I’m a male member. This isn’t a question, but a request.

I’m a male member, BB7. If you search for “highly educated,” you should get a few results. I’m sure there are men who like highly educated women. That said, every once in a while, you’ll come across a woman who’s only good at studying—someone in the gray area, with zero communication skills and no empathy.

Joe here. As usual, I’m replying late. Joe likes intelligent women too (though women with a naughty side are even better). But don’t you agree that academic credentials and intelligence don’t necessarily go hand in hand? And is it really fair to expect the club to handle absolutely everything? I think it’s better to start with what you can do yourself. For example, make your profile public and write, “Seeking an intelligent woman,” or disclose your own educational background. Women can’t send offers, but they can still press “Like,” so that might give you some useful feedback. Among the women Joe has sent offers to, there have been several who were very intelligent, but all of them had fairly ordinary educational backgrounds by society’s standards. I hope you find a wonderful match.

I’m Rin, a female member. This is one of those fields where it’s hard to truly understand the level of difficulty unless you’ve actually gone through the so-called “exam war” yourself. Some people consider MARCH highly competitive, while in Kansai they might regard universities like K Gakuin or Doshisha as high-level. Even for the same profession, there can be an enormous difference in academic standing depending on whether someone graduated from a national or private university. The academic rankings published for convenience don’t always reflect true difficulty, either. Some include difficulty levels skewed by the number of applicants. And just because someone graduated from a difficult university, does that mean they’re considerate? Not necessarily. Does it mean they can hold clever, engaging conversations? Not necessarily, in my opinion. A classmate who was told, “If you can’t handle it, give up and aim for the University of Tokyo track; if you don’t like that, then get in easily and come back,” went on to become an interesting, down-to-earth person and achieve a great deal professionally. On the other hand, people who chose their path simply because they happened to be smart can sometimes be… well, underwhelming. In the end, it really comes down to the individual. Female members come from a very wide range of backgrounds and have all kinds of histories. Some may not even speak Japanese properly, may not know how to dress or behave appropriately for the occasion, or may lack basic manners like greetings and expressing thanks. If you want to avoid people like that, it might be best to ask the staff. Even if you lump everyone together as a highly educated woman, I think it depends on what kind of person you’re actually looking for. Otherwise, you could end up becoming the kind of crazy older man who says, “I don’t want someone like you throwing yourself into a club for some paltry allowance,” while demanding that she give her love exclusively to him for pocket change. Incidentally, when you’re surrounded by highly educated men, you become even more attracted to their character and courage. Someone who talks big but is a coward underneath would never become close to me privately. Rather than simply wanting someone more highly educated than I am, I prefer someone who has skills and knowledge I don’t, and whom I can genuinely respect.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. When you say “highly educated,” I guess that means the former Imperial Universities, the top two of the former Big Three Commercial Universities, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Yokohama National University… Maybe Waseda and Keio as well… Something along those lines, I suppose? If we’re talking about highly competitive universities, you could narrow it down to about eight national universities from that list. Hmm? Is that a little outdated? Apparently, these days, one in every 500 people can get into the University of Tokyo. I realized I’ve never really noticed or cared about the hashtags, and then I saw that there aren’t any in Kansai. I didn’t notice them when I made an offer to a girl from Nagoya either. P.S. Mac, are you from one of the former Imperial Universities mentioned above? Since you seem to have a fairly high deviation score… Ah, although Hokkaido University is technically one of the former Imperial Universities, it’s a little different from the others when it comes to being highly educated… The scale there is just vast… P.S. Rin, >Rather than someone who’s more highly educated than me, I’d prefer someone I can respect—someone who has learned things I can’t do or don’t know. That’s so true. I end up looking for things I don’t have myself. So I’m not particularly interested in women with high academic backgrounds; if anything, I tend to be more attracted to the opposite. I’ve always respected people who were good at sports or singing. I find people appealing when they have something I don’t. P.P.S. One in 500 was incorrect. That was apparently the figure in the past. With the number of children having nearly halved, I think we’re now living in an era where about one in 200 or 300 people can get into the University of Tokyo. Sorry, I’m a little fuzzy on the exact numbers…

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here as well. “Highly educated”? What exactly counts as “highly educated”? People seem to interpret it differently, and we’ve even had staff members get chewed out by male members over it. In Japan, does that mean only the University of Tokyo? Or the Big Six universities in Tokyo? And if so, what about universities in Kansai? As you can see, “highly educated” means different things to different people. One staff member got reprimanded after writing that MARCH graduates were highly educated. The member said, “MARCH isn’t highly educated!” It’s a surprisingly difficult issue. That said, we don’t disclose the names of the universities anyway. Come to think of it, President Kida once said, “Maybe we should create a club that markets itself on members’ educational backgrounds.” But the idea disappeared just like that.

I’m Basil, a male member. I agree with you. Even when they’re saying the same thing, each staff member uses slightly different wording—for example, “high difficulty”—which makes it hard to search for. Though I suppose that’s probably difficult to avoid in hectic Tokyo.