WORDS��EMMA�LOVE��LUCY�WESTON��PHOTOGRAPHY��GETTY�IMAGES��REX�FEATURES
“…I LIKE CATS
AND CHEESE AND
STAR TREK…”
THE MINISTRY
FOR ROMANCE
Japan An increasing
number of Japanese youth
are not settling down until their 40s
causing authorities to worry that men
and women, particularly in small rural
communities, aren’t having enough
opportunities to hook up. So in an
effort to help, marriage consultation
centres have been set up by local
governments to hold matchmaking
parties. “Many young people have
left for bigger cities,” said Masataka
Akaike of the Yamanashi prefectural
government. “This deprives local
communities of vitality. It’s important
to prepare opportunities for men
and women to meet.” Thankfully
we can’t see Gordon Brown ‘doing
a Cilla’ any time soon.
US WOMEN
OUT-EARN MEN
USA A recent study has
found that American women’s
pay packets are looking considerably
more healthy than their partners’
salaries. The Pew Research Centre
in Washington DC looked at the
household finances and relative
education levels of married couples
in the country and found that,
compared with 1970, five times as
many women are now earning more
than their husbands, and, overall,
20% of US women out-earn their
spouses. Much of the disparity in
income has to do with education –
the study also showed that the
majority of wives out-earning their
partners are equally or better
educated than their husbands.
“SOON AS I’VE DITCHED THE
MISSIS I’M GONNA BUY ME A
NEW PLASTIC CAR!”
ELSEW HER E
A LIGHTBULB
MOMENT FOR
SOUTH KOREA’S
BABY MAKERS
South Korea Government
workers in South Korea are
being encouraged to boost the
country’s population in a most
unusual way. One day a month,
all the lights are being turned off
in the Ministry of Health from
7pm onwards to encourage
workers to get home to their families
and, er, create bigger ones. This
experiment, they hope, will boost
the birth rate of South Korea,
which currently has one of the
world’s lowest. With an ageing
population and growing health
costs, the government has babymaking
high on its agenda.
Critics say, however, that the
real problems
preventing
families from
expanding aren’t t
the country’s
long working
hours or that
not enough time e
is spent with
spouses, but the e
cost of childcare e
and education in n
the country. Still, l,
there are worse
things to be sent t
home early for.
A�WORLD-NEWS�
BRIEFING�IN�ONE�
COMPACT�PAGE
IT’S LIGHTS OUT
FOR SOUTH KOREA’S
POTENTIAL PARENTS
YSL: NOT
AUSTIN
POWERS
WHO WAS THE
REAL YVES SAINT
LAURENT?
France You wouldn’t think so
to look at his designs, but a
new biography of Yves Saint Laurent,
Saint Laurent: Bad Boy by Marie-
Dominique Lelièvre suggests that the
French designer didn’t have much
time for women. His friend and model
Victoire is quoted as saying, “They say
he loved women. No, he didn’t. He
used them.” Saint Laurent, who died
in 2008, was apparently unhappy
from the mid-1970s onwards; angry,
abusive and addicted to drugs and
alcohol. Friends talk of him prowling
nightclubs for sexual adventures while
others talk of his anger, guilt and
suffering over his homosexuality.
Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s business
partner refused to collaborate over
the biography, so the whole story is
still out there somewhere…
WOULD LIKE
TO MEET… GOD
USA Think about this when
you’re next logging onto MSF
or match.com: scientists in the USA
have found that when men and
women are describing themselves on
dating profiles, they will say they are
religious to try to make themselves
more attractive. The research was
carried out across ross tthe pond, where
religion is held d in high estee esteem, and
showed that aspiring daters upped
their religious us views to impress. In
the study, men and women who
looked at attractive members of the
opposite sex were more likely to tick
the ‘I believe ieve in God’ box than those
who just t filled out a survey without
pictures. es. Of course, it goes to show
that you ou shouldn’t believe everything
you read ead on a dating profile…
IN THE US,
GODLINESS IS
NEXT TO SEXINESS
WEIGH TO GO O
Sweden It’s the ultimate
irony: in the Swedish
province of Småland (‘small land’),
a group of slimmers received
a response they hadn’t hoped for
when they met for their weekly
weigh in: the floor collapsed beneath
them. Twenty dieters were queuing
for their weekly meeting in Växjo
when the floor gave way. Nobody was
hurt and authorities are looking into
the cause of the problem, but it’s fair
to say that nothing makes you ditch
the croissants and hamburgers
like the floorboards collapsing
beneath you.
THE SCALES:
RARELY A FUN
PLACE TO BE
WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK����
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