How can I find a lost contact in Japan?
December 6, 2004 10:59 AM   Subscribe

How would I go about looking for someone I've lost contact with who lives in Japan, when google fails me?

I know his full name (too common) I know where he lives, and I know his dad's music school (no webpage).

In North America you can pretty much find anyone you need to by googling, but in this case it's a bit dificult. Is there something else I can try?
posted by joelf to Human Relations (8 answers total)
 
I don't know if you got to see my response to your previous version of this question, so I'll repeat my thoughts here. The first thing I'd do if I were in your shoes is try to find the phone number or address of his father's music school. It seems that a business phone would be reasonably easy to locate. Then you can contact his father at his music school and offer up your email address for him to pass along to his son. That gives him the option of contacting you if he wishes.

For assistance tracking down the school's information, try your local library. Librarians can provide a wealth of information, and may have some ideas that wouldn't occur to us average folk.
posted by boomchicka at 11:10 AM on December 6, 2004


Response by poster: Personally I would have thought the music school would be the easiest way to go too. It looks like there isn't a web presence in the english web, i have no idea what it would be in Japanese. But I'll try the library, and see if they have a directory for the city.
posted by joelf at 11:16 AM on December 6, 2004


Send a letter via postal mail?

If you don't know his exact address, maybe you can find the address of the music school, and send the letter there...

FHI, I believe Japan doesn't normally publish a directory of personal phone numbers/addresses due to their increased appreciation of privacy.
posted by reverendX at 11:19 AM on December 6, 2004


Response by poster: But there would be a business directory? Really what I'm looking for is an email address of the school. But writing would be fine.
posted by joelf at 11:26 AM on December 6, 2004


Don't do it!
posted by grouse at 12:17 PM on December 6, 2004


Here's Yahoo maps for Japan. Choose the prefecture from the dropdown menu and enter "ongaku senmon gakkou" or the name if you know it, you might find it.
posted by planetkyoto at 4:43 PM on December 6, 2004


Umm, Here.
posted by planetkyoto at 4:44 PM on December 6, 2004


It's really unlikely that there would be no information about the dad's music school on the Internet. There's likely something to be found, just not in English.
posted by mexican at 8:13 PM on December 6, 2004


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