I had an interview with Universe Club last week.

I’m Maezawa from the president’s office, and I’ll answer this as well. If you have a similar question in the future, it would make it easier to investigate if you mention which branch you interviewed at. > I was told that I would be contacted within a week if I was accepted, but that I wouldn’t be contacted if I wasn’t. According to the reports from our previous branch investigation, very few branches were giving that exact explanation. It may be helpful if you specify which branch it was. Incidentally, the document sent by the department that handled the interview scheduling still appears to say: “If you are accepted, we will contact you within seven days of your interview.” As for acceptance or rejection, the branch where you interviewed will contact you. Depending on the branch, they may say that if you don’t hear from them by the end of the day, you were not accepted. Some branches also contact applicants to inform them when they have not been accepted. > When I checked LINE today, the account had disappeared from my friends list. I’ve never heard of an account simply disappearing, so I don’t know what caused it. Normally, LINE accounts don’t disappear no matter what you do. (Though that can be a problem in its own way.) > In this case, is it correct to assume that I wasn’t accepted? Since I’m not sure what it means for the account to disappear, please contact the branch where you interviewed. It’s also possible that the branch is having trouble because they can’t contact you to complete your registration. --- Several respondents have pointed this out, so… At the time, this was only a preliminary update, but here is the full response, including the branches whose information wasn’t available in time. (When I looked again, there was only one branch that hadn’t responded. It’s amazing that there’s a branch completely ignoring President Kida, isn’t it? [laughs]) The impression I get is that quite a few branches explicitly inform applicants when they haven’t been accepted, say they’ll contact them by the end of the day, or otherwise make it possible to know the result without waiting a full week. **Branch A** If you are not accepted, they tell you, “If you haven’t heard from us by 8:00 p.m., you were not accepted.” **Branch B** If you are not accepted, they either tell you in person during the interview, or say, “If you haven’t heard from us by 8:00 p.m. the following day, you were not accepted.” **Branch C** They say, “If you are accepted, we will contact you by 8:00 p.m. today.” **Branch D** They say, “If you haven’t heard from us by 8:00 p.m. today, you were not accepted.” (For interviews held in the evening, the deadline is 8:00 p.m. the following day.) If you are not accepted, they additionally either apologize for not being able to contact you or tell you in person that you were not accepted. **Branch E** They say, “If you haven’t heard from us by 8:00 or 10:00 p.m. today, you were not accepted.” **Branch F** If you are accepted, they tell you on the spot and verbally say, “We’ll send your login information within a week starting today.” They also send the same message via LINE. If you are not accepted, they verbally say: “If you are accepted, we’ll contact you by 8:00 p.m. today. If things don’t work out, we won’t contact you, so please understand.” **Branch G** If accepted: “We’ll send your login information within a week.” If not accepted: “If you are accepted, we’ll contact you by 8:00 p.m. today. If you are not accepted, we won’t contact you, so please understand.” **Branch H** They say, “If you are accepted, we’ll contact you by 8:00 p.m. today. If you don’t hear from us, it means things didn’t work out.” **Branch I** Applicants who are accepted are told, “We’ll send your login information within a week.” Applicants who are not accepted are told, “We’ll let you know the result later,” and are informed within two or three days that they were not accepted. **Branch J** They may say, “Please understand that if you haven’t heard from us within three days, you were not accepted.” However, they also send notice of rejection after the interview, usually the following day or after allowing some time to pass. **Branch K** If accepted: “We’ll send your login information within a week.” If not accepted: They either say so on the spot or tell the applicant, “We will only contact you within three days from today if you passed.” **Branch L** Successful applicants are told, “We’ll send your login information within a week.” Applicants who are not accepted are not given a specific date. Instead, they are told, “We’ll let you know the result later,” and are informed via LINE or another method on the day of the interview or the following day that they were not accepted. **Branch M** They say, “If you haven’t heard from us by [time] today, you were not accepted.” (In some cases, they set the deadline as [time] the following day.)

