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Alumni reunions allow former students of the same school to gather together and they serve as excellent occasions for rekindling old friendships. In Japan, people call such occasions dousou-kai. Many participants insist on spending the longest time possible with their old friends – in fact, the parties often go on into second and third rounds, or even longer. Many retired people in their 60s are particularly fond of such reunions, which make cherished old memories come alive.
Within the last year alone, the demand for dousou-kai has expanded notably. The Keio Plaza Hotel has provided 1.5 times as many dousou-kai packages as usual, allowing participants to make the most of the hotel’s party halls and foods.
One reason for this rapid rise in the number of dousou-kai parties is that many came away from the devastating March 11th earthquake of 2011 in Tohoku district with a renewed appreciation for the importance of friendship. Yet another factor is the spread of social networking services like Facebook, which enable users to find and contact their old friends more easily than ever before.
Updated: 13 March, 2018
