Language exchange
The most direct route: half the room wants to speak English, half wants to speak Japanese. How it works.
Lots of foreigners in Tokyo end up with only foreign friends, not because locals aren't interested, but because the two groups rarely end up in the same room. Here's where they overlap, and how to turn a chat into a friendship. One easy overlap is Buy Me a Matcha, built for English speakers in Tokyo, including Japanese locals who speak English: friends-only, one-on-one over a matcha.
Plenty of Japanese people in Tokyo want foreign friends, especially those who studied abroad, grew up overseas, or used English at work and miss it. They just don't know where to find you either. Polite, reserved and busy doesn't mean uninterested; it usually means waiting to be invited.
The most direct route: half the room wants to speak English, half wants to speak Japanese. How it works.
A Japanese climbing gym, running club or pottery class. You share the activity first, and language becomes secondary.
The staff and regulars at a small bar or café you visit every week. This is how a lot of foreigners make their first local friends.
Say yes to after-work drinks and weekend invites. Friends-of-colleagues is a big, underrated pool.
Buy Me a Matcha shows you people in Tokyo who speak English and also want new friends, including Japanese locals who speak English. Match, pick a café, and meet one-on-one over a matcha. Free, and not a dating app.
Get it on the App Store