I think a state of emergency may be declared, but work has been busy leading up to the end of the year, and I’ve had to go into the office half the week, so I haven’t been able to come in for a reshoot. Since I’ll be working fully from home again as a result, would it be possible to schedule a reshoot after the state of emergency is lifted?

Mamiyama from Universe Club Tokyo here. It looks like it’s only a matter of time before a state of emergency is declared... As long as people continue coming in for interviews, our staff will take every necessary precaution during the photo sessions. Please take care when traveling to our office.

I’m in Seattle. The number of cases is an order of magnitude lower than in Europe and the U.S., so I think Japan is actually managing COVID fairly well. The media is hyping it up too much. Shutting down businesses everywhere like they did in April carries far too great a risk of wrecking the economy. I imagine the government will either ignore Governor Koike or impose only minor restrictions on her, but wouldn’t it be fine for Universe Club to continue operating as usual?

Maezawa from Shacho-shitsu here. Thank you for your question. There’s news that Tokyo is planning to make a joint request to the national government with Saitama Prefecture. However, there’s no guarantee the government will take action just because they make a request, and I think Universe will decide what to do once an official declaration is actually issued. So, if you’d like to have your photos retaken, I recommend applying now. That way, I think you should still be able to get them retaken. This is slightly beside the point, but during the last state of emergency, we conducted video interviews, and they were unpopular with the men. It seems some other dating clubs claim to have women nationwide, even though there isn’t a state of emergency, simply because they can conduct interviews via Zoom. But if you want to meet women you’ve only interviewed over Zoom, you might be better off using a matching app.