I’m a male member in my 50s who’s been registered for almost three years.

I’m Joe, a column writer. In my columns, it may look like I’m being thoroughly fleeced, but that’s actually the exception. Eighty percent of the offers I make end with dinner and just transportation expenses. When it comes to allowances, I follow Mac’s example and keep them uniform. The difference between me and Mac is that getting into bed with someone is rare for me, so that standard allowance doesn’t come into play very often. That said, when I’m completely wrapped around someone’s finger, like Mai or Princess Nana, I’ll go along with whatever they want. But that really is the exception. So if people think I’m driving up the going rate, I find that quite offensive. Besides, what does “the going rate” even mean? It’s not a phrase I particularly like.

This is columnist Saito♪. To the person asking: What are you talking about?! They’ve dropped dramatically in recent years! If you feel that allowances have gone up, it’s probably one of these: 1. You’re only making offers to women who just joined (and are misunderstanding the situation). 2. You yourself have become less appealing to women. 3. You’re only targeting the very top tier (ironically, the 10-million-yen-plus class has exceptionally low rates). It has to be one of those. From the women’s perspective, allowances have really fallen to a heartbreaking degree.

I’m だて◎ゆめ, a male member. I’ve only been a member for a year, but I do feel that the allowances being asked for are quite high. That said, it seems there are plenty of men who can afford to pay, so I assume that’s what’s setting the going rate. Also, if a dating club is considered better than the alternatives, it makes sense from a market perspective that more attractive women would gather there. In that sense, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for the rates to remain higher than elsewhere. Still, it’s a tough environment for a low-income member like me. And when I hear from the women, they’re working hard to maintain these relationships, so they feel they should probably be receiving more—their expectations are understandably high. That actually has something in common with my own way of thinking: after listening to my story and using it to improve their future, I sometimes wonder if I should be the one receiving a lesson fee. It’s a pretty difficult issue in its own way.

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here. > It feels like the allowances women are asking for lately have been skyrocketing… I don’t think they’ve risen particularly sharply. In fact, there are far more women doing papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) than there were three years ago, so based on market principles, I would think there’s actually more downward pressure on allowances.