There are nice spots, but a lot of them do not want you organizing events inside them. Like many things this is all pretty funancialized (it doesn’t help that new constructions are almost all filled with chains staffed by part-time staff).
On top of that parks don’t tend to have that many tables (Yoyogi exists but Yoyogi is one park).
Community spaces kinda work but you need a quorum of people who live in the ward, so there’s some startup difficulties there.
Chess isn’t that popular but it’s a hell of a lot easier in many places to just take over a space during sleepy weekend AMs.
At least in US which is also usually pretty commercial it is a lot more palatable to propose to a business owner if you promise to come in during an extremely slow time period (e.g. Monday for a bar). But otherwise the worst for the owners is a bunch of slow people sitting a long time ordering very cheap things, taking seats from more spendy, higher turnover customers.
It also doesn’t help that my impression of Japan when I went there, was that a lot of these small businesses have room for maybe a dozen people at best.
Yeah that's a good point. I know a couple events whose scheduling is "we ask the bar what day they usually have ~0 people, and we will instead bring 30 people". Always seems a bit limited to bars, but it's something!
Restaurants can also be willing to host especially if they’re open all day and have slow times. One restaurant even put up a plaque for the group that has been meeting there at 10AM on Mondays for ten+ years.
Coffee shops are smaller these days, but for a small group it can work.
On top of that parks don’t tend to have that many tables (Yoyogi exists but Yoyogi is one park).
Community spaces kinda work but you need a quorum of people who live in the ward, so there’s some startup difficulties there.
Chess isn’t that popular but it’s a hell of a lot easier in many places to just take over a space during sleepy weekend AMs.