I’m a female member.

I’m a male member, BB7. As I’ve mentioned before, because there are always a certain number of men who are absolute lowlifes—like that “Gesu no Kiwami” guy or the Hills toilet guy—even an ordinary, boring man like me gets praised as “gentlemanly” and “wonderful,” and women readily agree to date me. So, honestly, I’m grateful to them（笑）

I agree with Sozetsu’s opinion. I’m Basil, a male member who has recently started to question some of Maezawa’s comments. To add my personal view, if this is part of the club’s PR activities, I wish he would speak a little more from a customer-first perspective—that is, putting male members first, though not exclusively. Then there might be fewer women who ask misguided questions from a man’s perspective, or, as Mac puts it, women you wish would just leave the club. The side effect of saying overly accommodating things is that it attracts more women. Putting this question aside, given his position, even when he’s simply denying something, his comments are taken as the club’s official stance. So unless he’s deliberately trying to stir up controversy, he needs to be a little more careful. He also shares information that we couldn’t know from the outside. Although I do complain about him from time to time, I’m not saying he shouldn’t be around. If anything, I think he’s a valuable contributor.

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here as well. > I hope men who understand what a dating club is really about will join. Exactly. These days, there are all kinds of places, depending on what you’re looking for. There are also places for people who want to jump straight into intimacy. The different purposes are clearly separated. That’s why everyone is better off going somewhere that matches what they want. > If we can only be together for two and a half hours, isn’t it a waste of time? Why don’t we go to a hotel? If this was your first date, I believe you had been asked to keep four hours open—two hours plus another two hours. Perhaps the club had told the man that in advance. But if he said that immediately after meeting you at the meeting place, then it was a violation of the rules. On the other hand, if you were somewhere that offered meals, were free to order whatever you liked, and he brought it up while you were having coffee, then it wasn’t against the rules. And you’re perfectly free to say, “I don’t want to go straight to a hotel after this coffee.” A dating club is about two people who are attracted to each other having a meal, going on a date, and eventually developing an adult relationship (intimate). I can understand not wanting someone to skip all the steps in between. Wanting an allowance but also wanting something more—a genuine emotional connection—is fairly common at dating clubs. As for whether it’s possible to keep men who are only looking for intimacy from joining, I think that would be difficult. All men seem like nice people when they join. Some say that simply being able to have dinner with a young woman is enough, but after joining, they immediately start inviting women to hotels and generate a lot of negative feedback. Even if you try to screen such men out, they hide their true colors, so it’s difficult to see through them. That’s why the only option is to keep submitting feedback to the club. (But expressing your anger can put you at a disadvantage, so the trick is to write about it calmly and matter-of-factly.) If the club receives similar negative feedback from other women, it can forcibly terminate the man’s membership. With only one report, it may seem like the two people simply weren’t compatible. But if three or four women submit negative feedback, then there’s clearly a problem with the man’s behavior. Men who cause problems are eventually removed. Women, however, are held to an even stricter standard. The moment feedback from a man is confirmed to be factual, their membership is forcibly terminated, so please be careful. P.S. This isn’t exactly the same as what I wrote here, but since it’s related, I’ll mention it: the matter of transportation expenses has now been standardized as “a request from the club,” not a rule. Come to think of it, I believe Joe once said, “It’s a request, right?” Amazing—truly amazing. To have understood the wording that precisely so long ago… It’s almost like he had prophetic powers.

I’m だて◎ゆめ, a male member. That’s a good question… In my view, both men and women receive an explanation of what a dating club is when they join, so I assume that everyone joins with an understanding of what a dating club entails. With that in mind, I think each couple enjoys their actual dates while looking for the best possible experience within the conditions they’ve been given. In this case, to be perfectly honest, I think it simply came down to insufficient coordination and confirmation beforehand. You can’t exchange too many detailed messages before meeting, but the club could have helped coordinate things such as the time limit, meeting place, and proposed date plan. As for the suggestion after dinner, I agree with Rin’s comment: “We can only make an effort to create an atmosphere where rude behavior won’t be tolerated, and where even someone vulgar feels motivated to take things slowly and build a relationship with us.” Rather than saying, “That man was ungentlemanly! Get rid of him!!” as Shougeki Papa-katsu Gentleman did, wouldn’t it be more constructive for the questioner to think about how to become the kind of woman for whom even ¥50,000 or ¥100,000 wouldn’t feel like too much for two and a half hours? I think you’re absolutely right. As the saying goes, “Learn from watching others and correct your own behavior.” That applies not only to dating clubs—we all need to keep improving ourselves. Men need to develop the ability to evaluate more strictly, while women should strive to become the kind of women whose value rises under that stricter assessment. Both men and women have to keep putting in the effort, right?（笑）

I’m female member Rin. You went through a really difficult experience. That said, if you’re asking about it retrospectively after reading the blog, rather than asking at the time, how did you actually handle the situation? Did you firmly refuse? Or did you just go along with it? The man’s words were rude, to put it mildly. But it may also be worth carefully reflecting on the circumstances that led him to say—or feel able to say—such things, so you can learn from it going forward. Ultimately, both parties have the right to decide, as well as the right to refuse. That said, since most of Universe Club’s revenue comes from the various payments made by male members, I imagine the company has little choice but to be extremely cautious about withdrawals and refusals. In the end, all we can do is create an atmosphere where rude behavior isn’t tolerated, and make even vulgar people feel that they should take the time to build a relationship with us carefully. I say this as a reminder to myself, too.

