Let me teach you one newly made Japanese word that I hear a lot these days.
Kon-katsu. It takes the last syllable of Kekkon (Marriage) and first syllable of Katsudo (Activity).

In Japan, University students take the last 2 years before graduation to
job hunt. They apply to many companies and go to many interviews to get employed. This is called Shu-katsu. Kon-katsu basically means "Activities to get married".
The person who created this word says "In order to get married, we need to get active and prepare just like job hunting".

It seems like this word was born because unlike the olden days,
you can no longer get married just because you've reached a certain age.
You need to get active and start getting busy instead of waiting for something to happen. I guess maybe this was also something Japanese lacks because many people are shy. Single Japanese always say "It's not like we don't want to have a relationship, we just don't have the chance to meet new people".
This is true, because conversations don't just start on the street in Japan.

Anyway, according to one magazine, the following activities are what are called "Kon-katsu"

Registering to a matchmaking agency.
Widening the ideal age range of your partner.
(Like going for older women or younger guys)
Find a hobby and take lessons to make a friend with the same hobby.
Announce that you are going to start "kon-katsu" to friends or at work.

I know, some are quite silly.
Well that's what's going on these days in Japan.
There is a drama series called "Kon-katsu" right now. I even saw a Kon-katsu bento (lunch pack) at the stores. (Katsu also means deep-fried pork cutlet so it's basically fried pork which has nothing to do with marriage...)

Lastly, I'd like to inform that our search engine has improved.
I bet many of you had a hard time using our search engine.
It still may have some flaws but we surely have some progress.

CDJapan Advanced Search

If anyone has suggestions about it, please tell us so that we can reflect it to our new system, if we can.