June 9 Nagoya: In a college student's date review…

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. And if the person riding behind me happened to be Masaharu Fukuyama or Tori Matsuzaka…

I’m Nana Ayase, a female member. That must have been really frightening for you (scared). Weren’t you forced into anything? Since they know the man’s identity and address, would they do something about it if anything happened? But you can’t exactly tell people about papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan), can you? I wonder if, once the date is over, it becomes our own responsibility.

Maezawa from the President’s Office here—I’ll answer as well. I did a quick check, and since the woman contacted us after business hours yesterday, we haven’t replied to her yet. We’ll probably look into it further starting today. Naturally, when multiple men meet a woman, the number of men and women must be the same. The club must also be contacted in advance, and the date is set up as a “dinner gathering.” The club first asks the woman, “The dinner gathering will be for two men and two women. Is that okay?” and then arranges it. However, this time there were two men and only one woman, so arranging it that way was a violation of the rules on the men’s part. As for the terms and conditions… I suppose they didn’t specifically spell this out? If the argument becomes, “It wasn’t written there, so it must be okay,” then we’d have to create an enormous, dictionary-like rulebook covering every single detail. Usually, though, there are comprehensive provisions that allow us to take action in cases like this. If we had to force it into a specific violation, I suppose it would be: “Information learned through the club must not be shared with others.” Though that may be stretching it a bit. It could also be considered a violation of the general rule that applies to everything: “Be a gentleman.” That said, we explain at the time of enrollment that arrangements are one-on-one. If a man asks, “Is it okay if there are two men?” the answer is: “It would be okay if there were also two women. The numbers of men and women cannot be different.” We haven’t confirmed all the facts yet, so I don’t know what will happen to the man, and we don’t disclose what disciplinary action was taken. People who have been forced to leave the club in the past simply disappeared quietly. We don’t publicly shame them with announcements like “this month’s expelled members.” This man had no bad feedback in the past, so we don’t know what happened this time—or whether things had actually always been like this and the women simply hadn’t left feedback. There was some feedback in the past where a woman had shown me the member’s page and said something like, “It says ‘〇〇’ in my comments…” So I can’t help but wonder whether he’s basically the type of person who prioritizes his own way of thinking and follows his own rules. For example, someone who thinks, “I don’t have to pay the transportation allowance in advance, do I?” (You do.) Or, “Who would have a problem with me showing someone the member’s page?” (A lot of people would have a problem with it being seen.) That may simply be the kind of person he is. Though I can’t say for sure. The most important thing is that neither the women nor the men run into problems, so please continue to leave as much feedback as possible.

I’m Date◎Yume, a male member. > When I arrived at the meeting place, there was another man in the car besides the man I had made plans with for some reason… That’s clearly against the rules. To me, this goes beyond the rules of what is, in a sense, a specialized activity like a dating club. I think it’s even worse than not paying transportation expenses. What was this man thinking? To be blunt, probably nothing at all（笑） I really wish people would think things through before acting.

I’m Fuu, a columnist. I read your account. If the club has received feedback, I’m sure they’ll take some kind of action. At least it’s a relief that this happened through a dating club, where you can report the situation to the club and have them deal with it. If something like this had happened on an app, it would have been really scary—you’d have had to handle everything on your own, with no support.

I’m Aya, a female member. What the heck—that’s way too scary!! What a horrible person. You’d be like, “Who even are you?” …Sorry, that was just my reaction.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I seem to remember being told when I joined that you’re not allowed to bring someone else along on the first date. However, I thought it might not actually be stated in the membership rules, so I checked again—and it wasn’t. Would this fall under the membership requirement that says, “Membership is limited to gentlemen”? Regarding Sendai on June 6: > There was no transportation allowance… That’s clearly a violation of the rules.