Mamiya, Senior Manager at East Customer Loyalty Group, will answer this.
Be careful with retaking your photos—if you get it wrong, it can make you look like someone who’s trying too hard.
On the men’s member page, you’ll be listed as a “re-uploaded woman.” Men who browse the member page are hunters, and honestly, I think their memories may be even better than the staff’s.
Men like someone new. Unfortunately, you can’t compete with brand-new women.
They may start thinking, “She gets re-uploaded all the time. I guess she isn’t getting any offers.”
Ideally, you should only be re-uploaded when your six-month continuation is confirmed.
Maezawa from the Business Planning Office here as well.
> Does that mean only women who specifically request it themselves can have their photos retaken?
I think it’s best to assume that’s the case.
Even after six months, staff generally won’t contact you to let you know it’s time for a reshoot. Usually, they only check whether you want to continue.
That said, staff may occasionally reach out and ask something like, “Would you like to have your photos retaken?”—it’s more or less at their discretion, and there doesn’t seem to be any specific standard.
So I think it’s better to request a reshoot yourself.
Incidentally, I don’t think the “reshoot after six months” policy was actually explained to women as an official rule. In the first place, I’m not even sure whether six months is really a rule.
My guess is that in Tokyo, the staff are simply too busy. Replies to offers are already running late, and so many interviews keep coming in that several women sometimes end up scheduled at the same time.
If reshoot requests started coming in one after another, they wouldn’t be able to handle offers or new interviews. So they probably started saying, “Please wait about six months,” and over time it somehow became understood as “after six months.”
Because of that, I imagine branches with more availability may allow reshoots before six months have passed.
Also, “six months” probably doesn’t mean exactly six full months. It seems like a reshoot might be fine even in the fifth month, so it may be worth asking around then.
I also discovered that some branches had been closing the accounts of women who hadn’t received any offers after six months. If you haven’t received any offers, I’m starting to think it might be better to voluntarily leave in the fifth month, then resume your activities after about six months—but I’m not sure what the right answer is.
For example, if your account is closed after six months, you may lose the chance to register again. But if you voluntarily leave after five months, it seems you should be able to re-register later without any problems.
That said, many branches don’t close women’s accounts after six months, so in those cases, it may be better to stay registered and wait…
I’m Seattle, a male member.
I’ll leave the correct answer to the staff, but here’s my guess.
Women who receive lots of offers will probably be approached by the management about retaking their photos without having to ask, since they’re profitable members.
Women who receive a decent number of offers will likely be contacted about renewing for another six months as staff members get free, and if they have time, they may also suggest retaking their photos.
Women who receive no offers—or hardly any—don’t contribute much financially, so they’ll probably only get a routine renewal notice, with new photos offered only to those who request them. Maybe that’s how it works.
Even motivated female members may only get a routine renewal unless they bring it up themselves.
