Ministry of Matchmaking

Nickname for South Korea’s health ministry – based on its unusual efforts to curb the country’s falling birth rate.

“South Korean government workers are being given an unusual instruction – go home and multiply,” John Sudworth reported for the BBC:

At 1900 on Wednesday, officials at the Ministry of Health will turn off all the lights in the building. They want to encourage staff to go home to their families and, well, make bigger ones. They plan to repeat the experiment every month. …

Boosting the number of newborn children is a priority for the government, which is staring into the abyss of a rapidly ageing society, falling levels of manpower and spiralling health care costs.

The Ministry of Health, now sometimes jokingly referred to as theMinistry of Matchmaking, is in charge of spearheading this drive, and it clearly believes its staff should lead by example.

In addition to encouraging reproduction, the Ministry of Health also plans to help single government workers find partners. According to Reuters:

The health ministry plans a matchmaking program where it will bring single public servants together for social gatherings and community service work in the hopes of fostering love among available bureaucrats looking to wed.