Gokon 合コン

  • Published on : 27/09/2018
  • by : Ph.L
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The gokon - Japanese group dating

Group dating, Japanese style!

Finding your soulmate isn't easy. Especially so in Japan, where men and women don't generally go out in mixed groups. To expand their social circle, and try to find that special someone, the Japanese have devised a technique that is not widespread in the West: the gokon, a kind of group blind date!

Made up of an equal number of men and women, a gokon usually takes the form of a dinner organised by two members of the group (a man and a woman) where the participants enjoy an evening while getting to know each other. They drink, eat, and try to end the evening with the phone number of whoever they hit it off with best!

This practice, very Japanese in terms of traditions and customs, actually dates from the 1970s, when students organized mixed nights on campus to try to meet people of the opposite sex.


A gokon is an organised dinner with the aim of making introductions between the sexes

A gokon in action

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