Word: older
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...this issue given my age," McCain told Don Imus recently, when asked about his vice presidential pick. A few weeks later, campaign adviser Charlie Black elaborated on the assumed power of a solid vice presidential candidate. Back in 1980, Black recounted, Ronald Reagan was running for President as an older man at 69. "The day he picked George Bush to be vice president, the age issue pretty much went away," Black recalled. "If [McCain] makes a good choice, that might alleviate the issue...
...Granted, change is slow. For this silver-haired population the concept of "dating" is still largely masked by the innocuous rubric ocha nomi tomodachi (friends having tea together). And older people often need help meeting prospective mates. That's where specialized matchmaking services such as Ai Senior - "Love Senior" - come in. The Tokyo company represents 300 clients, aged 50 and up, who are members of a 6,000-person database of eligible elders. When Shunichi Ikeda started the online service three years ago, he was surprised by how many inquiries he was getting from people in their 60s. "I thought...
...American perspective" about the dating scene. And their children are often very supportive, sometimes being the ones to register parents and post their profiles. "Before, people used to be embarrassed. And some still ask me, 'Am I too old? Is it O.K.?'" says Ikeda. "But I think that more older people are realizing that life is supposed to be enjoyable - not lonely." About 17% of the matchmaking clientele in Japan is over 50 years old, according to Ai Senior, and seniors' market share has more than doubled over the past three years...
...That's not surprising, considering that divorces among the elderly are rising. In 1975, for example, men 50 and older accounted for just 6.2% of divorces; that proportion rose to 18.8% in 2006. Some wives attribute this to "retired husband syndrome" - a condition in which a wife feels estranged after a husband's return to the household after decades of long hours at the office. Recent changes to divorce law also have loosened the purse strings that tie women to unhappy marriages. A law passed last year allows a divorcee to claim half of her husband's pension. Women have...
...that does not mean older Japanese are disillusioned with the institution of marriage. "For older, single men, even doing laundry or cooking is difficult," says Naomasa Saito, the head of online matchmaking service Taiyo no Kai (meaning "Circle of the Sun"). "They want to live with a woman." Likewise, "it can be boring" for women living alone, he says. "They want to provide for someone...