 2022, as well as Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner in 2019, according to People.

LinkedIn is having a moment with romance. In a recent study, more than half of singles are turning to the career networking platform to find dates.

According to Dating News, a majority of 61 percent of singles aged 35 to 40 found dates on LinkedIn. Overall, 52 percent of all respondents ages 20 to 40 have found their dates on the business networking platform, highlighting its unexpected new role.

Interestingly, the second-best way that people say they are finding dates (48 percent) is through being set up on blind dates. Only 45 percent of respondents reported finding luck on online dating sites in comparison.

Older daters are more apt to have successfully met people via dating sites – half of respondents between 35 and 40 years old said they have met people on dating sites compared to only 33 percent of people between 20 and 24 years old, according to Dating News. Gen Z appears more open to meeting people outside of dating sites than Millennials, who came of age when dating apps launched and tend to gravitate to those platforms.

Tinder has just launched a new online course in partnership with youth platform Yuvaa to educate young daters on consent.

The 90-minute self-learning course entitled “Let’s Talk Consent” will be available for free on the Coursera platform, and is intended to be a resource for young adults in India to learn about interpersonal consent.

According to CNBC, there are five main topics in the course: “understanding consent in personal relationships, setting and enforcing personal boundaries, recognizing signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships via red, green and gray flags, and navigating online and offline interactions with safety and respect.”

Dating app Bumble is taking the popular Lunar New Year holiday and launching a promotional celebration for its user base in Asia.

The “Bumble Lo Hei: Toss Love into Your New Year” campaign says it will “spice up” holiday traditions and give the celebration a romantic twist for those seeking love in 2024. Bumble will give away exclusive gift packages for users to help them “manifest” a great love life this coming year, and encourage them to take charge of their own love journeys.

The promotion was inspired by the traditional Lunar New Year “prosperity toss,” or “lo hei.”