Lately, I’ve been surprised to see people on Twitter entering into what are essentially adult relationships (intimate) for just 20,000–30,000 yen. I thought around 50,000 yen was the standard here, but am I mistaken…?

Many of the people answering here genuinely care about women, so you’ll often see comments like that. But the actual male members are somewhat different. Some are on the same level as the men you find on Twitter. The reason is simple: the people who use Twitter and the people who register with a dating club are the same human beings. If Universe tells them, “Please discuss the allowance with the woman and decide it freely,” then naturally, men who have used Twitter or apps before will offer the same allowance—around 20,000–30,000 yen. And this isn’t some extreme example. There are actually quite a few men like that. But from a woman’s perspective, she didn’t register with a dating club to meet men like that. If the allowance is the same, she can use Twitter or an app instead, where she can choose from as many men as she wants. She’ll get a huge number of messages. If women registered with Universe only to be offered an allowance of 20,000 yen, they wouldn’t sign up, would they? Especially when there aren’t many invitations from men to begin with. That’s why people keep bringing up the allowance whenever the subject comes up. Even so, men offering 20,000 yen think: “I’m here for an adult relationship with women, so what’s the problem? Why should the club interfere with the part that’s supposed to be private? Isn’t that strange?” That’s where the disagreement comes from. People offering 50,000 yen think that those offering 20,000–30,000 yen are paying far too little. But from the perspective of someone offering 20,000–30,000 yen, they wonder, “Why do I need to give that much allowance?” The reason 50,000 yen has become the accepted figure here is thanks to the people answering these questions. But looking at Universe as a whole, there are also men offering 70,000, 80,000, or even over 100,000 yen. For the people offering 50,000 yen, that means they benefit because anyone offering more is given priority. > I thought around 50,000 yen was the standard here, but is that not actually the case…? There isn’t really a fixed “standard” of 50,000 yen. Even among the people answering questions here, some offer more than 50,000 yen. If you averaged the men who offer 50,000 yen with those who offer even more, the average might come out to around 70,000 yen. The people who offer more simply don’t state the exact amount of their allowance.

I think the allowance varies depending on the amount the man offers, whether the woman is comfortable with it, and whether she feels she has no choice but to accept it financially. I think a lot of people use 50,000 yen as a benchmark. I feel like I’ve mentioned this before, but I pay attention to the going rate, so if it went from 50,000 to 60,000 yen, I’d probably raise what I offer proportionally as well. Partly because I feel that pushing myself a little would help me grow, and partly because it somehow gives me a greater sense of satisfaction. Also, my work itself is a symbol of self-fulfillment. I want to earn money as a result of it, and so far, there’s no ceiling to that desire. That said, it’s not like I want to spend all that money on myself. I do want to give back to the people who contribute to my ability to keep working hard, including my family and the woman I’m seeing. This may sound surprising, but I sometimes wonder whether some people have a limit to their financial desires. Even if those desires are fulfilled beyond a certain point, it doesn’t seem to increase their satisfaction that much. Maybe that’s why I started papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan)—to find somewhere else to direct those desires. I could be completely mistaken, though（笑） This has gotten off topic, but because of the way I think, I offer more than the going rate from the first meeting. However, I don’t suddenly offer ridiculously high amounts like some desperate guys do, and I don’t give gifts until we’ve built a certain level of relationship. That said, if we continue seeing each other and she becomes a driving force that helps me keep working hard, then I’m grateful, so I’d like to give back within what I can afford.

I may get criticized for saying this on Twitter, but… Most people who use Twitter are just ordinary men and women. I don’t use Twitter myself. I only check Facebook and Instagram for work. And, frankly, anyone looking for relationships in places like that is bottom-tier. There’s also a chance they could be exposed or get caught up in an incident. With an exclusive dating club, everyone’s identity has been verified, so you can participate with peace of mind. And people willing to pay that much to join aren’t bottom-tier. Do I really have to spell it out this clearly for you to understand…? And what exactly do you feel is different?