I’m Marika, a female member. First of all, if you can’t set aside four hours for the first date, you should say so in advance and confirm something like, “I only have two and a half hours—would a dinner date be okay?” Then this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. If he invited you to an adult relationship from the very first date, you’re probably a Type C or D, which makes it all the more important to clarify this beforehand. If you’re a Type A or B and this happened on your first date, I can certainly understand why you’d be angry. That said, the question is: would that man say the same thing to Haruka Igawa, Satomi Ishihara, or Suzu Hirose? You need to develop an aura that keeps those kinds of men away, and learn how to handle clueless beginners and vulgar old men who say the same thing to every woman. If you’ve been in the dating club longer than the person asking the question, then you should be able to deal with it yourself. If you receive plenty of offers and have no shortage of men to date, you can simply ignore someone like that. To borrow Joe’s words, the men and women in dating clubs are all “dicks and pussies barely wearing clothes.” Still, I do wish men would avoid making invitations like the one described in the question and at least pretend to be gentlemen—and put on some clothes, at least for the first meeting. P.S. Mac, It’s from some column somewhere. I think it was about checking into a hotel with a beautiful woman at the executive counter. Everyone there was a couple with some kind of story, and I believe the expression was “barely…” https://universe-club.jp/column/Mindimage ↑ This was it.

I’m a male member from Seattle. For the most part, I agree with what you said, but did you let her know about the two-and-a-half-hour limit before meeting? If I remember correctly, the rule was four hours.

I’m Flagmaker, a column writer. If you excluded every male member who feels like he’s paying for the act of ejaculation, there probably wouldn’t be many members left, would there? I don’t use disrespectful expressions toward women, but when you get right down to it, I do think they’re “paying for the act of ejaculation.” At the club, they just put on airs and play the part of polite gentlemen. In private, they’re nothing more than creeps sending women messages like, “I want to have sex with you! Please! I’m begging you!” Given that there currently aren’t any “dating club etiquette seminars” for male members, I think it’s inevitable that you’ll sometimes end up meeting men with poor manners. When I explained how dating clubs work to a friend who knows the sex industry inside out, he said, “Isn’t that just private prostitution?” I replied, “No, that’s not what it is. It’s more complicated than that…” But he just said, “No, that’s exactly what private prostitution is, lol,” and didn’t understand at all. Unfortunately, I think there are male members who see it that way. Treat it as a bad match and move on to the next one. Wishing you all the best going forward.

I’m It’s Me, a male member. I think you’re better off simply not dealing with men like that. The more you worry about them, the more stress they’ll cause you, and it’ll probably just end up wasting your time and energy. Just as male members have different values and desires, female members do too. With more than 7,000 women registered, there may well be female members who are looking for the kind of men you described. If the club’s service is about “matching,” then it’s important for female members to tell the club in advance, “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in men with these kinds of goals or attitudes,” while male members should clearly state, “I’m looking for someone who would be willing to go on this kind of date.” I think that would also improve the accuracy of the matches. As for the amount of money, personally, I don’t think there’s much point in revealing your hand before a match is finalized. It seems better to negotiate based on how things feel when you actually meet. > “You can get a cabaret hostess to go out with you after work for 10,000 yen, so I can’t pay that much.” That may indeed be a pretty insensitive thing to say. Even with a cabaret hostess, I imagine you’d normally have to visit the club several times, keep requesting her, occasionally take her out for a dinner date or give her a small gift, invest a certain amount in both her and the club, and build up some trust before you could get to the point of “10,000 yen for an after-hours date.” …Though maybe I’m still pretty naive for thinking that way（笑） I think someone who says, “You can get a cabaret hostess for 10,000 yen after work,” is either bragging or lying, so you really don’t need to worry about it!

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. With C-type arrangements—or any type, really, if you look at them from an outsider’s perspective—it’s probably unavoidable that they seem almost like the sex industry for both men and women. That said, there are advantages for both sides compared with working in the sex industry. For men, there are many more benefits than there would be with the sex industry, while for women, there are advantages that make it feel like it isn’t sex work. So, if the relationship continues, it ends up being a better job than working in the sex industry.