Do women who live like Aiko Omachi in Shima Kosaku actually exist?

I’m Flag Maker, a column writer. I’m also technically a corporate salaryman, so I’ve read the entire series. My favorite is the “naked dancing” episode in Chapter 81 of *Section Chief Shima Kōsaku*. A business partner demands that Shima do a naked dance while he’s handling a complaint, and Shima gets angry and refuses, saying, “Don’t be ridiculous!” Meanwhile, his boss at the time, Division Manager Nakazawa, takes the lead, does the naked dance himself, gets everyone laughing, and smooths things over. Nakazawa is just too cool. My values as a salaryman were influenced far more by Nakazawa—who later became president—than by Shima Kōsaku. In the end, Shima rises through the ranks while remaining the suave type who never does things like naked dancing. It’s true that money can make a lot of things possible and solve many problems. But I also think it’s true that money has its limits. And Aiko Ōmachi doesn’t really seem like someone being kept, does she? She had a threesome, after all, and she was a pretty free-spirited woman to begin with—not the type who’d become someone’s kept woman.

The author, Kenshi Hirokane, calls it fantasy, though. Is Aiko Omachi supposed to be a character who’s the mistress of Panasonic’s president or something? It’d be pretty hard unless you were dating a CEO of a publicly traded company.

I’m Date◎Yume, a male member. I think manga portray people like that because they don’t exist in real life, and we wish they did. First, accept reality and keep it as a fantasy.

Aiko Omachi is great, isn’t she? I haven’t been following the recent chapters of *Shima Kōsaku*, but it sounds like Aiko Omachi is enjoying a happy later life♪ Wait—do you mean Aiko (the mother), not Kumiko Omachi?