A real-estate company in Tokyo is looking to help people find Mr. or Mrs. Right with apartments that have stripper poles in the living room.
These konkatsus or "marriage-hunting" apartments were designed by property developer Rintaro Kikuchi for single people in Japan with the goal of helping them feel more relaxed and social, providing a more intimate setting in the process, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Government data collected through the three decades through 2010 states that the number of unmarried people between 30 and 34 years old has grown from 21 percent to 47 percent for men and 9 percent to 34.5 percent for women. Researchers have cited several potential causes for this growth in single people, such as declining job security for men, busy work schedules for both sexes, and young people being unwilling to leave comfortable lives with their parents.
Kikuchi designed his apartments with wooden bathtubs, soundproofing and a good amount of natural light because he believes that most apartments in Japan aren't sexy enough, Yahoo! News reported. He got the idea for the stripper pole from a "sexuality advisor" he has been consulting with.
"You can't ignore sex and make a house," Kikuchi said.
The model for his one-bedroom apartment comes with a kitchen and shower room with enough space for couples to cook and bathe together, along with a lot of windows for letting in natural light, The WSJ reported. Kikuchi also used earth with fossilized algae and other natural construction materials to build the home, which he says helps you sleep better and wake up with more energy, thus becoming more attractive.
"You smile more, and your skin looks better, and you are making lots of pheromones," he added.
Kikuchi added the pole to get couples to have more sex and help them enjoy each other's company more, saying that relationships start to go bad when couples stop having sex, leading to more failed marriages and birthrates.
"It has an impact on children when they see the relationship between their parents deteriorate," he said. "They don't see marriage or making a family as something happy."
The konkatsu apartments have already gained favor among people in Japan, with one woman telling the WSJ about how the pole helps her stay in shape to enjoy sex, and another saying it helped her become more open to dating. Kikuchi, however, doesn't need such an apartment since he's marriage and has two kids.
