About

Nobody should have to do this alone.

Every year, thousands of young Japanese people arrive in Metro Vancouver to study, work and figure out what comes next. Most spend their first months paying for information that should have been free, and their last months wondering whether any of it counted.

SyncBuds exists to close that gap. We are a member-funded society registered in british columbia, canada, run by the same people we serve.

The problem

Three things that keep going wrong.

How we work

Members run everything.

SyncBuds operates in cohorts. Each intake takes on a real programme — media, events, community, product — and runs it for the length of the cohort. 120+ people have come through so far, across 6 cohorts.

What we run

Two programmes.

Vancouver Osusume

Japanese-language local media covering life in Metro Vancouver. Running since 2024, produced entirely by members. It is how most people find us, and how our sponsorship and PR work is funded.

Media kit

Ryugaku+

Work aimed at the hardest part of the year abroad: getting hired. We are building the candidate side now, with employer access opening by invitation.

For employers

We also publish about our own work in Japanese, on syncbuds.jp and on LinkedIn.

The network around us

We are not the only ones doing this.

Vancouver’s Japanese community is served by several independent groups. We coordinate with them rather than compete, which is often how an event reaches people who follow none of our channels. These are separate organizations, not SyncBuds programmes.

Independent partner organization

Mingle

A Japanese-language meetup community in Vancouver, independently run. When an event needs to reach people who are not on our channels, this is one of the ways it happens.

Independent partner organization

Pocket

Independently run, working with the same community from a different angle. We coordinate rather than compete.

The organization

Registration details.

Legal name: SyncBuds Marketing Association
Entity type: Member-funded society registered in British Columbia, Canada
Founded: June 2024
Registered office: #250 – 997 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC V6B 3M1, Canada
Contact: contact@syncbuds.ca

Work with us.

Sponsorship, co-hosted events, campaigns, hiring — or just a question about what we do.

Get in touch