I've known this Japanese person for like almost a year now. We literally met on a train abroad and stayed in contact to this day. I went up to where they lived at the time earlier this year and met up for a day. I would not say that we are super close, but we talk to each other about stuff like university, work, hobbies, places that we've travelled to, and we exchange languages where we try to speak English and Japanese to each other. Never once in any message, phone call, or when we met up that one day did they ever mention ANYTHING about being in a relationship, but I'm also worried that maybe they're just hiding it.
We kind of message each other like once a week, and we've called on the phone a total of maybe around 7 times. They have moved to another city in Japan recently and they said that they're living alone and that they have family in the same city. They went on a trip with a few friends a earlier this year as a graduation celebration trip and there were some men and some women on that trip.
I'm hesitant on whether or not my friend is in a relationship or not, and don't want to ask because I don't want to violate their boundaries, but I just wanted to ask if it's normal for Japanese people to not tell their foreign friends whether or not they are in a relationship. Given the circumstances, do you think that my friend would have told me by now if they really are in a relationship with someone?
Oh, and if it matters I'm 23 and they are 25. They just finished the university this semester.