Ballparks have come into the spotlight in Japan as a place to find future spouses at a time when many young people are on an eager quest for life partners but have so far been without success.
     The Nippon Ham Fighters professional baseball club stepped up to the task recently of helping out young people with ''konkatsu,'' a trendy word referring to activities having to do with getting married.
     Konkatsu is coined from ''kekkon'' (marriage) and ''katsudo'' (activities).
     On Saturday, the team invited 150 men and 150 women to a game at its home stadium Sapporo Dome.
     The club first prepared 100 konkatsu seats for the day and another 100 for Sunday. But the project attracted 2,860 applicants, which forced the club to increase the number of prepared seats to 150 each day.
     A total of 28 couples were formed by the end of the game against the Chiba Lotte Marines, according to the club. Officials of the team said it will consider organizing another round as the number of applicants was much larger than expected.
     Among the participants Saturday were 26-year-old Mikiko Kimura from the city of Eniwa and her 24-year-old female friend Tomoko Matsumoto from the city of Bibai. They said they had a good time having the chance to potentially meet men who can go to a ballpark together next time.
==Kyodo