Can you stop approving men who use their pensions or disability benefits for papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan)? A few of my friends and I have encountered several men like that. Aren’t only men who pass a strict membership screening supposed to be allowed to join here? Isn’t it going too far to admit socially vulnerable people just because you want their membership fees?

I’m Kida, the representative. Just take the New Year’s gift already. If you don’t want it, decline the offer or leave the club—it’d be a waste otherwise. Don’t you feel bad for Grandpa? The real problem is that someone like you passed our screening, so I’m going to improve that process. But let me tell you: this outdated idea that dating clubs are luxury salons reserved for the chosen few? Get over it. If that’s what you’re looking for, go to Gin-kuri or Ao-pura. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other creeps just like you there. Dating clubs are places where people who are somewhat well-off but struggling in life come together. For women, it’s the kind of person who thinks, “I can’t make enough money on my own, but I want to live beyond my means! Oh, look—I found something!” They’re both awful. I’m awful too. But even so, they’re people trying to do something about their lives, and that’s why I honestly love them.

I’m Ayase Nana☆ It seems you don’t know anything about pensions. Even if you have a disability certificate, do you understand what type of certificate it is?

If you happen to end up with someone who offers a low allowance on the excuse that they live on a pension, I think they’re taking advantage of you. But as the person asking this question, do you pay into the National Pension? Speaking condescendingly without even understanding the system is shallow-minded. Unless you’re truly cold-hearted, why not work instead of counting on other people’s assets and pay your taxes properly—or date people with money to spare, willingly give yourself to them, and pay your taxes properly? That would help both genuine social dependents and society as a whole. Akari

Maezawa from the president’s office will answer this as well. Even among people living on a pension, there are some with assets worth hundreds of millions of yen. In Japan, the amount people paid into the pension system doesn’t necessarily match what they receive, so I sometimes think wealthy people may feel as though they got a raw deal. I’ve heard that in countries like Singapore, people receive something like several times the amount they paid in—the increase simply being the result of the government investing it—and that benefits are linked to the amount paid in. Japan doesn’t work that way. For that reason, I think it’s premature to simply say that a man receiving a pension is “living off help from the government and the public.” If a man says he can’t give you an allowance because he lives on a pension, that could also be a strategy. Besides, neither the government nor the authorities restrict how people spend their income. How they choose to spend it is up to them. If you don’t want to receive an allowance from that kind of man, then you simply don’t have to date him. And if you think that’s cold, then you might as well devote yourself to all the pensioner men across Japan who aren’t even members of Universe. Following the questioner’s logic, we would have to say that pensioners and people with disabilities shouldn’t be allowed to buy expensive rice cookers—that they should only be sold the cheapest ones. I’d like you to consider whether taking away that kind of freedom is really a good thing.

I’m in my 60s and feeling lost. Receiving a pension is the result of having fulfilled one’s social obligations. There are no restrictions based on assets, either. You clearly don’t understand any of this.

I’m Dai, a male member. Even among people with disabilities, the degree of disability varies, and some have substantial assets. Also, people receive pensions because they paid into them in the past. No one receiving a pension thinks of themselves as socially vulnerable just because of that. I think you should go back and study the subject, poster. And if you simply state that you don’t accept anyone aged 60 or over, you won’t receive offers from pensioners. As for the company’s policies, that’s not for you to worry about—it’s none of your business.