I was watching the tv show ヨルクラ and got thinking how everyone in Tokyo that you meet in real life outside a non-work setting uses a fake name.
On matching apps, women use nicknames in their profiles.
I made friends with Japanese people through X (formerly Twitter) since it’s the most used social network.
But every time, when joining a group of men/women in their 20s-30s for drinks or dinner, they refer to each other by their X username or LINE username.
I’ve hung out with this one guy almost every month for a year, and I have only ever called him by his X username when we talk.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I assume they’re fake since they’re not on my mental list of common Japanese names: Mirai, Ano, Anko, Dero, So, Shin, Ruki, Ruru, Nene. Also names that were just English words.
by CSachen