A question for the women here: Do you care about the occupations and titles of male members? How much does it matter to you?

I’m RIN, a female member. I wouldn’t just run out of the room over something like that. Either she had some kind of private emergency she couldn’t tell the club member about, or she finally couldn’t put up with something else that you’ve probably already been vaguely suspecting. Either way, I think you can tell everything you need to know from the fact that she hasn’t contacted you.

I’m Flag Maker, a column writer. Is that really the only thing that comes to mind? I have a feeling there may be something else you haven’t written because it’s hard to say, separate from your title or occupation. I think that may be the reason.

Maezawa from the President’s Office here. Thank you for your question. Some people may care about a man’s title or position, but I feel that men often don’t tell the whole truth either, so I wonder whether that alone would really be enough to cause someone to end the relationship. That said, women can sometimes become disappointed when they see the pathetic side of the person they’re dating. For example, suppose a man has often made unreasonable demands of a woman. She may have stayed with him despite disliking that behavior, thinking, “Well, I guess that’s just how men are…” But then she sees him being overly deferential to someone else. She may think, “So he acted all high and mighty with me, but he grovels to other people?” and feel disappointed. In other words, she realizes that he only acts arrogant toward people weaker than him. Acting that way toward service staff or others in a weaker position can also be a reason for a woman to lose respect. So if you’re going to act tough, you need to be willing to stand your ground even with people more powerful than you—or else treat everyone kindly, regardless of who they are. Anyway, I’ve gotten off track. For a woman to disappear while you’re taking a shower, something pretty serious must have happened. Perhaps when you mentioned that you were a salaryman, you also said something like how difficult life was because you were a salaryman. That might have led her to think, “If it’s really that tough, why don’t you go independent? Why haven’t you?” She may then have interpreted your talk about not having much financial room as an attempt to negotiate a lower allowance, and thought, “There’s no way I can continue with this person.” Of course, you’d have to ask her to know for sure. My feeling is that it was probably something other than your title, but in the end, that’s only speculation. A person’s title doesn’t seem all that important. However, I do think women pay attention to whether a man has a sense of ease and financial leeway.

Sorry I’m not a woman. I’m Gaku, a male member. We’re almost the same age, but I think she had been harboring small frustrations that I hadn’t noticed myself. It probably had nothing to do with my title or status—in a man’s eyes, it was probably more like, “That’s what this was about?” This happens a lot in the real world too. It’s like when a young woman at your company suddenly tells you she wants to quit, even though she never usually comes to you for advice. But since it’s often difficult to get people to tell you these things, I don’t think there’s much point in worrying about it. Improving yourself to a certain extent is important, but I don’t think you need to force yourself to accommodate someone else. P.S. I love the manga *Kirin* that Marika mentioned in her answer to another question—the battle on the Tomei Expressway between the air-cooled Porsche guy and the guy with the sword. I never understood the appeal of women with big butts when I was young, but after turning forty, I finally started to get it.