I’m a female member in my forties, and I really enjoy reading this anonymous Q&A box.

I’m Saito, the columnist♪ I’m flattered by your kind words. If one of my comments ever causes an uproar, I’ll make a graceful exit, but until then, I hope you’ll continue to enjoy my posts. I think of it as: “Compensation for not taking things seriously.” I believe emotions don’t have a single right answer—they vary from person to person. And breaking up is many times harder. Since I enter relationships with the understanding that they will eventually end, I generally try to make sure the other person doesn’t feel they’ve lost out. That said, money has no intentions of its own, so it can be interpreted in all sorts of ways. As Leaf-san said, someone who approaches this with the mindset of “making money” could never completely fool a papa who is several times more generous. However, there are also papas who mistake a dating club for a call-girl service, and if both sides’ expectations happen to match, then I suppose that’s the end of the matter. If Universe is operating by receiving money from its male members, then calling them “customers” is reasonable. (Though I assume the question is whether it’s appropriate to make that public.) The kind of thinking expressed by the person who asked this question is not unusual—it’s perfectly normal. People with common sense like that have no need to post about it. I think it’s the people who lack even that basic discernment—those who post things like, “I had tea with an old guy online and got ¥30,000!”—who end up writing about it, whether it’s true or not.