How often is it appropriate to have new photos taken?

Mamíya from Universe Tokyo here. The reason we recommend retaking your photos is to avoid situations where someone who’s been registered for a long time receives an offer after ages, only for the other person to show up looking completely different. I assume you’re considering new photos because your overall vibe has changed, but everyone’s different, so come in whenever you feel it’s the right time for a reshoot! If you contact your branch, they may say, “Isn’t it a little too soon? You don’t need to do it yet.” If that happens, tell them, “I’m saying this because I’m not getting any offers with my current photos. Isn’t that your lack of ability?” That said, getting new photos doesn’t guarantee that offers will come in. Quite often, people end up preferring the old photos. It’s simply human nature for men to notice new women more than women whose profiles have merely been updated. One tip for your reshoot is to choose a location different from the branch where you had your interview. If your interview was in Shinjuku, try Shibuya next time. I also recommend retaking outdoor photos during the daytime if your previous ones were taken indoors.

Imai, the Tokyo Chief at Universe Club, will answer as well. As a general rule, we ask members to retake their photos once every six months. However, if we look at someone’s photos and think, “It would be better to retake these,” we may contact them individually, regardless of whether six months have passed. If your hairstyle or appearance has changed significantly, please consult your assigned branch first. (Depending on the staff’s judgment, we may ask you to post a selfie on My Profile instead of having your photos retaken.)

I’m Kazu, a male member. Here’s how I tend to perceive different photo-update patterns: Frequent reshoots: she seems strong-willed. A reshoot every six months: normal. More than a year between reshoots: I don’t know whether she’s simply laid-back or busy, but she seems low on motivation. That’s just the impression I get. Of course, everyone has their own circumstances, and you can’t really know what someone is like until you meet her, so these are nothing more than preconceived impressions. Even when the club’s comments say something like “She seems strong-willed,” I’ve met women who turned out to be really great. Conversely, some high-spec women receive so many offers that they don’t bother with reshoots and remain long-term members with short profiles. There have been times when someone didn’t live up to my expectations and I felt disappointed, but I’ve never had an unpleasant experience on a club date. So I generally read profiles positively; it’s just that, when I look at the pace of reshoots, those are the thoughts that come to mind.

I’m Maezawa from the president’s office, and I’ll answer this as well. Some branches are completely tied up with interviews and arranging dates, so we generally ask for new photos about once every six months. That said, some branches have more availability, and even busy branches may approve a reshoot before six months have passed if they happen to have some free time. So the first question is whether the branch is willing to handle reshoots every two or three months. If they agree, I think reshooting every two or three months is perfectly fine. For reference, what does a busy branch look like? For example, suppose two staff members are conducting interviews from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. If each interview takes an hour, that means 18 interviews, one after another, with no breaks. In reality, though, they may have around 25 interviews scheduled—not just 18—because some people don’t show up. But sometimes almost everyone does show up. When that happens, even though there are only two staff members, there may be around four women waiting inside the office for their interviews. It’s like one of those restaurants with a line out the door. Things have probably improved now, but even so, when a branch is especially busy, they may ask that reshoots be limited to once every six months. It varies from branch to branch, though.

I’m “Paper Airplane,” a male member. When I had just joined, I once made an offer to a woman who had had her photos retaken two or three months after joining. She said that she rarely got to see the men she met again and that the relationships didn’t continue. In my case, though, we parted within an hour—the shortest encounter I’ve ever had. I was also the only man whose contact information she didn’t ask for. However, that was because her photos and her actual appearance were so completely different that they looked like two different people. (That had never happened to me at Universe before.) It wasn’t because she had had her photos retaken. After getting new photos, I think you can aim for offers mainly from new members. If you have your photos retaken too frequently, people may start recognizing you, but I think you can still target new members. That said, neither men nor women are there just to play at making offers, so ideally, photo retakes should become less frequent over time. If possible, taking a break seems preferable—without withdrawing completely until you’re truly ready to leave.