Precisely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’d like to see online dates continue.

I’m Aizawa, Sub-Chief at Universe Club Tokyo. Regarding Kazu’s answer: > Unlike the Letter Date page, the Voice Date page says that transportation expenses must be given when meeting for the first time. > However, the next line says that meetings after a Voice Date are outside the scope of the club’s rules. > So, is “please be sure to give transportation expenses” a request or a rule? That really made me stop and think. I had read it without noticing anything unusual, but the wording was indeed somewhat contradictory… To clarify, all rules other than the transportation expenses given on the first date are outside the scope of our policies. Please understand that providing transportation expenses when meeting for the first time is a club rule. As for online dates, I feel bad making men who repeat the service go through the same explanation every time, since it’s the woman’s first time. With a Letter Date, they could exchange messages first and then simply say, “Why don’t we have a quick video call?”—which would essentially turn it into a self-arranged online date. I think this could also save everyone that extra hassle. That said, speaking personally rather than as a staff member, it does feel a little lacking in atmosphere. Still, I suppose it’s unavoidable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maezawa from the President’s Office will answer as well. Thank you for your question. When I think about the time and effort involved, I can’t help feeling that it might be worth doing if the setup fee remains the same as usual. Ah, or did you want me to continue because it would reduce the setup fee? You could probably have more fun for less money through a dating app, though… > Men of the Showa era met in person, looked their partner in the eye, and did the wooing themselves! True. (Laughs) But with the message dial services that were popular during the Showa era, you went to the meeting place without knowing what the other person looked like or anything about their profile. And since this was before mobile phones (though I seem to remember there were car phones), how you found each other at the meeting place was decided through the messages exchanged beforehand. Sometimes, both people would go to the meeting place and still fail to find each other. And even if a woman spotted the man, if he wasn’t her type, she might simply leave without approaching him, so they wouldn’t meet after all. (In other words, she stood him up.) That’s the kind of rough-and-tumble world men of the Showa era had to endure. (Laughs)

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member and firm believer in online dates. With letter dates, the staff only have to accept applications for interactions with men, so I imagine the advance setup required for online dates must be pretty bothersome for them. I can totally see them thinking, “There’s no way we’re dealing with something this tedious,” discontinuing it after just a few weeks, while keeping letter dates available indefinitely. Voice dates also seem like they’d be a bit of a hassle for the staff, since they have to mediate the back-and-forth involved in scheduling a date. If you choose a letter date, it seems like you can greatly reduce the staff’s workload. I imagine they’d be extremely happy about it. Also, with letter dates, women don’t seem to turn them down as often as they might with online or voice dates—some may be uncomfortable sharing their phone number, for example—which makes things easier for the staff. They simply receive the application from the man and send it to the woman, so there’s little risk of mistakes and everything should go very smoothly. I was surprised when online dates were introduced, but letter dates are so groundbreaking that they make online dates seem almost old-fashioned by comparison.

I’m Date ◎ Yume, a male member. I’m in favor. As long as the upkeep costs aren’t too high and it doesn’t confuse the branch staff, I think it’s better to have plenty of tools for making connections.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I used to be a regular user of online dates, so I’m in favor of continuing them. However, I recently learned that a new service called Voice Date has started: https://universe-club.jp/event/voice-date/ This might be a good option, since women would have less trouble finding a suitable place to use LINE or Zoom than they did with online dates. It also seems that staff members don’t moderate the calls, which should reduce their workload. Come to think of it, I had offered an online date to one of the women I’m still seeing. She apparently had trouble finding a place to take the call, so she even went to the Universe Club office to participate. Looking back, I feel bad for putting her through so much trouble. On the other hand, the staff member who moderated our call was conducting another online date in the room next to hers（笑）. It felt pretty strange. Unlike Letter Date, the Voice Date page says that you must always give her transportation expenses when meeting for the first time. But the very next line says that meetings after a Voice Date are outside the Club’s rules. So is giving her transportation expenses a request, or is it an actual rule? The page also says: > Since transportation expenses and an allowance are only paid after you actually meet for a meal or something similar, you can avoid women who have no intention of meeting in person. Were there a lot of complaints from men who spoke with someone through an online date but were unable to meet in person afterward? I’ve never had that experience after an online date, so I find it a little surprising. If Voice Date also guaranteed women a token of appreciation and transportation expenses, as online dates did, I’d be happy to use it as well. Personally, I think it would be good to raise the Voice Date setup fee and include a payment for the woman. Perhaps the payment was removed because transferring money to women was difficult, but there’s no need to cut the setup fee in half. I’d still like women to receive something. > Mr. Aizawa, I’ve confirmed that the Voice Date and Letter Date pages have been updated. Thank you for taking care of this.