This article discusses

Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

and Japanese citizens in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 3,566 people of Japanese descent in Harris County, making up 1.3% of the Asians in the county. In 1990 there were 3,425 ethnic Japanese in the county, making up 3.1% of the county's Asians, and in 2000 there were 3,574 ethnic Japanese in the county, making up 1.9% of the county's Asians.Klineberg and Wu, p. 12. Patsy Yoon Brown, the director of the Japan-America Society of Houston (JASH, ヒューストン日米協会 ''Hyūsuton Nichibei Kyōkai''), stated in 2013 that the Japanese American community in Houston had about 3,000 people, and that, as paraphrased by Minh Dam of the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

'', is "a relatively small number compared to other Asian-American communities in the area".Dam, Minh.
Japanese community feeling right at home
" ''

''. April 14, 2013. Updated April 15, 2013. Retrieved on February 17, 2015. Print version: "Culture - Japanese festival bittersweet for 4 girls - The teens have spent 3 years at Cinco Ranch schools, but now it's time for them to go home." Monday April 15, 2013. p. B1. Available from

NewsBank NewsBank is a news database resource that provides archives of media publications as reference materials to libraries. History John Naisbitt, the author of the book ''Megatrends'', founded NewsBank.Andrews 1998, p. 17. The company was launched i ...

, Record Number 15275809. Available from the

Houston Public Library Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 18 ...

online with a library card.

History

A few Japanese, mostly working as laborers, were present in Houston by 1900, and due to a lack of required English knowledge some Japanese in Houston opened small restaurants that catered to working-class people and served inexpensive American meals. In the 1890s a man named Tsunekichi Okasaki, who took the American name "Tom Brown", opened a Japanese restaurant in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

, which employed many recently arrived Japanese Texans.Brady, p
41

Sadatsuchi Uchida was a Japanese diplomat. Assigned to postings in the United States and Brazil, Uchida was instrumental in facilitating improved Japanese trade relations and emigration to both countries. Uchida also served as the first consul in Korea. Early life ...

visited Houston in 1902. There, city leaders of Houston told him that they were interested in allowing Japanese people to operate and own rice colonies. In Japan Uchida talked about the information with friends and published literature in that told about the rice-growing opportunities.

Seito Saibara was a Japanese parliament member, politician, administrator, colonist, and farmer. Apart from his missionary activities, he is credited with having first established the rice industry on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. Sunday December 1, 1991. Special p. 6. Available at

, Record Number 12*01*825948. Available at the

website with a library card. or 1903, and after meeting newspaper editors, bank presidents, and a

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

"colonization agent", he purchased land on a railroad near

Webster, Texas Webster is a city in the U.S. state of Texas located in Harris County, within the Houston–The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area. Its population was 12,499 at the 2020 U.S. census History The community was founded in 1879 by James W. W ...

, using Uchida's advice.Brady, p
42
He used a type of rice that could grow well in Texas, the '' shinriki'' grain. Saibara took his wife and 14-year-old son with him to Texas. Saibara convinced Japanese men to work for him, and paid bonuses for men who brought wives with them. Saibara was the first Japanese person who Uchida had convinced to establish a rice plantation in Texas. The Webster farming colony was in size. After the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

, the 1904 World's Fair in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, prominent Japanese people visited his colony and other Japanese attempted to start rice farming.

Sen Katayama Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: * ...

, a socialist, started a rice colony and failed, while Rihei Onishi, a journalist, succeeded with his venture with his cousin Toraichi.

Shinpei Mykawa was a Japanese rice farmer who introduced the cultivation of rice in parts of southeast Texas. The community of Mykawa and Mykawa Road in Houston are named after him. History Mykawa graduated from what would become Hitotsubashi University. At ...

, who had visited Texas in 1904 during a trip to the World's Fair, returned there in 1906. After he died in an accident that year, the

Santa Fe railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

officials renamed the railroad stop in his community from Erin Station to "Mykawa" and Mykawa Road received its name from Mykawa.Connor, R. E.
How That Road Got Its Name
" ''

Houston Post The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the '' Houston Chronicle''. History Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston ...

