The other day, a woman I’ve met several times canceled on me at the last minute. I had a dinner reservation, but sadly had to cancel it.

I’m Dai, a male member. Naturally, it would be difficult to ask that late in the afternoon, “Are there any women who can come right now?” But after reading Rin’s answer, I thought it might be interesting for Universe Club to ask women in advance whether they’d be willing to serve as backup companions for dinner only.

I’m Taro, a male member. Ah, I’ve experienced that too. A staff member calls to say the other person canceled at the last minute, then makes this mysterious offer along the lines of, “If you need another woman and her allowance, we can arrange something.” Apparently, they might send over a woman who happened to have said during her interview that day, “I’m free today” (I experienced this at another club). I turned it down because, at worst, there was a chance the staff member—also a man—might show up instead. But it sounds amusing, so I might ask for it next time.

Next time, even in situations like this, why not book a nice restaurant where you’d be happy to eat alone? —Paper Airplane

Maezawa from the CEO’s office here to answer as well. You’re asking whether it’s possible to make an offer on the same day, correct? As we explain when you join, I believe we ask that you refrain from making same-day or day-before offers. However, if you’re a black-tier male client who regularly arranges a large number of dates—someone who consistently pays over ¥500,000 a month in arrangement fees, for example—and you select around ten prospective women and make an offer along the lines of, “Let’s meet at XX at 7 p.m. tonight,” then we can hardly refuse. We’ll do everything we can to contact the women. However, with around ten candidates, more often than not, they’ll all already have plans and be unable to accept the offer. At that point, we may ask you to provide another ten candidates. That makes twenty women, but even then, the chances of finding someone available that same day are extremely low. Still, on rare occasions, we do manage to find someone who can go on the date. The reason I specifically mentioned a black-tier male client who makes many arrangements is that, as explained above, contacting twenty women is more than one staff member can handle, so it becomes necessary for four or five staff members to contact women simultaneously. The personnel cost is several times higher than usual, while the arrangement fee remains the same. That’s why the idea of making same-day arrangements an optional service with an additional same-day fee keeps coming up from time to time. It’s that much of a burden, so whether we accept or decline the request depends largely on the relationship with the staff—or, more accurately, on how much in arrangement fees the client spends. Even so, we sometimes manage to find a woman who can go on a date that same day. Incidentally, from the woman’s perspective, she may end up wearing ordinary clothes rather than an outfit for a date, and she may be thinking, “Why ask me so suddenly today?” Even if she’s a little inconvenienced, she’s still agreeing to the offer, so I do feel that the allowance given to her should be a bit more generous.

I’m Ayase Nana ☆ If you urgently let Universe Club know your preferred age range and what you’re looking for, I think they’ll ask members who respond quickly whether they’d be willing to make you an offer. I once received a LINE message like that myself. I believe it was around 8 p.m. in Kyoto, so I turned it down because I thought I might miss the last train.

Normally, you could just make a same-day offer to someone with an A or B profile (or even a C profile for dinner only, if that works for you).

I’m Rin, a female SALON member. That’s such a shame… I suppose there’s not much you can do about women they’ve already met several times—not just once. I’d be happy to go out for dinner!! I absolutely love food! I wish there were some kind of backup-helper system… Hopefully there won’t be any last-minute cancellations next time!

I’m Kazu, a male member. Universe Club only takes care of setting up the first date. So they won’t deal with a woman canceling at the last minute after you’ve already met several times. Honestly, I’m surprised you would expect them to follow up on dates after the second one. I have had a staff member who came in her place join me for a meal because a woman showed up extremely late for a date arranged through the club.