So far, I’ve received offers from six people, but they were all papas from outside my prefecture. Are there really fewer male supporters in rural areas??

Are they coming from a neighboring prefecture or from farther away? If you’re in a rural area, it seems quite possible that most of them would be from neighboring prefectures.

This was before COVID, but I live in Tokyo and have made offers to women in Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. Women in Fukuoka and Sapporo told me that they often receive offers from men coming from Tokyo for business trips and the like. It’s great that you received six offers.

In regional areas, the population is smaller, and there are fewer places to go on dates. So perhaps male members want to avoid dating local women in their hometowns to keep their papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) activities from being discovered, and instead date women from outside the prefecture in other areas. At least, that may be what’s going through their minds. I once heard this from a monk in Nara: Monks from Nara go out in Kyoto, while monks from Kyoto go out in Nara. It’s me.

I don’t think there are necessarily fewer opportunities just because you’re outside a major city. Unless you’re in Niigata, right? Niigata probably does have fewer. I’ve asked about things like the ratio of offers from men in my area versus men from elsewhere, as well as the number of male members, to analyze the situation. There were more local male members than I expected, and my impression was that offers from local men were overwhelmingly more common.

Thank you for your question. I’ll answer as Maezawa as well. Your question seems to imply a connection between receiving offers from outside the prefecture and having fewer members in regional areas, but I’m not sure that assumption is correct. For example, the Sendai branch has fewer members than Tokyo, but I don’t think it receives many more offers from members outside Miyagi Prefecture. In fact, I believe most offers come from members within Miyagi. Another example: women registered with the Nagoya branch are usually approached by men from Aichi Prefecture. I haven’t heard that they receive particularly many offers from men outside the prefecture. I imagine the same is true of other regional branches. Regional branches are generally located in the most populated area nearby, so they have more members from within the prefecture and fewer from outside it. With that in mind, when you say “regional branches,” do you perhaps mean branches located near the Tokyo metropolitan area? For example, if you register with the Omiya, Chiba, or Yokohama branch near Tokyo, you’re likely to receive more offers from members in Tokyo. In that case, it makes sense that most offers would come from outside the prefecture. However, many people in Omiya, Chiba, and Yokohama commute to or attend school in Tokyo, so going on dates in Tokyo is probably quite normal for them. Of course, there are people who don’t, but I think most people would consider dating in Tokyo perfectly ordinary. Also, some women may have their interviews in Tokyo but register with the Omiya, Chiba, or Yokohama branch. In cases like this, saying that regional branches have few registrations could easily give people the wrong impression. In general, branches located next to the Tokyo metropolitan area tend to receive more offers from Tokyo—and the same applies to branches near Osaka.

Yes, both the overall population and the number of members tend to be lower in rural areas, regardless of gender.