Echoing what Bill said, joining the monthly meetup in Tokyo can be a quick way to meet a diverse handful of active investors here in the Tokyo area.  

A healthy economy depends on diversity, and especially support for those large swaths of land used for farming—those little towns like Hollis and Brookline.

@William AllenREIA meets at Corky's in Brentwood every Monday at 11:30 (although tomorrow's meeting is moved because of broken AC)Great, diverse group - you can find out more info on meetup.comREIN also meets once a month for lunch in Cool Springs

If you're looking for a diverse group of experience, I would attend the local meet ups.

There are 5 boroughs, each of which is large and diverse.

You are going to want to look at crime, population growth, job growth, job diversity, and income to rent ratios.

I invest in Cody/Powell area but am looking at outside markets that are more diverse.

Look for primary and secondary metro areas where there is growing population, growing and diverse employment, and steadily increasing rents.

The plan is to deploy several hundred thousand in capitol (from a post tax brokerage account) split up across 5 investments or so to start for the sake of both Diversity and possible Passive pairing to help with taxes (Ex one may give more losses and other more passive income and thus offset). 

Growing populations and jobs with diverse economies and modern industries is important to long term asset value.