By the way, we've been having a hard time attracting Japanese audiences to the past meetups, in part because I'm not very familiar with the Japanese tech ecosystem yet (and not speaking Japanese doesn't help…).

So if any of you Japan HNers have any suggestions to reach more locals (blogs to contact, people to follow on Twitter, etc.) they'd be very welcome!

I did a write-up of my advice on the topic here: http://www.doorkeeperhq.com/event-planning/organizing-an-int...

For a good overview of tech events going on in Japan, see https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fvijvohm91uifvd9hr...

One thing you could do is try to support some local events. Some ideas:

* Give a presentation at a local event (English is fine; I can introduce you to event organizers in the design / Ruby community) * Serve as a mentor for a startup weekend - http://startupweekend.jp/ * Participate in this event for event organizers: http://devlove-kansai.doorkeeper.jp/events/2338 (I'll be presenting in [broken] Japanese)

Feel free to follow up with me if you have any more specific questions.

More info here on the HNKansai site: http://hnkansai.org/

Damn, I just came back from Japan, would've loved to go! Really bummed I missed the Tokyo meetup too. I really fell in love with Japan on my trip and would've loved to find out more about the tech scene over there.

I don't know what Japanese programmers use for social network, but try making a mixi group for hackers and see if you attract any people.

We will also be doing an event with Github cofounders!

http://github-onlab.peatix.com

Very cool, I might be able to come!

Hello from SFHN! We hope to see more from HN Kansai!