Friends
Your Japanese friends will come from your part-time job, not your university
Japan's own government asked 7,867 international students where they actually mix with Japanese students. The place named more often than any other was not a class, a club, or an orientation event. It was where they went to earn money — and at language schools it is not even close.
Before they arrive, the thing international students in Japan fear most is not money and not coursework. It is people. When asked what worried them before coming, 49.8% picked "whether I can build good relationships and communicate well" — narrowly ahead of academic worries, and well ahead of financial ones.
So the obvious question is whether that fear turns out to be justified. The survey answers that too, and the headline is reassuring: 70.6% of students report that they do mix with Japanese students, and among those, the most common frequency is two to four times a week.
It is the next layer down where things get interesting. Because when you ask where that mixing happens, the institutions that market themselves on international exchange come off surprisingly badly.
Asked of the 5,554 students who said they mix with Japanese students at all; each could name several places. These are shares of all the places named, not shares of students — so they add up to 100%, and a quarter of everything named was a part-time job.
Add up everything the school organises — exchange events, clubs, programmes, studying together — and you reach 43.6% of all answers. A part-time job alone accounts for 25.4%. The school still wins in aggregate, but it takes four separate channels to outweigh one convenience store.
At language schools, it is not close at all
Split the same question by what kind of institution people attend, and the picture separates into two different countries. (Same basis: share of the places named by students at that kind of school.)
Undergraduates
of answers were a part-time job — roughly level with school events (15.2%) and clubs (15.5%). Three channels, all working.
Language school students
of answers were a part-time job. School events reach 9.7%, clubs 8.2%. One channel carries almost everything.
The survey has a second cut that makes the mechanism plain. It asks whether contact happened through school and study, or through daily life and days off:
Here the figures are shares of students, not of answers — counted among those who mix at all. At universities, 65.3% report contact through school and study, and 79.8% through daily life. At language schools, school-based contact collapses to 30.8%, while life-based contact rises to 88.4%.
This is obvious once stated, and almost never stated. Language school brochures show smiling mixed groups. The classes themselves contain no Japanese students at all, because Japanese people do not enrol in Japanese-as-a-foreign-language courses. The 40.6% figure is not a finding about motivation. It is a finding about architecture.
What this means if you are choosing a school
Three things follow, and they cut differently depending on where you are headed.
If you are going to a language school
Assume the school will not supply your Japanese friends, and plan the rest of your life accordingly. Getting a part-time job is not just about money — it is your main channel into the language and the people. That reframes the timing: the sooner you can work, the sooner both start.
It also raises the stakes on where you live. Only 5.5% of students report mixing where they live, which sounds low until you consider that most rent private apartments alone. If your school offers a shared dormitory, that number is more available to you than it is to most.
If you are going to a university
All three channels work, and clubs matter more than international students expect. Japanese university circles are a heavier social commitment than clubs in most countries — often several times a week, with their own hierarchy and events. That intensity is exactly why they produce friendships.
Either way
Be sceptical of "international exchange" as a selling point. School-run events reach 14.1%, which is real but not transformative — and it is the number the marketing rests on. If a school leans hard on that in its brochure, it is describing a channel that reaches roughly one student in seven.
One limit worth knowing
Part-time work is capped. Students need a separate permit for it, and once you have one, the limit is 28 hours a week during term. So the channel that produces the most contact is also the one the law restricts.
That cap is not arbitrary from the government's side — it is what keeps a study visa a study visa. But it means "work more to meet more people" runs into a legal ceiling before it runs into a practical one.
The fear was right, and also wrong
Half of all students were afraid, before arriving, that they would not manage the relationships. Afterwards, only 17.0% say they cannot mix with Japanese students at school — and the great majority do mix somewhere.
So the fear was misplaced in its conclusion and accurate in its instinct. Something does have to be arranged deliberately. It just is not arranged by the institution you are paying.
Sources. All figures from the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), FY2023 Survey on Living Conditions of Privately Financed International Students — 7,867 valid responses, surveyed November 2023 to March 2024. Tables 4-9 (where students mix), 4-10 (frequency), 4-11 (difficulties after arriving), 2-3 (worries before arriving). Work-hour rules from the Immigration Services Agency. Survey PDF (Japanese). On reading the percentages: Table 4-9 reports shares of the answers given, not shares of students — those columns sum to 100%. The 65.3 / 79.8 / 30.8 / 88.4 figures, and the ones for worries and difficulties, are shares of students. We have said which is which at each point rather than blurring them together.