Good evening.

Even if there are men who are looking to get married, you should assume that women looking for marriage are rare—almost nonexistent, really. A woman I met recently was also confused because she was asked to enter a serious relationship on the very first day they met. The chances are low, but I do think a woman may develop romantic feelings as the relationship continues. At the very least, if you have an adult relationship once a week and it continues for about a year, there might be a chance she’ll start to show interest. If you’re going to register with Universe Club, please make sure you don’t inconvenience the women in any way.

I think it’s a good idea to spend some time using a dating club, get a feel for what women who are mainly motivated by money are like, and then look for a marriage partner among ordinary women or through a marriage agency (just avoid the cheap ones). It might also be helpful to read through as many of the past questions as possible and observe what the women on dating clubs tend to be like. Of course, the people asking and answering questions here are only a very small minority. Still, I think it’s good to build up some immunity to all kinds of situations. —Marika

There have been men who were looking to get married. From the woman’s perspective, though, marriage usually isn’t the goal. Broadly speaking, papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) is about entering an adult relationship (intimate) and receiving an allowance. If you’re considering marriage, do you have an annual income or assets of around ¥50 million? I know this may sound harsh, but if your income is low, you should probably stop papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan).

If you treat her like a real girlfriend and cherish her for a few years, I think it’s definitely possible. That said, there are just too many wonderful women, so I can’t settle on one. I think staying single would let me meet more of them and enjoy life forever.

Thank you for the question. Maezawa here with an answer as well. The other day, I saw a TV commercial for a matching app that was promoting itself as a matchmaking app for people looking to get married. I thought, “Huh? It’s a matching app, but it’s for marriage hunting? Even though you can sign up without providing any proof that you’re single?” That got me wondering whether Universe Club could also run a TV commercial if it simply insisted that it was a marriage-hunting club. Anyway, I got a little sidetracked. Every now and then, during interviews with women, we get questions like: “Are there men here who are thinking about marriage?” “Where would I go if I wanted to marry a wealthy man?” So although they’re a very small minority, there are women who want to marry rich men. On the other hand, we also hear things like: “After I went on a date with a woman, she kept talking about the kind of relationship she wanted and never even brought up an allowance. I wondered if she was looking for a marriage partner. It seems our goals were different.” (She was a Type B woman, by the way.) That man wasn’t looking for a wife. He simply had a particular type of woman in mind for a long-term relationship and started talking about that from the very first day. But even that can make the woman think, “This man and I have different goals.” > Should I avoid using a club like this for marriage hunting? Obviously, yes. Your goals are different, so please don’t. If you want to find someone to marry, you should go to a matchmaking agency or use a marriage-hunting app. Apparently, when Universe Club eventually runs a TV commercial, it won’t pass the review unless it presents itself as being for marriage hunting. So I imagine they’ll advertise it as “Marriage-Hunting Club = Universe Club.” When that happens, try saying, “What’s wrong with joining? I saw it on TV!” > Recently, I’ve started to feel that my income and assets are fairly decent. There’s always someone wealthier, and especially at dating clubs, there are quite a few extraordinarily wealthy men. So I think it’s better to approach things as if: “I have practically no assets at all. That’s why I can only offer an allowance of 10 per meeting. Even the birthday gifts I buy have to stay under around one million yen.”

I think rather than aiming for marriage, you should focus first on finding a girl you can really bond with. Since you’re a man and she’s a woman, it could naturally develop into something more down the line.

Women who do papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) and start thinking, “It’s about time to move on and get married,” usually don’t look for a spouse through papa-katsu. They simply sign up for a regular matchmaking site instead. In fact, several women have found their future husbands that way, ended their relationships with me, and moved on. As Taro pointed out, if you announce from the start that you’re “considering marriage,” people will find it creepy. More than anything, “gachi-koi”—developing genuine romantic feelings—is the biggest turnoff in this community. The reason is simple: it’s likely to turn into stalking. Experienced papa-katsu women—especially the so-called itadaki girls—will actually target men like that and extract money from them. It’s practically marriage fraud. For now, forget about marriage, make your debut in dating normally, and date as many women as possible to build up your experience. Then think about it again.

Thanks for the creepy question! I think almost nobody joins a dating club with marriage as their goal. There used to be an E class for people whose purpose was simply meeting someone, where no money was required when they met—but even that had very few female members, and it’s already been discontinued. E-den disappeared at some point too. “E” sounds like “good,” but maybe it actually means “bad.” Anyway, back to the point: men looking for a partner with marriage in mind—including “hopefully it might lead to marriage”—will probably be seen as creepy, so you shouldn’t announce that right away. You’ll get deleted, haha. That said, it’s always possible for things to turn out that way eventually. There are couples who met through dating clubs and got married. People can grow close in any situation, and part of the appeal is seeing how a genuine relationship develops from an arranged meeting. However, since you don’t seem to have any experience, you shouldn’t be overly optimistic. Ideally, this is a place for people who have already had several experiences turning compensated encounters into genuine romantic feelings and can enjoy themselves with some emotional leeway. I’m not saying you need to go looking for that kind of experience now, but keeping that level of awareness in mind will probably improve your odds. On the other hand, it’s also true that some women may respond to an almost crazed desire like, “I really like you!!” rather than to the calm composure of someone who can see the bigger picture. I don’t recommend it, but you might want to keep in mind that it can happen. Taro

If you’re an attractive man, I think it’s possible for things to develop into a relationship or even marriage, whether you meet someone through an exclusive dating club or elsewhere. That said, if you haven’t had those kinds of encounters or opportunities by your age, I imagine it’s going to be quite difficult. You could try participating without making marriage your goal, and simply consider it a lucky bonus if you happen to meet someone good. Also, I think marrying a beautiful woman gives you at least one extra reason to feel happy, even decades later.