This is Mac. Tajima, Maezawa, or anyone on the staff—could you please explain, to the extent you’re able, why answers in this question box aren’t being displayed? Also, could you at least offer a few words of encouragement to the respondents, who are currently enduring anxiety as if they were trapped in a mine after a cave-in?! Will the answers we’ve continued writing ever be displayed? I find this incredibly disrespectful to both the people asking questions and those answering them.

I’m Kida, CEO of Universe. To everyone who regularly submits questions to our anonymous Q&A box, and to all the members and column writers who provide thoughtful, heartfelt—and sometimes refreshingly blunt—answers to the countless questions: On behalf of all our employees and everyone involved, thank you. I’m sure many of you look forward to opening the anonymous Q&A box. I had decided to appoint Tajima as the administrator, but we realized that he already has a great many important tasks related to our internal Creative team and ultimately wouldn’t be able to fulfill the responsibilities of running the platform. That was my mistake in judgment. I’m very sorry. (Sorry, Tajima.) (And sorry to Aso as well.) After discussing the matter with everyone involved, we decided that Maezawa was the right person for the role after all. The reason questions and answers weren’t displayed over the past few days was that the administrator change had been left unresolved, and the Creative staff couldn’t make any decisions. From now on, I’d like Maezawa to manage things fairly, based on the rules. Once again, I sincerely apologize for the discourtesy and inconvenience caused by the management team. I’m especially grateful to Mac and all the other frequent contributors. Thanks to your efforts, we’ve been able to keep the anonymous Q&A board going. If there are any management issues in the future, please don’t hesitate to point them out clearly. From the club’s side, Maezawa will operate the board fairly according to the rules, without giving special treatment to particular contributors. If you believe something is wrong, I hope you’ll express your opinion fully. I’d also like to continue answering questions myself as one of the contributors. The following is just an aside. I feel that the Q&A box has an incredible amount of power. Mac is already something like the HIKAKIN—or perhaps the Raphael—of this industry. I’m sure that before long, whenever a cheating scandal breaks in the entertainment or political world, the media will start seeking comments from people like Saito, Joe, Mac, and Papua. People like Horie or ZOZO’s Maezawa will probably even drop by to write things like, “Back in the day, IT startup executives didn’t think twice about group sex.” Because, in the end, everyone wants to hear those kinds of stories. The public is so fascinated by them that they can’t resist juicy, schadenfreude-inducing stories—like a supposedly wholesome actress or actor having an affair. I didn’t manage to write anything particularly interesting this time, but I’ll try harder next time!

I’m Meg, a female member. Mac, I’m truly touched by your kindness and generosity. Thank you so much.

A Confused Sixty-Something I really didn’t want to post this, but I was stunned to see back-office staff casually posting answers alongside the column writers in the displayed Q&A. Don’t you realize that you’re posting answers without even knowing when answers from regular users will be displayed? Don’t you feel any sense of responsibility? Nobody wants to take responsibility… How pathetic.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. In these times, when people are held responsible for just about everything, do you think the staff also feel the weight of that responsibility? The more the staff oversee and respond to questions—or even get involved—the more responsibility they seem to take on for the anonymous question box. As club users, I imagine most of us would rather have the staff spend their time improving other services than be bothered with this. So perhaps it would be better to leave it entirely to the candid, unofficial respondents that readers want. Since that’s the whole point, they could simply say they didn’t know or weren’t involved, and bear no responsibility. I just hope this doesn’t become a burden for anyone, and that responsibility doesn’t end up being assigned too clearly.