Meeting New People in Japan

Moving to a new country comes with some sacrifice. You’ll be living far away from your loved ones, and sometimes may even be in a completely opposite time zone, making it hard to arrange a call over FaceTime. That said, however, you also open yourself for a whole new world of opportunity to meet new people and experience new adventures. Here are some tried and true ways to make a new circle of friends while living in Japan:

Meetups

It’s the 21st century, and sure enough, smartphone apps and websites are going to be one of the quickest and most convenient ways to meet new people. One popular app in Japan is Meetup (www.meetup.com), where you can find activities and events to attend where you’ll be able to meet new friends! There are activities of all kinds, from women’s journaling groups to language exchanges, to tech networking events!

Apps/Websites

If you’re comfortable making friends with people online, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is also very active in Japan, in both English and Japanese. After making friends with someone online and both want to meet up, you can find a café convenient for you and meet in person.

Sharehouses

If you’re already living in Japan, this may not be as accessible of a resource as an app, but sharehouses are another great way to meet people. We have a guide on how to find housing with popular providers such as Oakhouse and Interwhao. These housing providers often host regular social events in their sharehouses, especially around Japanese holidays, so these are a great way to meet new people and even learn about Japanese culture! What makes this option even more interesting is that these are new friends that you’ll be living with, so finding time to socialize becomes as easy as running into each other in the common areas.

Social Events

Of course, you can also meet new people at our very own social events! We send invitations out on a regular basis to current and past participants of our program who live in Japan, so be sure to keep an eye out. 📧👀