When do you men think, “This girl is really smart”? I mean either in terms of academic ability or natural intelligence. Do a woman’s educational background and intelligence generally tend to be somewhat proportional?

Maezawa from the CEO’s Office here as well. Thank you for your question. You may find yourself thinking, “Wow, that’s an impressive way to answer,” based on how she responds during the conversation. But I don’t think that has anything to do with her educational background. That said, some men do care about education, so it can affect whether she receives offers.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. Since only a small number of people engage in papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan), I think each person has a certain intelligence that comes from carefully thinking through and doing something most people don’t—and it shows in the little details. Whether it’s business or papa-katsu, if you want people to be happy, you need to be comfortable playing the fool and making them feel entertained. In that respect, they’re all good girls who know how to make men happy. And I can play the fool too and enjoy myself. I’ve met several girls from the top private universities in Kansai, and although it may just be coincidence, we often have similar conversational rhythms and ways of taking things, so there are times when it feels like we click right from the start. But even girls without that background can be great conversationalists… Since I run a restaurant, I meet people with all kinds of educational backgrounds, from the lower end to the very top—not that there are many of the latter—and it’s fun because each person has their own appeal. P.S. Mac, My son is as laid-back as ever. He didn’t have a single friend to play with through junior high, but after entering high school, he made some friends, which even surprised my wife. I think they’re probably like-minded. These days, apparently, if you do well on the first-stage exam, there are some former Imperial Universities where you can get in through the second round with just an interview. He says he’ll apply as a sort of keepsake, even though he doesn’t need a private university as a safety school. Times have changed, and with the declining number of children, my son is applying to private universities because he doesn’t want to repeat a year, but most of his friends aren’t applying because they don’t have any private universities they need to apply to. Apparently, since the enrollment quotas at the top universities haven’t decreased much, it’s almost twice as easy to get in now.

I’m Taro, a male member. I don’t think intelligence and deviation scores are necessarily closely related. Broadly speaking, there is certainly a correlation, but the variation is quite large. It also depends on how you define being “smart.” Generally speaking, my impression is that girls with strong academic backgrounds are good at demonstrating their abilities within established rules, while girls who may not have high academic credentials but are genuinely smart are able to create their own rules. Once, when I was staying at the Ritz-Carlton, a girl from a delivery service came to my room by mistake. I think she realized instantly from my expression when I opened the door. The first thing she said was, “This isn’t the right room, is it?” I thought she was smart because she skipped several exchanges that would normally have been necessary and got straight to the point. I’m also impressed by girls who try to understand difficult subjects they’re unfamiliar with by relating them to their own areas of experience. Rather than pretending to follow an expert’s advanced explanations without really understanding them, they ask straightforward questions from a down-to-earth perspective and work through things one by one—like on one of Akira Ikegami’s programs. In everyday life, the kind of intelligence you notice may have more to do with communication skills than processing ability.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I don’t try to test someone’s intelligence on a date. I tend to think a woman is smart when she’s good at the back-and-forth of conversation. Rather than merely nodding along, she responds in a way that shows she’s processing and thinking about what’s being said as we talk. I also feel that way about people who can express themselves logically. I think intelligence is somewhat correlated with educational background. That said, I don’t mean graduating from a prestigious university or anything like that. I believe being smart comes from having trained yourself to think and making a habit of thinking in everyday life. That’s why I said “to some extent.” Some people may not have had much formal education, but become intelligent through reading and educating themselves. On the other hand, even if someone has an impressive academic background, I may respect them for having a good memory if they passed exams by relying on memorization, but I don’t consider them intelligent if they haven’t learned to think for themselves. Personally, I see having a lot of knowledge as something slightly different from being intelligent, but I still find knowledgeable people wonderful. They satisfy my intellectual curiosity, and I love talking with them because it’s so enjoyable. The women I make offers to are this type.