Route

start browsing various websites and VK groups dedicated to this, and start getting to know Japanese people and fellow countrymen who have moved to this wonderful country through correspondence.

By the way, about that.
As a rather lazy person, but with long-term goals, I added a dozen expat communities from different countries (Asian and Latin American) to my Facebook feed and pull interesting people from there (i.e., if I see an interesting person, I subscribe to their feed). So to speak, information from the source. The main thing is not to overdo it, because you can get stuck on Facebook for hours, and that's not very good when time is wasted.

Added 8 minutes ago

Self-discipline is also important for freelancing, so you don't give up on the task. Oh, I sometimes feel like doing it too, but because of my poor self-discipline, I'm not up for it.

Yes, I also attribute self-discipline to time management.
It's not a problem to write a plan of tasks for a month with an approximate timing (how much time will be spent on what) once a month, and then break down this plan into weeks. And then into days. I never break it down on the computer, I just roughly estimate in my head what and where, which is why I consider myself a slacker.
Of course, it's harder to stick to the plan than to write it, but it's easier to improve yourself with a plan than without one. By the way, I constantly fail to follow the monthly plan, to be honest, but I still see the benefit of planning.

Added 2 minutes ago
Oh, I forgot about priorities.
If two or more urgent tasks conflict in time and I can only do one, then I look at what is a priority for me and do that. And I ignore the rest.