'', Sunday May 2, 1965. Spotlight, Page 3. - Available on microfilm at the

Central Library Jesse H. Jones Building Okasaki later began a rice farming operation by 1907, established two more restaurants including one Japanese restaurant, and in 1911 established the Japan Art and Tea Company. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the price of rice fell. Existing Japanese residents lobbied for, and received, exceptions from a law which disallowed land ownership by Japanese people that was passed in the 1920s. The Japanese owners of the Webster farming colony lost much of their land during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Thomas K. Walls, the author of the book ''The Japanese Texans'', stated that Japanese Texans, including Japanese Houstonians, were generally treated well, unlike Japanese in California. Texas was not in proximity to the anti-Japanese attitudes in California. Karkabi wrote "The World War II years were one of the few times Japanese-Texans encountered problems." Abbie Salyers Grubb, author of "From "Tom Brown" to Mykawa Road: The Impact of the Japanese American Community of Houston in the Twentieth Century," wrote that compared to other American cities, "Houston did not see as much racial prejudice" targeting ethnic Japanese.Grubb, p. 14. Japanese business owners, including Okasaki, changed business names that reflected Japanese origin; Okasaki changed his restaurant's name to "U.S. Café". After the war ended, Okasaki went back to Japan.Grubb, p. 12. For a period the place Mykawa had a community of Japanese rice farmers. John M. Moore of the ''

'' said that it "seems to be" that salt water and

waste oil Waste oil is defined as any petroleum-based or synthetic oil that, through contamination, has become unsuitable for its original purpose due to the presence of impurities or loss of original properties. Differentiating between "waste oil" and "use ...

introduced by a nearby oil field destroyed some rice field crops cultivated by the Japanese farmers, causing them to leave the area before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; Moore said that area residents erroneously believed that the farmers left as a result of World War II.Moore, John M. "Mykawa Is Fading Into City's Shadows." ''

''. Sunday July 1, 1951. Section 1, Page 14. Available via microfilm from the

Main Library Jesse H. Jones Building. By 1951 the nearest Japanese farmers were located near Minnetex. During that year many of the Japanese farmers formerly in Mykawa resided in north Harris County. In 1957 reporters from ''

The Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

'' interviewed Saibara's son Kiyoaki and his wife Takako. In 1974 the state of Texas erected a historical marker on

Old Galveston Road State Highway 3 (SH 3) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas that runs from Interstate 45 in Houston near William P. Hobby Airport to State Highway 146, northwest of Galveston. For most of its length, SH 3 parallels I-45 and runs alon ...

that commemorated the Saibara family. The City of Webster named a road "M Kobayashi Road" after rice farmer Mitsutaro Kobayashi. In 1960 the ethnic Japanese in the Houston area lived around Webster, and no ethnic Japanese were in the Houston city limits. By 1991,

Interstate 45 Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the ...

bordered the area of the original farm. A

Fiesta Mart Fiesta Mart, L.L.C., formerly Fiesta Mart Inc., is a Latino-American supermarket chain based in Houston, Texas that was established in 1972. Fiesta Mart stores are located in Texas. The chain uses a cartoon parrot as a mascot. As of 2004 it ope ...

opened. In 1991, there were two members of the Webster rice colony who were still alive. One of them, Kichi Kagawa, lived with her son Bill on a plot of land that was once part of the original farm. The name of Kichi's husband and Bill's father was Yonekichi. In 2015 the Japanese Business Association of Houston (ヒューストン日本商工会 ''Hyūsuton Nihon Shōkōkai'') had 681 members. Its membership had increased by 50 percent in a two-year span.Takahashi, Paul.
Exclusive: New Asian supermarket to launch first store in Houston
" ''

Houston Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

''. March 27, 2015. Retrieved on January 30, 2016.

Demographics

Bruce Glasrud, a historian, stated that the real figure of ethnic Korean residents in Texas and Houston may be higher than official U.S. Census estimates as some previous Korean immigrants were counted as Japanese, as Korea was then under the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

.Chen and Harwell, p. 5.

