When there’s a significant age gap, do you ever see someone as being like your own daughter or granddaughter? I’d be happy if you treated me with that kind of affection rather than romantic feelings, but many people who are more than 20 years older still try to treat me like a romantic partner, which leaves me feeling confused.

I’m Date◎Yume, a male member. Haha（笑） That’s a good question（笑） Rather than romantic feelings, I see her more like a grandchild（笑） I cherish her and enjoy spending time together. I’m older than Mr. Maezawa, but I have far less money. Besides, no matter how much money you have, it never feels like enough. It’s strange—when you don’t have any, you don’t have any, but even when you do have it, it still never feels like enough（笑）

I’m BB7, a male member. I may sometimes feel like they’re my own daughter or granddaughter. But that wouldn’t make a relationship between a man and a woman possible. It would be criminal. Most men here don’t want to become criminals—they want to feel like men. That’s why they join a dating club. Even if an older man is wealthy, he won’t hand out money if he’s attached to it. Maezawa probably gives money away because he isn’t possessive about it, but that doesn’t make him superior or wonderful—it’s simply a matter of his personal values and outlook. If you think people should give their money away, then you should do it yourself. Before telling others what to do, give your own money away.

Maezawa from the CEO’s office will answer as well. Thank you for your question. > If you can’t take your money with you when you die, why not willingly give it to people who want it? First of all, I think it’s because you don’t know when you’re going to die. If you knew with 100% certainty that you would die tomorrow, you could give your money to the people you liked today. But whether you’ll die in 10 years, 20 years—or perhaps live past 100—means you have to think about how you’ll manage until then. Unlike salaried employees, wealthy people may be able to keep increasing their wealth regardless of their age. Even so, I think those concerns still naturally come up. In the Black Jack story “The Two at the Hot Springs,” master swordsmith Hyo Jinsai receives ten million yen from Black Jack as payment for sharpening his scalpel. He immediately throws the bundle of bills into the fire and says, “This is the only way to treat money. This is my pleasure.” But I don’t think there are many people who can reach that level of enlightenment. Compared with someone even poorer, you probably count as someone who has money too. But you couldn’t burn the money you received from your papa on the spot, could you? I think that’s probably what it comes down to. Banknotes are just pieces of paper, so what makes them so important anyway? (笑) If you look at the Zimbabwean dollar, it might make you wonder whether money is really something we should trust that much. > I’m confused because many of them try to treat me like a romantic partner even though we’re more than 20 years apart in age. I think they want to act like romantic partners while they’re with you, so it may be best to accept that this is simply how these arrangements work.

I’m Hajime Hara, Chief of Customer Success Group CS3. Regarding your question, this is just my personal opinion, but while there may be some men who fit what you’re hoping for, male members are still men at the end of the day. I believe many of them join the club because they want to continue having relationships with young women and relive the excitement they felt in their younger years. I don’t think dating clubs are places where men can meet women who make them feel as though they’re interacting with their children or grandchildren. So, even if it’s partly an act, I feel that women who register need to show through their words and actions that they understand the intentions of the person who chose them. As for the suggestion that members should follow the example of Mr. Maezawa, who gives money away, I believe members do give money to women when they feel those women are valuable to them. Mr. Maezawa likely gives money to an unspecified number of people in the hope that something of value to him may come from it, in line with his own goals and ambitions. Similarly, although this is on an individual basis, the men using the club also give women an allowance as a token of appreciation when they feel that meeting them has value in fulfilling what they themselves are looking for. So I think the two situations are quite similar. I’m not sure whether you’re already registered or are considering registering, but I hope you have a wonderful encounter.

Wow, that’s quite an idea. Being young really is unbeatable. Marika

I’m Kazu, a male member. They’re not family by blood whose diapers I changed, so I don’t feel that way about them. The assets held by billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and those held by relatively wealthy people like us differ by more than two orders of magnitude. A difference on that scale is enormous. Even if you invested ¥1 billion at an annual return of 5%, you’d make ¥50 million. But investing ¥200 billion at 5% would generate ¥10 billion. Even if you gave ¥100,000 to ten people every day, that would come to ¥365 million a year—less than 5% of the returns from investing ¥200 billion. With that kind of wealth, I suppose that was one of the amusing ways he came up with to spend his money. That said, regarding the Maezawa-san the questioner says we should emulate, I have no desire to become like him. Having your photo taken without permission and seeing your romantic partners reported on by weekly tabloids sounds incredibly stressful. I’m an ordinary person, so I don’t think I could handle that kind of life. I’d much rather have ¥2 billion and be able to live without being photographed than have ¥200 billion but be photographed just for going on a date with a woman and end up in a weekly magazine. As a timid, relatively wealthy person, I donate to public-interest causes I care about as one way of giving back to society with the modest advantages I’ve been fortunate enough to have. I don’t think I could ever reach the point of wanting to hand out ¥100,000 to random beggars demanding money for no particular reason, as Maezawa-san does—and I don’t want to reach that point. I still find myself choosing who to give to, and I want the money I donate to be put to effective use. Come to think of it, Bill Gates, whose assets are two orders of magnitude greater than Maezawa-san’s, founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support people everywhere in living healthy and prosperous lives. I can’t help feeling that using money to deliver vaccines and build toilets in developing countries is a far nobler use of wealth than handing out ¥100,000 each to 3,650 beggars a year.

This morning, my wife kicked me out, saying, “Why am I always the bad guy? She keeps going, ‘Papa, Papa, Papa’—you spoil her way too much!” I’m Paper Airplane, one of the male members. Huh? “Like a daughter”? Someone you exchange messages with endlessly every day, can talk about anything with, and go anywhere with? A replacement for a daughter? No way. I don’t need that. Neither side would enjoy being treated “like a daughter.” > “Wouldn’t you gladly give money to someone who wants it?” On the other hand, please try to think about how the person who wants to give the money feels, too. papa-katsu isn’t something you should force yourself to do… Please keep it going in a way that doesn’t become a burden.