I did notice that right off the bat, the "Do Japanese guys pay for meals/outings for female
friends" was slightly interpreted as "Do Japanese guys pay for dates".
I suppose the title and the original written text in the thread kind of blur the lines a little bit though.
Getting back to the title of the topic, why would anybody pay for their friends on a regular basis? I understand a here or there type of a thing, but I don't see the point in paying every time based on gender.
As far as Japanese guys paying for their female friends or not, I don't think so. From what I've seen, people do split the bill more often than not (I can't recall a single time I've seen or heard of a guy splitting the bill for a "friend" who is a girl, although I don't go around asking about it, either.
If the guy is trying to get with the girl, then that's a whole different story. Some guys pay and do it that way, some guys can get away with not paying. Who knows what the success rates and paying for meals graph looks like? I've seen a lot of guys get used at bars/nomiyas by women all the time. There is a bit of the snack scene in what I'm talking about, but it goes on with non-snack girls, too. Some guys liked being used... others don't particularly like it, but that's how it goes. There are a lot of women who will use men for meals. Some people have already brought up the point that it's your own fault if you get with a girl like that-- that may be true. If you get a girl who doesn't "use" you, but whom you pay for every time, then I think there's a really fine line we're talking about. Unless you have some master plan worked out where she goes home and cooks for you all the time and you take her out and treat her to a meal in exchange or something. My guess is most people don't have things figured out like that, however.
In Japan there are certainly more stay at home moms than in America, which may very well warrant a system where the man pays for the woman. However, if we're talking about friends and th man is trying to get with the woman, than I should hope she's not a stay at home mom.
