When you were young did you imagine you’d be married in your twenties and have a mortgage, family car and two point four children by the time you reached 30?

But it hasn’t happened, has it.

You may think you’re intelligent, interesting, well travelled and handsome, but somehow you just can’t seem to keep hold of a partner.

Even the Bentley you pull up at the Atlantis in, or your apartment in the Burj Khalifa doesn’t seem to muster favour with the ladies anymore does it?

Well maybe you should sign up for lessons in how to turn yourself into the perfect potential husband or wife.

A new school in Tokyo has opened its doors to individuals who want to be turned into ‘marriage material’. The school, which is open to men and women, teaches students how to talk, walk and present themselves elegantly in a bid to capture the hearts and minds of prospective partners and their parents, who are often a major obstacle to successful unions.

Infini, which opened last month, now has about 30 female students. An almost equal number of males have signed up, but those who actually turn up to class are much fewer than their female counterparts.

“I had never even thought that my boyfriend’s mother could play such a big role in my relationship, but now I’ve realised I need to start thinking seriously about how to impress my future in-laws,” says Kozue Sugawara, 29, who joined the school after her previous marriage plans failed.

With women wielding increased economic clout and changing social attitudes towards marriage, more women in their 20s and 30s are single than ever before.

In Japan alone, government statistics show nearly two-thirds of women under the age of 34 are unmarried, despite some 3,800 firms in Japan offering match-making services.

The average age of the school’s female students is 30 years.

“Before, people would find it easy to get married because families and society would connect them in some way, sometimes pushing them to get married. But nowadays, people have too many choices and cannot seem to make up their minds,” says Etsuko Satake, principal of the Infini marriage prep school.

Instructors provide critiques about students’ dress, posture and even details such as how they get out of a car.

Men and women are taught different skills, which range from how to set a table well, to how to be more emotionally expressive.

Students also simulate dates, during which their instructors grade their performance and point out what they did wrong.

The school charges an annual fee of 200,000 yen (dhs8,100) for unlimited access to its classes.

But despite wanting to settle down and get married, Dubai resident Leanne Mather wouldn’t pay to attend classes on how to turn herself into marriage material.

The 33-year-old, who works as cabin crew, says: “OK so you could lure someone in with your new ‘perfect wife’ skills but what happens when you’ve been married two years and can no longer be bothered acting the way you’ve been taught just to keep your husband happy?

“Teaching men and women why they need to try to get along with their in laws and why they should express their emotions more clearly is great but some of the other skills they’re taught sound crazy.

People need to realise they marry for life and it takes hard work and dedication not just the ability to lay a table or get out of a car gracefully!”