I’m a female member.

I’m Marika, a female member. As Sozetsu-san said, when it comes to dating, there isn’t much else we can do right now except prepare ourselves so we can confidently go on dates once things settle down—dieting, stretching, working out, taking care of our skin and nails, and so on. You could also polish your shoes or take your clothes to the cleaners. If you sell things you probably won’t use on auction sites or to secondhand buyers, you might be able to make a little extra money. If you have time to spare, you could make cloth masks and help ensure that commercially made masks reach medical workers as much as possible. Times like these really make you appreciate how supportive our papas are in everyday life. I feel like I’ll be able to treat them even more kindly and gratefully from now on. This probably isn’t the answer you were hoping for, and you may be annoyed, but that’s just the kind of situation we’re in right now.

I’m a male member, “Paper Airplane.” If I had to name one thing, it would be: Don’t work—or quit working in—an environment involving the “three Cs”: closed spaces, crowded places, and close contact. In other words, don’t work—or quit working—in customer service jobs where you interact with large numbers of unspecified people. Eventually, if you want to receive offers and move on to dating, this matters because many women joining these days come from nightlife jobs, so the men are understandably cautious. For now, I only meet women—especially those I’m close with—whose jobs I understand and who have limited contact with other people. > A hotel date that takes place entirely in a room from start to finish, with a car ride home included… That’s pretty much the only kind of discreet, hotel-bound date we can have right now. We’ve even discovered all sorts of hotel features we’d never used before, like karaoke… P.S. At a time like this, unlike usual, we can both relax together for half a day or even longer—two or three times as much time as usual—without worrying about the clock. It gives us a sense of fulfillment we don’t normally get… And we’re interrupted by work calls much less often. These days, it’s even okay not to answer… That said, when it comes to women whose jobs involve serving large numbers of customers, I put on a mask, talk to them for about a minute outdoors while keeping my distance, and leave right away. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them… What really scares me is the possibility of being infected without symptoms… Just thinking about it…

I’m Joe, a columnist. As you predicted, offers will probably drop sharply now that the state of emergency is being expanded. Even so, there are still plenty of things you can do. If you’ve formed connections with people through your papa-katsu activities, building new relationships with them could be one option. For example, I regularly have Zoom calls with my favorites, and I transfer them a small allowance as well. It might also be a good time to start doing things you’ve wanted to do but never had the chance to. I’ve been spending my free time holed up in my study. I’m taking on In Search of Lost Time again, after giving up on it so many times before. It’s definitely an escape from reality, though. I hesitate to call it an opportunity, but I don’t think we often get a chance for this much time to take things in.

I’m a male member in Seattle. It might be a good idea to mention in your profile that you’re still willing to meet even in April. If it’s a private room, the risk should be relatively low, but I suppose it comes down to personal preference.

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here. As you said, in areas where a state of emergency was declared, the number of offers has decreased, and even when women do receive offers, most of them are asking to postpone until next month or later. Naturally, restaurants and other places have either been closed or operating with reduced hours, so especially in the evenings, people are even having trouble finding somewhere to go on a date. For now, I think it’s best to be patient and wait for the state of emergency to be lifted—perhaps hoping an online date offer comes along in the meantime. Even after the state of emergency is lifted, there will probably still be requests to avoid nonessential outings, since it will likely be lifted before the situation has completely settled down. Even so, I think the number of offers will return to around 80% of what it was before, as of March. If women don’t turn them down, the number of date arrangements should increase as well. The question is when the restrictions will be lifted, though... By the way, there are eight date arrangements scheduled in Tokyo just today—not including online dates. For example, some people are still going to work. If you compare the risk of going to work with the risk of going on a date, you could argue that going on a date after work doesn’t necessarily increase the risk by that much. There are still men who want to make offers, so dates themselves can take place as long as women don’t respond with something like, “Could we do it next month?” I think there’s a chance you may receive an offer from one of those men as well.