Difficulties making Japanese Friends (time issues)

Japanese Language Speaking
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Hello everyone.

I was wondering if anybody had any tips for making Japanese friends.

I’ve lived and worked in Japan for almost three years now, and I find that my Japanese friends are either too busy to hang out (or even message back sometimes) or they’re my coworkers and there’s that professional / personal barrier. I’m conversational in Japanese, so language isn’t really a problem, it’s just time.

I get it. I have a Japanese work schedule too, but it feels weird to me to only hang out with someone once a month even though they live in the same town as me or work in the same office.

I don’t really care what nationality my friends are, but I would like to be closer with the people around me and the cool people I meet. However compared to my foreign friends, Japanese people are far more unavailable, and I was wondering if anyone’s hit on a successful strategy, or even knows what strategy Japanese people use to manage friendships around this work culture.

How do Japanese people make friends? Is the friendship dynamic here one where it’s normal to only correspond with your friends once a month?

Thoughts crabgators?

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I think it’s hard to make friends no matter where you live. Especially the older you are. People have a lot of stuff going on, friends, family, work, kids, other long time friends, ect. I moved to a different state 5 years ago and I can count the amount of friends I have on one hand. Luckily I moved here with my girlfriend so it’s not like I’m super lonely or anything but it would be nice to hang out with other people. I would say find people with the same interests. The friends I have made here is from going to punk rock shows/bars and chatting with people/bartenders (Did the same thing when I went to Japan and met a ton of cool people and am friends with them on FB. Will hopefully hang with them again the next time I go there). Maybe start dating someone and then become friends with all their friends or something. Good luck

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