I believe the site has changed a lot since then-- it's more driven by the student-teacher market place now. My opinion: if you can afford a few conversational lessons on the platform, it's way more efficient than language exchange. I often spend a significant amount of time arranging language exchanges and then, by nature, you will only spend 50% of your time in your target language. Whereas, I can find conversational lessons on the platform for $8-12/hr (varies by language), and, by nature, it's a business transaction so it will be more reliable and tailorable than relying on voluntary language exchanges.
If you post in this section with #LanguagePartner you should find someone. I feel Japanese is a popular language and lesson prices for Japanese are on the higher side, so I'm sure someone will be interested in a language exchange. Good luck!