As expected, clubs side with the men who pay them, right?

I’m Dai, a male member. If someone told you that this club was trustworthy, would you actually believe them? You’re probably so suspicious at this point that you wouldn’t trust any club. As for that papa meeting with the staff, he probably just wanted to subtly brag to the woman that he spends a lot of money at the club. For example, it’s like taking her to a restaurant you own and saying, “Pretty impressive, right? The chef even came out to greet us.” If the staff secretly shared information a woman had told them just because he was a valued customer, I wouldn’t trust them either—I’d assume that anything I confided in them could be passed on to someone else.

I’m a male member—a “loser” (Black-tier member). I’m proud to say that I make tons of offers and spend a great deal of money on both the club and the women. In that sense, I might be a VIP member. Who knows, though. That said: > The club does side with men who pay them, doesn’t it? That’s not right. It’s the opposite. I’m the one serving the club. After every date, I fill out the feedback form 100% of the time. I also write as much as I possibly can in the open comments section, and separately provide my assigned staff member with even more detailed feedback. Why do I do all this? Because I want the women to receive more offers. I carefully point out strengths that probably weren’t visible during the interview. Sometimes I even make unnecessary suggestions like: “I don’t think this girl belongs in Gold—she could probably even qualify for Black. I’d really like you to at least move her up to Platinum. That way, both the club and the woman benefit.” After your dates with men, do you provide detailed feedback? Do you reply promptly on LINE? I even respond immediately and thank the staff for their messages confirming the date the day before. Even when staff members make minor mistakes, I’ve never once blamed them. I simply work with them to figure out how to fix things. My head is always filled with gratitude toward the club staff. I’m constantly thinking about how the club can make more money and what would make them happy, while putting myself second. When you keep doing this on a regular basis, something truly amazing happens: you may receive a message saying, “We have an absolutely stunning woman we’d like to recommend.” The woman I currently give the highest allowance to—700,000 yen per month for seeing her twice a month—I met through an unofficial offer from the club. I’ll never be able to repay the club. If you’d like, why not start supporting the club alongside me today? I’m sure a wonderful future awaits you♪

I’m Fuu, a column writer. Clubs make their money from this and use it to pay their staff, so naturally they’re going to prioritize the male members who pay. It would have been better if the questioner’s opinion had been constructive, but if it was negative, someone might report it. I don’t think it’s wise to complain directly to the club—keep that kind of thing to a private Twitter account. You should consult them about genuinely serious problems instead. One of the good things about Universe is that they publish questions like this properly. They don’t hide anything, which makes them feel trustworthy.

Well, that’s just one of those things, I suppose... Still, if a man is really that outrageous, I do think you should at least warn him, no matter how valuable a client he is. Basically, my impression is that Universe Club is relatively well-run. If you want to look elsewhere, there’s no need to announce it here—just quietly search on your own. Akari

Maezawa from the President’s Office here—I’ll answer as well. > The club does side with men who pay, after all, doesn’t it? It’s partly because they’re paying customers, but it’s also because the staff often talk with them. It’s the same as in private life: when you regularly talk with someone, even if something happens, you’re more likely to think, “They would never do something like that,” based on your usual conversations. That said, it’s not as though we refuse to listen to what the women have to say. Basically, we try to hear both sides. > Especially when it’s a major regular customer, they tell him everything even when we consult them about something, right? If someone asks us not to say something, we won’t. If they don’t specifically ask us to keep it confidential, we may ask the man about it, but I don’t think we would tell him something that we were asked not to disclose. > P says he seems to meet with the staff quite often. Men who brag about that are actually considered a nuisance by the staff themselves, so if he’s that kind of man, I think it’s fine to consult the staff about him. The difficult cases are men who never say anything like that to the women, but have actually become quite close with the staff. The staff tend to trust these men, so more often than not, the woman ends up being seen as the one saying something strange. In fact, we almost never receive complaints from women about men like that. So men whom the staff trust are generally trusted by the women as well, meaning there probably isn’t anything for them to consult us about in the first place. > I really want to know which club can be trusted. I think Universe is the most trustworthy. Other clubs tend to side even more with the men. Universe has a large staff, so they try to remain as neutral as possible. The smaller the club, though, the more it seems to lean toward the men who are paying. Universe is the biggest, and I think it’s probably the safest choice—but what do you think? Also, if you’re worried about consulting the staff, you can contact me, Maezawa, through the inquiry form below the question box. I may be able to help to some extent. However, if it’s something that ultimately has to be reported to the staff handling things on the ground, I won’t be able to give them your name, so it may end up being little more than, “Something like this happened.” In some cases, that won’t be very effective. But if it’s important, it can still make a difference. So if you have serious information about a man, I think it would be fine to send it to me, Maezawa.

I’m Flag Maker, a column writer. That’s right. The staff will probably show some consideration to the male members who make lots of offers—their main source of income—as well as the female members who receive lots of offers. Other than that, I don’t think they’ll go out of their way for anyone.

I’m Meg, a female member. That’s just how the world works. We haven’t paid a single penny, after all. And yet, when we go in for a photo shoot, they do things for us that we might never get to experience otherwise, and put their all into creating our profiles. I can’t speak for other clubs, but I trust this one.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. When it comes to men and women meeting, both the person who reports someone and the person reported tend to be viewed through a biased lens, so I think you’ve already achieved your objective to a considerable extent. That said, I think you’ll end up being viewed that way as well. Since this concerns relationships between men and women, in the end, it comes down to the trust between the people involved and the individual standing in front of you. If you start looking into which club someone belongs to, good papas will increasingly keep their distance. Then you may end up caught in the same kind of cycle, thinking, “Huh? I seem to see that person around quite often.”

I’m Kazu, a male member. I don’t think I’d ever report something if it could disadvantage a woman. I’ve talked with the staff a fair amount too, but I rarely discuss the women I’m seeing. The only things I’ve ever said about them are along the lines of: “She’s such a wonderful person. I really hope she gets more offers. What do you think she could do to get more?” “I heard that girl had a pretty unpleasant experience at her last arrangement. I don’t know who the man was, but I think everyone should be cautious around him.” Actually, in the second case, I guess I am reporting an unknown male member to the club. (laughs) But if someone mistreated a woman I care about, I’d be angry, so please forgive me for reporting them at least in that situation.