So I will try to make it as brief as possible, sorry in advance if it gets too long.
I have a friend here (japanese) who joined a volunteer group 1-2 years ago. I don’t really want to give out the name of it, but they basically help those in need, and also try to bring awareness about how important is to help others after a natural disaster. This is all fine and I thought it is admirable that my friend finds time to do this.
She occasionally shared some of their social media posts with me and I read them and/or liked them so they can grew their follower base. After I came here to live here for a year, she continued to send me posts from this group, and I eventually liked their page too as I felt like she wants me to do that. All fine.
Then, I think around 3-4 months after I came here, she sent me another post and it was about recruiting new members. She didn’t write anything just sent it. I would like to mention that by this time we often didn’t exchange messages for weeks but I was busy too so it was no problem. Then after sending this, she asked me if I am okay here etc. but we didn’t talk about the recruiting. After this, again, we didn’t text for weeks, sometimes she would ask my opinion on some political things but that was it.
Then about 1,5 months ago, she sent me a post again which was again about recruiting and taking part in some volunteer activity. I don’t want to go into too much details but it would require phyiscal contact with elderly people and talking to them. Now, I can speak Japanese but I am not fluent and talking to old people can be quite challenging for me, as many times they use expressions I am not familiar with, and depending on the region, their intonation can be quite different too, which makes it even harder for me to understand them so I am definitely not the best person for this. This event would also take place in Kansai I think and I actually live in Kanto. Oh and I will go back home too very soon so I don’t really understand why she thought of me as a suitable person for this. Before this she initiated some small talk, and then sent this with a text that she thinks it would be a “very valuable experience for me” while living here.
I turned it down by saying that I am very busy with uni work (which is true) and that I am going home soon so I don’t see any point of me joining and she said she understood and our conversation ended here.
Now, idk but I felt like it is a bit sketchy. I was once warned (before all of this) that some volunteer groups here work kinda like a cult, and maybe that is what stuck with me. Am I being overly suspicious or do you guys find this a bit weird too? Also are there really “cult-like” volunteer groups here? I just don’t understand why she wants me to join, when I am a foreigner who doesn’t even live where this group is based at. All the other members are Japanese and she has plenty of Japanese friends she can try to recruit.
by Past-Survey9700