Ah, I know exactly what you mean. I don’t follow Twitter, but the people who get arrested and end up on the TV news usually seem to be charging pretty low rates. “Engaging in lewd acts with a minor for two or three [万 yen],” and so on. But it’s frustrating when you realize they weren’t arrested for charging so little—they were arrested for some other offense. Whenever I see news about someone being arrested “on suspicion of arranging women and earning a total of ●● yen from ●● cases,” even I, a childhood failure at Kumon, start doing division at an astonishing speed. And the answer is usually two or three [万 yen] per case. Part of me thinks, “Come on, they’re really arresting them because it was so cheap, aren’t they?” Another part thinks, “Serves the guy right for getting it done for two or three.” Then there’s the honest feeling of, “But I’m jealous—how do you even manage that?” All sorts of emotions come bubbling up. Sitting in the living room watching TV, I suddenly slapped my knee and thought, “So this is what foreigners mean by ‘mixed feelings.’” That’s the Japanese summer for you. But drinking this mixed juice would undoubtedly upset your stomach and turn the summer festival into a nonstop bathroom situation. So, the grass is always greener on the other side, but each of us only has our own path. Let’s accept that and keep taking things one step at a time. I wanted to tie this into the news of Chairman Inamori’s passing, but somehow it turned into something like Konosuke Matsushita’s “The Way,” so I apologize. Speaking of apologies, there was also a guy named Nashimoto, wasn’t there… One association leads to another for us Showa-generation folks. And once again, I’ve gone completely off track and can’t stop laughing. Anyway, stop looking side to side and keep your eyes ahead. You’ll trip. Taro P.S. Also, Makeotoko’s comment is completely wrong, so you can safely ignore it. That’s just what he thinks; the reality is totally different. The club decides the class rankings, and once I make an offer, even a Standard woman is a princess to me. In fact, the first woman I met through Universe Club was technically Standard according to the club, but to me she was perfect. I kept saying that right up until the moment we parted ways, and I never reduced her allowance. She herself wasn’t concerned about it at all. When she needed money, we adjusted things by increasing the number of meetings, joking around like, “I could do every day next week,” and, “What is this, an intensive training camp?!” People get way too hung up on allowance levels. To put it more bluntly, if there’s a man who uses the club’s class rankings as an excuse to haggle down a woman’s allowance, you can safely assume he’s an absolute scumbag and a pathetic excuse for a man. It’s disrespectful to the woman, and more than anything, it’s painfully pathetic for a grown man not to have his own standards of value. That’s the real issue. He’s not an itasha—a painfully decorated car—but an itao, a painfully embarrassing man. If any man recognizes himself in that description, he should change the club’s name to that starting today.

You’d change your approach depending on the man too, wouldn’t you? If you felt it wasn’t worth your while, you might significantly change the terms or turn him down…

If I had to give an average—or perhaps a median—it would be 5. By class, the general picture seems to be: Standard: 2–3 Gold: 4–5 Platinum: 6 Black: 7–8 This is only a rough guide, of course, so there are certainly cases that don’t fit these ranges. For example, I’ve continued giving one Gold woman an allowance of 12 per pay-per-meeting since our very first adult date, and we’ve been seeing each other for over a year. Conversely, I’ve heard there are Black women with a premium attached who are fine with just 5 per meeting. Some male respondents openly say that even 4 is too much for an adult relationship with a woman. Others offer 5 per meeting to everyone. Then there are men like me and Early-san who give allowances above the going rate. It would be easy to say that there’s a lot of variety and everyone is different, but that wouldn’t really answer the question. So if I force things into a generalization, I suppose the figures above are roughly what you get. Personally, though, I think those figures are obviously wrong. Paying only 5 or 7 per meeting for a young woman’s body seems far too cheap—and incredibly disrespectful. From the woman’s perspective, we’re just “some strange old guy,” after all. That’s why my minimum allowance is 10. It’s my way of showing women a basic level of respect. Of course, 10 might still be too little. If I found out that my own girlfriend or daughter was secretly doing papa-katsu, being intimate with some strange old man and receiving only 3 or 4 per meeting, I think I’d cry over my own inadequacy.

Weren’t you told as a child, “Other people are other people, and our family is our family”? I don’t think there’s much difference between 2–3 and 5.