If loneliness is a huge problem why don’t people become friends with strangers more often?

If they could do that then loneliness obviously wouldn't be a problem.

Would a 1.9m blond bloke find a role or would be considered too foreign? Few gigs would help with travel budget.

Very possibly the opposite! Companies will hire westerners to pose (like, literally stand and smile and nothing else) as C-level execs because having foreign execs correlates with a successful international business and thus looks good to potential partners and the like.

I thought that was more common in mainland China than in Japan. Rent-a-gweilo executive impersonation services.