Regarding the question below, it seems the asker has questions about the salon, so I’d like to add an answer about the salon.

Maezawa from the President’s Office here. I was planning to hide this since it isn’t really a question, but I’ll answer anyway as a bit of advertising. (笑) Even if someone’s annual income doesn’t meet the criteria, they may still have plenty of disposable money. Previously, we also required applicants to have a specific black card. Since this card is quite difficult to obtain, anyone who can have one is likely to have substantial assets. It seems that, this time, proof of assets has also been added as an acceptable option. I do wonder whether anyone will actually show up carrying a certificate of registered matters, though. That’s the situation. Also, from now on, please contact us directly about anything that isn’t a question. There’s no point in posting things like this here unless you tell SALON directly. It will only be hidden.

I’m a male member, Basil. This is slightly off-topic, but if having ¥80 million in financial assets at a given point in time or in real estate is enough, the bar seems to drop considerably, and it feels out of balance with the ¥40 million annual income requirement. How thoroughly do they actually screen applicants—for example, whether they continue to hold those assets over time? Or are they shifting toward a mass-market expansion strategy? Before long, I wouldn’t be surprised if the question box were flooded with complaints about the declining quality of the male members. For now, I’m not interested in a club where I can’t find partners on my own, so either way is fine by me. But the existing members will be the ones who suffer. This overlaps with something Kazu mentioned in passing, but I suppose there are limits to how precisely they can design detailed membership requirements based on every conceivable scenario, given that the people conducting the screening and creating the rules presumably don’t have the income or assets required to join the club themselves.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I worked hard on this response, but since it isn’t actually a question, I guess it may not be posted... It might have been better to ask, “I don’t want to raise my annual income to ¥40 million just to join the salon, especially since I’d be heavily taxed.” If that’s what they meant, they could have simply asked that. There was no need to call people who meet these requirements stupid business owners, or to talk about their own tax evasion. We’re all human, so I believe questions in the Q&A box are answered according to the level of the question, and salon interviews are also assessed comprehensively in the same way. Universe Club states that women must be “18 to 45 years old and able to provide identification” to join, but women older than that are registered too, aren’t they? The person who asked this time might pass the screening through a negotiation like the one in their question. However, the person who asked the original question—who called high-income taxpayers stupid—might not pass. At least, I feel that this latest questioner may be a gentleman, whereas I don’t consider the previous questioner to be one. As an aside, even someone like me, who isn’t particularly wealthy, sometimes feels that most of the Universe Club staff, including those at the salon, don’t really understand high earners. However, since I’m told Universe Club isn’t a luxury club, I don’t think we should insist on treating that as a complaint.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member whose rental income brings in ¥8 million a month, so I can’t escape taxes even if I die. The salon must seem utterly mysterious, with so many questions… Even if men want to join the salon, at the same time, they probably want to believe they’re not that desperate for women… (It feels like being given a title that proves you’re unpopular…) I wonder if I’ll want to join someday, when I’m old…