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The story
On 5ch’s “Anything Goes Live G” board, a thread went up urging “single men should go right now” to Latvia, one of the three Baltic states, where the female population reportedly outnumbers males by about 15%. Alongside optimistic takes claiming a passport and some English are all you need — plus comments about the abundance of beautiful women — posters also raised doubts about how easy it would really be to move there: the geopolitical risk of bordering Russia and Belarus, the fact that Latvian is the official language, and the hurdle of work visas. With the average annual salary cited at around 7 million yen, some also questioned the cost of living and what kind of work would actually be available locally.
What people said
Looks like the female population is 15%+ higher than the male one
And apparently full of beautiful women too
The least you could do is say thanks
English works just fine there
Just being a man gets you attention there
You'll get hit on first (reverse pick-up, instead of having to approach)
Just getting a passport already makes you a winner, you know?
You sure about that?
That's just an industry thing — not that many locals actually eat oatmeal
Don't just go off stereotypes
There's some discrimination, sure, but the women there are kind to you
That said,
The bagels and pizza are great there
Even if you work hard to land a white girlfriend, you still end up with a Nicolas Cage type…
That's not the type of white person Japanese guys actually go for
This guy had a thread about this before, and I watched the video — he was acting all big about "picking up girls,"
but it just looked like him talking to them about everyday stuff
Calling that "picking up girls" is a stretch lol
Well, that's partly why things are the way they are…
Ah, so that's the deal
Rough place to be
What's the cost of living like in Latvia anyway?
is a seriously high hurdle
Young people there speak English fine
It's only the old folks who don't understand it
It's not okay — if war breaks out, the area around the Suwałki Gap would turn into a brutal battleground, you'd be dead
It was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, and regained independence in 1990
Women outnumber men there two to one
Head out to the countryside there and it's nothing but pretty girls
Real talk, the number one thing isn't communication skills
A lot of guys probably can't even manage body language
but if you actually had that kind of skill, they say you could just get married in Japan already
Japanese teacher or something in IT, probably
Though you'll still need a work visa
Wait, is the official language Russian?
Background and Key Points
Latvia is one of the three Baltic states alongside Estonia and Lithuania. It was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, regained independence around 1990, and later joined the EU and NATO. It shares borders with Russia and Belarus, and the “Suwałki Gap” area between it and Poland — mentioned in the thread — is well known as a strategically critical region in the event of a conflict. The “women outnumber men by 15%” figure repeated throughout the thread has no cited source, and since the actual gender ratio varies by age group and how statistics are compiled, it should be taken as reference information rather than hard fact. Also, Latvia’s official language is Latvian; Russian is merely a holdover from the Soviet era understood mainly by older residents, so the thread’s question “is the official language Russian?” is based on a misunderstanding. The fact that working abroad generally requires a work visa is another detail that’s easy to overlook when considering a move abroad for romance or marriage.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (“Anything Goes Live G”) thread “Single men should go to Latvia right nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”


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