I want to marry someone wealthy someday. Where can I meet someone naturally? I’m attracted to ambitious people who have the drive to make their dreams come true. Since many papas (male supporters) are married, I feel like my chances may be slim.

I’d recommend joining a 24-hour gym inside a famous luxury high-rise in a major city—or somewhere nearby—and working out early in the morning. Quite a few people in foreign-affiliated companies who earn well into the hundred-million-yen range work out early in the morning. This is genuinely solid advice. At the end of the day, making money comes down to stamina. People who are merely comfortable—say, earning up to around ¥90 million a year after taxes—probably aren’t lifting weights early in the morning. But people whose take-home income exceeds ¥100 million understand that: “Stamina is everything.” That’s why they keep themselves in shape. When you go abroad, you’ll even see philosophers around 90 years old out for a morning run. Afternoons and evenings won’t work. If you want to meet wealthy men, go early in the morning.

Doctors can earn a decent income when they’re young, but it usually doesn’t increase much after that, so they tend to end up merely well-off. Unless they go into cosmetic medicine or become the chairperson of a medical corporation, of course. As for my papas, many of them married when they were still just starting out, having only recently founded their companies and not yet knowing how things would turn out—just as Early mentioned. They generally met their wives in familiar settings, such as the same university or workplace. So I think it comes down to whether you can recognize someone who may become a major figure later, even if they seem insignificant when they’re young. It’s also possible that you’ve already met such a person without realizing it. On the other hand, men now in their 90s who were once presidents of publicly listed companies often married women from prestigious families—families whose genealogies can even be found online. They probably met through arranged introductions or personal connections. Things change with the times. Marika

Simply put, I think the questioner’s best chance is to attend a prestigious university. I met my spouse at university. Meeting someone at a bar or on the golf course is pretty similar to meeting someone through papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan).

If you’re still thinking, “Where should I go to meet someone?” I’m afraid it’ll be nearly impossible. As Aya said, marrying someone from a similar background is probably the safest option. If there are too many disparities between you, countless difficulties can arise later—in daily life, parenting, education, and more. For now, I think you should focus on making yourself a better person at your core. Akari

My wife and I attended the same university. I still don’t consider myself wealthy, and I haven’t achieved all of my dreams and goals yet, but I’ve been ambitious for a long time. I got married when I was earning only about twice the average salary of a typical salaried worker—the kind of figure you can find online—and when all I really had was ambition. I think it depends on whether you’re looking for: ① Someone who is already wealthy, ambitious, and has achieved some of their dreams, while continuing to pursue new dreams and goals ② Someone who is currently just ambitious, but seems likely to achieve their dreams and become wealthy in the future For option ①, if you look around, most people like that are probably already married. If they’re unmarried, they’re likely to be extremely rare and highly sought after. You might find some at prestigious golf clubs or at parties attended by business owners, doctors, and other prominent people. Also, if you’re open to someone who’s been divorced, there are probably a certain number of people who have always had the talent to run a business but initially lacked good judgment or luck when it came to women. Without actually taking someone away from their spouse, some of them will naturally end up getting divorced. There are people around me whom I sometimes wonder, “Why did he marry her in the first place?” As for option ②, whether someone will achieve their dreams or become wealthy ultimately depends on luck. This may just be my personal bias, but I think it’s extremely difficult—almost impossible—to find ambitious people through marriage agencies or mainstream dating apps. People I’d consider genuinely ambitious—depending on how you define it—are already uncommon among people in their 20s and 30s. There simply haven’t been many around me, either. If you narrow your search for ambitious people to entrepreneurs, universities such as Nihon University, Keio University, and Waseda University have produced a relatively large number of company presidents. So, following Aya’s theory, one option might be to attend one of those universities and identify people who seem talented while they’re still young. If you’re already working, I’d suggest attending the kind of parties mentioned under option ①, especially those with a lot of younger attendees. Another possibility would be a specialized dating app that attracts a lot of business owners. If you’re worried about your ability to judge people, you could consult one of your papas—someone who’s comfortable having those kinds of conversations. It’s difficult to tell whether someone will become a successful business owner, but you can often tell fairly well whether someone is likely to fail. Anyone can become a business owner or company president, so you need to look among them for someone who is truly ambitious and likely to succeed.

I got married after meeting my partner at a matchmaking party. There are probably apps for more selective people, too. I’d consider those natural ways to meet someone, but I can’t think of any others.

I used to organize and host matchmaking parties. They’re more casual than using a marriage agency, and quite a few people do end up getting married through them. Men weren’t allowed to participate unless they showed proof such as a medical license or employee ID—I really did send anyone who failed to bring theirs home—so they couldn’t lie about who they were. In that respect, I think the women could feel reassured. That said, natural encounters happen suddenly and unexpectedly, wherever you are… The moment you start thinking about where to meet someone, it’s no longer natural, though. For some reason, I’ve also been approached by women at bars a few times since reaching my late forties—both younger women and women around my age—so bars might actually be worth trying, if you’re a woman. But you really can’t tell from someone’s appearance whether he has money or not. In all those cases, it was just for that one day, so it might be difficult to turn things into something ongoing.

Why not try looking for an app? You could find a golf buddy through an app, meet for tea, play golf together, and then gradually deepen your relationship. Maybe try being a CEO’s secretary, haha.

These days, the most common type of marriage is homogamy—people with similar educational and career backgrounds marrying each other. In the past, it was common to see couples like a college-educated, full-time-working husband and a high-school-educated homemaker wife. But as more women have attained higher levels of education, marriages between similar people have steadily increased. Since most people meet through school, work, or mutual friends, highly educated men are naturally more likely to fall for highly educated women. It’s only natural that people from similar family backgrounds end up marrying each other. In other words, that’s what an “organic meeting” looks like. Marriages between two doctors are actually far more common than pairings like a doctor and a hostess or a company president and a model. Even business owners have a surprisingly high chance of marrying a former coworker from when they were younger or a university classmate. So, if you want to marry into wealth, the quickest route is to attend a prestigious university—where you’re more likely to meet people who become wealthy—and join the companies where they work. Even if you don’t find a spouse, you’ll still come away with an impressive career history, so it’s a good deal either way. Good luck.

I can’t say what the future holds. For now, though, I think your chances are slim at places like golf clubs or bars. Doctors are probably your best bet. You might want to look for places where young, single doctors are likely to gather. There used to be bars and snack lounges frequented by doctors and nurses, but these days, I don’t think they gather in places like that anymore. I often hear from people I’m dating that there are quite a few on dating apps.