About women’s membership tiers: I’ve heard that some Gold members are occasionally on par with Platinum or Black. What’s the difference between women who are made Platinum or Black based on the staff’s preferences and those who are made Gold based on the staff’s preferences?

I’m a BB7 male member. This is just my personal impression, but generally, the class ratings based on looks, body type, overall profile, and so on seem to be fairly consistent regardless of which staff member conducts the interview. Still, every now and then, I come across someone whose rating makes me think, “Really?” I suspect there’s probably something about them that strikes a chord with the staff, causing them to see the person in a more favorable light. It could be their personality, what led them to start papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan), or perhaps an unfortunate background. Maybe staff members sometimes rate someone more highly if she resembles them in personality, values, or appearance, or if the interview is easy and enjoyable and they simply hit it off. In that sense, women with strong communication skills who know how to win over the interviewer may receive higher ratings—and the opposite is probably true as well.

I’m Saito, a column writer♪ It’s hard to put into words, but I’ve never met a woman in the Platinum class and thought, “She really belongs in the Black class.” I believe Platinum means there’s a reason she hasn’t been placed in Black. Beyond that, I think it comes down to personal preferences and type. Conversely, there have been times when I’ve thought, “She’s in Black, but maybe she’s more Platinum…” However, it seems those women actually receive very few offers. I think women’s ranks are determined by the number of offers they receive, but members tend to assume that a woman’s rank is based solely on how beautiful she is.

I’m a male member named Basil. When a female staff member conducts the interview, I feel she may be more lenient with women she personally gets along with and more perfunctory with those she doesn’t. On the other hand, women tend to feel more comfortable talking to female staff, making it easier to draw out their honest opinions than with male staff. Male staff also have the advantage of observing women from a male member’s perspective. Ideally, male and female staff would work in pairs when dealing with female members: the female staff member would mainly conduct the interview, while the male staff member would also be involved in assigning the woman’s class. Of course, this system would be impossible at small regional branches, and even in Tokyo, there are probably so many women coming in to register that the staff simply can’t keep up.

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here as well. > What’s the difference between women who become Platinum or Black based on a staff member’s preferences, and those who become Gold based on a staff member’s preferences? The wording of the question is a little unclear, but taking it literally, “staff preferences” can be understood as the staff’s standards. Since those standards are also the company’s standards, the difference would be that Black women receive offers from Black men, while Gold women receive offers from Gold-level men and above. In other words, women are assigned to each class based on factors such as appearance, personality, and occupation, according to the company’s standards. However, you also mentioned: > Apparently, there are occasionally Gold women who are on par with Platinum or Black women. Taking that into account, suppose a woman is considered Platinum by most men but is placed in Gold. The staff member who interviewed her may think she could qualify for Platinum, but then worry, “What if she gets no offers at all as Platinum?” Why would they think that? Because there have been women in the past who were placed in Platinum and ended up receiving zero offers. Experiences like that can make staff more hesitant in their judgment. Another possibility is that the staff member sees her as somewhere between Platinum and Gold and wants to give her the best chance of receiving lots of offers. When forced to choose between the two, they may end up putting her in Gold. The result can be a flood of offers. In that case, it means she wasn’t really in the middle of the two classes—she was a woman who would have received offers even as Platinum—so the class assignment was a mistake. But even after realizing the mistake, staff may hesitate to move her up for a while because they’re worried about complaints from male members. (I don’t really worry about reading the room, so I raise the class right away.) That’s the explanation for women who are clearly Platinum but have been placed in Gold. Of course, there are also cases where the staff’s standards for women differ from those of the average male member. The reverse can happen too. A woman may seem so wonderful personality-wise to the staff that their perception becomes biased, making her appear more attractive than she would to other people. Anyone interested in optical illusions probably knows how easily the brain can be fooled, but strong positive bias toward someone with a good personality can lead to exactly that.

I’m a male member, Paper Airplane. When men look at other men, they can only judge to a certain extent whether someone is handsome or good-looking. Anyone can tell that Ryoma Takeuchi, Osamu Mukai, and Yutaka Takeuchi are exceptionally handsome, so they’d probably be placed in Black. But I honestly don’t understand why someone like Takeru Sato is so popular, so I’d probably place him in Gold or Platinum. From a woman’s perspective, there’s no way she’d put Takeru Sato in Gold, right? Let alone Platinum… probably. That’s why, when men look at other men, most of them seem merely decent-looking, and it’s hard to tell where the line for unattractive really is. So female interviewers judging other women are basically the same—they can’t possibly know for sure. From a woman’s perspective, almost everyone probably looks cute, so selecting people must be extremely difficult. That’s why ratings sometimes fluctuate anywhere from Black to Gold—or Standard in the Kanto area. There are also cases where a good girl ends up in Gold because the male staff judge more strictly. P.S. Mack, If there’s one thing that could bring down the ever-expanding Universe, it would be if the majority of its female members came from the nightlife industry. Women don’t want men who come looking for that kind of thing, and men aren’t looking for seasoned professionals from that world either. So there needs to remain a clear separation from places that focus mainly on drinking and having a lively time. Men and women in the “loud” and “quiet” categories are completely different types of people. That’s why even if someone hides her background in the nightlife industry, if people start wondering whether she’s from that world, her class will be lowered. Sometimes they also bring up their attitude toward money, perhaps to signal this to men who would rather avoid that kind of woman.