HAKUSAN, Ishikawa Prefecture--Italian restaurant Trattoria Orso received the culinary honor of being listed in the Michelin Guide, but another source of pride is its extraordinary success in matchmaking.

Run by a couple, the restaurant has been a meeting place for men and women seeking spouses. Over the last decade, 120 couples who have attended matchmaking parties at Trattoria Orso ended up tying the knot.

On a Sunday evening in July, six men and six women entered a private room in the restaurant located in the central part of Hakusan, a city neighboring the prefectural capital of Kanazawa.

The six men, who were in their 30s and 40s, sat in a row on one side of the table. The six women, all in their 30s, sat side by side across from the men. They were meeting for the first time, and they all seemed very nervous.

“Let the party begin,” Yasuko Kumagai, 49, the restaurant’s manager and renowned matchmaker declared when the drinks and appetizers arrived.

The participants in the evening’s six-on-six party came from different occupations, including a civil servant and dental hygienist.

The rule was simple: They could only talk to the person sitting directly across from them.

Before the party, Kumagai gave some advice to the participants.

“Your ‘dream spouse’ does not exist,” she said. “You never know who you will meet and where. So take a good look at the person in front of you.”

Putting Kumagai’s instructions into practice, the spouse hunters wasted no time opening up in their conversations with each other. The awkwardness that initially filled the room quickly disappeared.

Using a typical speed-dating format, the men stood up and moved to the next seat after every 15 minutes or so. The rounds of conversation ended after about two hours.

Finally, each participant was asked to write the names of the two people they liked the most. Those who were picked as potential partners received an envelope enclosed with the contact information of their admirers.

The next move was up to them.

ONE-SIDED LOVE IS A BEGINNING

The end of the party indeed can mark the beginning of everything.

“Are you able to take action to meet the person one more time or not? That will make the difference,” said Kumagai, who has been hosting matchmaking parties almost every week.

The likelihood of two people mutually falling in love is low, Kumagai said, but through another meeting, a “one-sided love” can become a successful union.

She said she has seen this happen many times.

Kumagai recently received some happy news from a couple who met at the restaurant in October 2018. The 39-year-old self-employed man and the 38-year-old hospital clerical worker got engaged in June and plan to wed in October. It will be the 121st marriage that the restaurant has made happen.

The fiance faithfully followed Kumagai’s advice.

“I attended the matchmaking party here for 15 times or so, and I got rejected many times,” he said. “But I finally met ‘the one.’”

DATA, INTUITION AND PIZZA

Kumagai and her husband and chef, Shinichi, 52, opened Trattoria Orso 12 years ago.

Using her experience of working as a wedding planner at a hotel in Kanazawa, Kumagai started hosting the matchmaking party in 2009.

The party was initially scheduled every other month, but singles quickly learned about it through the grapevine, and it became a monthly fixture at the restaurant.

Today, Kumagai hosts the matchmaking party at least 10 times a month. Sometimes the restaurant is closed for parties with more than 40 participants.

Men are charged 5,000 yen ($46) to attend, while the cost for women is 4,000 yen.

For each party, Kumagai picks participants based on their data and her intuition. She makes sure that none of the participants work at the same place and have never met before at her parties.

Dishes also play a role. Trattoria Orso was featured in the Michelin Guide Toyama Ishikawa 2016 Special Edition. So those who leave the party feeling rejected can at least enjoy a delicious course meal.

But pasta is not served at the parties. Pizzas are OK, Kumagai said, because “time at the party is too precious to look down to eat.”

Finger food works very well for the same reason. It may also be easier to consume for those who might be too nervous to swallow.

The parties are all-you-can-drink, but no alcohol is served.

Kumagai made that decision because some male participants at past parties drank too much and were unable to “remember who was who.”

TRUST BUILDING IS KEY

Successful matchmakers have many tricks, but the most important thing is to build a “relationship of mutual trust,” according to Kumagai.

She hosts free consulting sessions four times a month. Those looking for future spouses are encouraged to have an interview with her and register at a counseling session before attending the party.

So far, 6,000 people have registered, from near and far, such as Toyama, Fukui and Osaka prefectures and Tokyo.

More often than not, the interviews become counseling sessions.

“I’m always getting rejected at the third meeting. What’s wrong with me?” one person asked.

“To be honest with you, I want to marry my jobless boyfriend,” a woman said.

For Kumagai, it is “critical to build a trusted relationship” during the interview session.

“At the end of the day, it’s human relations that make people meet each other, not data,” she said.

Her success is the envy of other matchmakers and a high standard to emulate.

Kunio Demura, who is in charge of marriage support services at the “Ishikawa marriage and parenting support foundation,” a public interest incorporated association entrusted by the prefecture, is one of them.

Although the foundation has about 500 volunteer matchmakers registered, its top performance is setting up around 80 marriages a year.

“If nothing happens in two to three months, we change the matchmaker through reassignment,” Demura said. “Maybe that’s why we are not as successful as we want to be.”

Kumagai has set her goal even higher. “My everyday interactions trying to match people make other people happy. I have received enthusiastic responses to that. I will continue to do it, setting my eyes on the 200th couple to tie the knot.”