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Recently I came across these two sentences in chapter 6 of Tobira:

> 天照大神 **には** 須佐之男命という弟の神様がいたのですが...

> 私も変だと思うだけど、でも、私の友達 **にも** 結婚式は絶対に教会でしたいと思っている人、結構いるんだ。(here, both the people
> in the dialogue think it weird that Japanese people would choose to marry at
> a christian church, which I think contrasts with the opinion of this friend)

My question is about the use of に in these situations: what do they mean or
what is their function?

Regarding the first one, I think it means the same as は does alone, but then
why use the に?

The second one I find more complicated. I can think of it as meaning "for my
friend there are quite a lot of people that want to...", but it does not seem
right when seeing the bigger context.
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question
grammar particles
Different use of に (は/も)
The に means (abstract) location for いる.

In Japanese, いる can be used not only for _There is/are..._ but also for
_(someone) has..._ , where _someone_ is indicated by に.

  * 部屋に子供がいる There is a child in the room.
  * 私に(は)3人の子供がいる I have three children ('Three children exist at me')

For the sentences in question, 天照大神に **は** topicalizes the 'location' 天照大神に;
it does not change the meaning, but more often には is used for this case than に
alone.

In the second sentence, 私の友達に is slightly different from the above (see the
examples below) and means _among my friends_. It means the same as 私の友達 **の中**
に. も add _also_ , so 私の友達にも...思っている人、結構いるんだ means _(Not only those you talked
about,) also among my friends, there are many people that ..._

  * 私の友達に(は)弟がいる My friend has a brother
  * 私の友達に美容師がいる One of my friends is a hair dresser.
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answer
The first に is a に of location/possession. It's the same pattern as
アパートに弟がいた。, or 私に本がある。You do often see the possessor indicated with は but I
think that conceptually it's not so much that you start with は for possession
and then can randomly add に, but instead that you start with に for possession,
add は for emphasis, then can drop the に.

The second に tripped me up for a second as well, but I think the confusion
actually stems from a sentence-parsing problem. The 私の友達にも bit doesn't belong
to the と思っている modifying clause, it belongs to the wider sentence. I.e.
私の友達にも[結婚式は絶対に教会でしたいと思っている]人、結構いるんだ。Basically, "among my friends, there are a
lot of people who want to have their wedding in a church." A simpler sentence
following the same pattern would be something like "私の友達に外国人が結構います。 Among my
friends there are many foreigners."
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answer