A friend joined Universe, but shouldn’t I receive a referral fee? Is the person who made the referral expected to ask for it? I’m posting this while assuming the answer will probably be, “Please contact the club directly.”

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here, adding a note. Oh? Regarding Nonta’s case, there are actually two types of referrals. If you refer a woman through the friend-referral program, you can receive ¥5,000–¥10,000 even if you haven’t registered as an affiliate (it’s usually ¥5,000 ＞＜). It’s not much, but that’s the standard reward for a friend referral. I’m not sure whether Nonta said they didn’t want that, but perhaps our staff didn’t explain it clearly enough. I’m sorry.

I’m Maezawa from the Business Planning Office, and I’ll answer as well. Unless your friend clearly told the staff who referred them, it’s impossible to tell whether they were actually referred or simply applied on their own. For example, if they were asked, “Why did you decide to join this club?” and answered: “A friend of mine is a member and recommended it, so I came. I think their name was [XX].” the staff might interpret that as, “They came because their friend was a member,” rather than as an official referral. In that case, they would be treated as an individual applicant. The best approach would be to contact the staff in advance and ask something like: “I’d like to refer someone named [XX]. What should I do?” The staff would then guide your friend through the interview process and tell you, “Thank you for the referral. If they join, this is how it will work.” I believe that may be what happened here. However, if you really discussed this beforehand, the staff member who conducted the interview may remember hearing your friend’s name, so could you please contact the staff? Normally, mentioning it afterward wouldn’t be accepted, but if the interviewer did hear your friend’s name, there may still be a chance.

East Customer Loyalty Group Aizawa from Tokyo here, representing our Tokyo office. When your friend reserved the interview, or on the day itself, did they mention that they had been referred by you? If they simply said, “I heard about it from a friend,” then we can’t tell whether they heard about it from a member or merely from a non-member who knew about papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan), so there isn’t much we can do in that case… You mentioned that you thought we would probably respond by saying, “Please have the referrer contact the club.” Generally, if the referral is brought up afterward, we have no way of knowing whether the person actually joined through your referral. (Someone might learn later that their friend has joined and then claim it was a referral.) However, if there’s anything that concerns you or doesn’t sit right with you, please let us know, along with the name of the person you referred to the club, just as you suggested.