Japanese Friends

7 comments

1. The best way is to find something you are interested in and go in do it. You’ll meet other people there and can be friends and do something you enjoy. Going to a meet up or some event specifically to meet people is pretty hit or miss.

   I live in a small town and went to the same bar a lot. Sometimes I would be the only person there but I would talk to the bar tender a lot. He introduced to his friends who owned other bars and they introduced me to the people that always go to their bars and I made a group of friends like that.

   If you can have a conversation in Japanese, then small bars are great because there are usually not many people and you can practice speaking. You can go for two hours and buy 1-2 drinks and not spend a lot of money.

2. Stop asking Reddit and go speak to some Japanese people. It’s not that hard, speak to people and be pro active with communicating with those you vibe with.

3. Hellotalk?

4. I’m introverted but also quite lonely, so I stepped out of my comfort zone to try make friends outside work in my first couple of years. I did various classes, some hobby meet ups and once even did a language exchange thing at the hub lol. NOPE no one who clicked and a lot of people with a lack of social skills (mainly due to my kind of hobby I guess though ahah)

   Most of my long term friends/ people I’ve connected with best are from online gaming. I made a mix of japanese and English speaking friends and then phased into mainly Japanese groups as my language skill got better. YMMV especially if you’re not into games though.

5. Start a band.

6. Well friends here are statistically going to be Japanese anyway, so lets say you are looking for friends.

   For example, per a [googled survey article from Dec 2022.](https://kufura.jp/family/human-relations-family/255383?btn3-next)

   178 homies (30-40 years of age)

   less than a quarter said they made any friends since age 30 with the most common number of friends at 2 to 5 peeps.

   Places where they found peeps were, 1) hobbies, 2) work related, 3) SNS, ) drinking places/papatomo/friend of friend/etc.

   [On the flip side](https://kufura.jp/family/human-relations-family/253723), 251 ladies (30-40 years of age)

   a bit less than 40% made new friends since age 30 with the most common number of friends at 2 to 5.

   Places where they found new friends were, 1) children/childcare related (mamatomos, parents of child’s friends, on trips with children), 2) work related, 3) hobbies, 4) friend of friend, 5) other random circumstances.

   ​

   In general the above seem to be pretty consistent for most ages, besides some places being more common for some ages. I think hobbies (including sports) sounds good.

   The search word would be… “社会人 (your hobby/sport)”

7. Talking to people. Just like anywhere else in the world.