I’m Kamihikōki, a male club member. Regarding communication about acceptance… Since this is about bringing men and women together, it’s a difficult matter, isn’t it? The difference from an ordinary job interview is that the staff conduct interviews hoping to accept everyone. Normally, they would narrow candidates down based on a limited number of openings or certain criteria. But because this is about connecting men and women, I imagine the staff want to accept every woman they feel might possibly receive an offer, without letting anyone slip through the cracks. That’s why most people are accepted. Still, on extremely rare occasions, there are women whom the staff simply cannot imagine receiving an offer, no matter what they do. Even while thinking they may have to give up, the staff desperately search for some glimmer of hope during the interview—some tiny possibility that it might lead to an offer—and try not to give up, wondering whether professional photos might somehow transform her appearance. But even after investing that much time and effort, they still can’t bring themselves to think, “Maybe she could…?” and are forced to reject her. I imagine that must be incredibly difficult for the staff. They entrust the time and effort from the interview through the photo shoot to even the faintest possibility, but when they can’t see even the slightest chance and have no choice but to reject someone—though of course the applicant has invested time and effort as well… Even among club members, turning someone down is difficult. Having to place an even harsher label on a woman must be an extremely troubling thing for the staff. Writing this out, the fact that I can only phrase it so gently and vaguely makes me think the staff must be going through a lot internally. > Kazu, Of course, socially speaking, they should contact applicants. On the other hand, considering that people are almost never rejected unless it’s an extremely poor fit, anyone who comes in for an interview despite that may, in a sense, be acting remarkably without common sense. Most applicants are probably accepted within a second of meeting them, or within five seconds at the latest. Even for those who take longer, five minutes would probably be enough. So, from the staff’s perspective, when someone is rejected, they end up spending the entire remaining time in an almost completely pointless interview. Even staff who genuinely want to accept almost everyone must find it unbearably painful to spend so long with someone who is simply impossible to accept, thinking, “Why did you even come for an interview? Isn’t it obvious to everyone that this wasn’t going to work…?” In other words, the women who are accepted probably have a corresponding level of good sense and judgment. I feel that devoting the staff’s energy to those women may ultimately be more beneficial to the club’s members.

I’m Marika, a female member. I used to answer questions like this pretty irritably, wondering why they couldn’t send even a one-line message saying, “You weren’t selected.” Maezawa-san said that even President Kida was looking into the situation, so I thought that was a good sign. Then I heard that most people who were accepted were being contacted within about a day. But in the end, they still weren’t contacting those who weren’t selected, so questions from people who hadn’t heard anything for a week kept coming in. It all seemed so ridiculous that I stopped answering, but this time Joe-san, Kazu-san, and Papua-san have been backing things up, so I decided to speak up again. Regarding the LINE account disappearing, I’m sorry, but I can’t say what happened in the questioner’s case. However, since you presumably exchanged other contact information, shouldn’t they at least notify you if you weren’t selected? Mistakes can happen, so I think the proper approach would be to say: “You will definitely be notified whether you were accepted or not, but due to an oversight, the message may not reach you. If you haven’t heard from us after a week, please contact us.”

I’m Kazu, a male member. I also think “silent rejection” is a bizarre and harmful practice, so I agree with Joe’s answer. Saying nothing just because it’s difficult to say is completely unacceptable in the working world. If a new graduate gave that excuse to their boss, they’d probably get seriously reprimanded. I used new graduates as an example because I couldn’t think of any working adult other than one who would say something that evasive. When I hear that “you don’t have to say it if it’s difficult,” I can’t help wondering whether registrations where a woman is actually Type A but reports herself as Type B are being allowed simply because the staff member finds it “difficult to say.” If women who should not be eligible because they’re Type A are being registered in large numbers as Type B, that would be fatal for the club. Just the other day, there was also a question about someone who was clearly Type A—or, being generous, Type B—yet registered as Type C. No one benefits from this situation, do they? It’s disappointing. Paper Airplane shared some insight into how the staff member may have felt, but allowing “I didn’t say it because it was difficult” to become acceptable is dangerous. It seems to me that, to avoid hurting themselves emotionally, they’re damaging the interests of the club’s customers—and ultimately the company’s interests as well. I think that’s no different from assisting someone in misrepresenting their dating type.

This is Joe. As I’m only a male member, I don’t know the details of how applicants are accepted or rejected. However, if I may, I’d like to share something I always think when I read questions like this. For Universe Club, having an appealing lineup of women should be fundamental to its operation, shouldn’t it? And yet, not contacting women when they’re rejected is so incomprehensible that it makes me wonder whether they’ve completely lost their minds. What’s more, if Joe remembers correctly, the reason was supposedly “because it’s difficult to say.” If that’s true, I suspect they haven’t just lost their minds—they’ve lost the last remnants of them entirely. If they have enough sense left to delete a LINE contact, they should be able to add a brief message saying the applicant wasn’t accepted. Mr. Maezawa, could you please do something about this? I’m a male member, but this kind of treatment makes me feel as though I’ve been treated the same way myself. According to Joe’s research, I’m sure quite a few male members feel the same. I strongly request that this be improved through the president’s office.