Economy

Houston's first Japanese grocery store, the Nippan Daido (大道日本食料品店 ''Daidō Nihon Shokuryōhinden'') at

Westheimer Road Westheimer Road () is an arterial east–west road in Houston, Texas, United States. It runs from Bagby Street in Downtown and terminates at the Westpark Tollway on the southern edge of George Bush Park, stretching about long. The street was n ...

at Wilcrest, in the Westchase district. It opened in 1978. As of 1998 Japanese is the predominant language and most items are marked in Japanese and English.Feldman, Claudia. "Explore a tiny corner of Japan in a Houston market." ''

''. Thursday, July 9, 1998. Preview section p. 17. Available at

, Record Number 3068120. Available online from the

with a library card. In 1988 Leslie Watts of the ''

'' wrote that it is " rtually identical in appearance, sound and smell to the small neighborhood markets found in Japan".Watts, Leslie. "TO MARKET, TO MARKET - Take a tour of Houston's ethnic grocery stores for a taste of foreign foods and cultures." ''

''. Friday October 7, 1988. Weekend Preview p. 1. Available on

, Record Number 10*07*575608. Available online from the

with a library card. "Japanese videos to rent and cigarettes are also available according to manager Yoshimasa Kobayashi, who explains that the store is part of a Japanese-American company with only four other locations in the United States." As of 1988 the store offered noodles, fruit and vegetables. vegetables, cigarettes, video rental, underwear and lingerie, socks, origami kits, toys, dolls, cockroach traps, and pharmaceuticals. As of 1998 the store offered fish, teas, soy sauces, frozen potstickers and dumplings, alcohol, tofu sauces, miso soups, rice cookers, chopsticks, and Japanese videos. It was a branch of a chain based in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

; In 1988 this chain, a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

business, had four other U.S. locations. The store's fortunes declined as other shops owned by larger corporations opened, resulting in its September 2019 closure. Toyo Hagiwara and another person acquired the shop and reopened it in December of that year. In 2015 Hideo Matsujiro, a cofounder of Marukai Market, announced that he planned to open the first large Japanese grocery in Houston; the store was scheduled to open in the fall of 2015 at the Ashford Village shopping center in the

Houston Energy Corridor The Energy Corridor is a business district in Houston, Texas, located on the west side of the metropolitan area between Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway. The district straddles a stretch of Interstate 10 (the Katy Freeway) from Kirkwood Road west ...

. The shopping center was previously unoccupied. The store, called "Seiwa Market" (セイワ・マーケット ''Seiwa Māketto''), held a "soft opening" in August 2016. A realtor named Susan Kwok Annoura stated in 2016 that the development of Seiwa and some adjacent Japanese businesses may start a "

Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little ...

" in Houston. As of 2015 there is a Japanese household goods store in the

Houston Chinatown Chinatown ( or ) is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States. There is another Chinatown called "Old Chinatown" located within the East Downtown Houston district near the George R. Brown Convention Center. History The first busi ...

called "Fit." As of 2019 there was also a

Daiso is a large franchise of 100-yen shops founded in Japan. The headquarters are in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture. Daiso has a range of over 100,000 products, of which over 40 percent are imported goods, many of them from China, South Ko ...

and a

Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's ...

Education

the following public schools have the highest enrollments of Japanese students: * Elementary: Barbara Bush, Ray K. Daily, and Roberts elementary schools in

Houston ISD The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

; Bunker Hill Elementary School in

Spring Branch ISD Spring Branch Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Hedwig Village, Texas, United States in Greater Houston. The district serves portions of western Houston,Morales, Katherine.Residents working to retain superintendent ...

, Nottingham Country Elementary School in

Katy ISD The Katy Independent School District (KISD) is a public school district based in Katy, Texas, United States with an enrollment of over 85,700 students. As of August 2009, the district was rated as "Recognized" by the Texas Education Agency. ...

; and John F. Ward Elementary School in

Clear Creek ISD Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD) is a school district based in League City, Texas, United States. The district serves most of the Clear Lake Area and some other neighboring parts of the Houston metropolitan area. CCISD is the 29 ...

* Middle: West Briar Middle School in Houston ISD, Spring Forest Middle School and Memorial Middle School in SBISD * High: Stratford High School in SBISD The

Japanese Language Supplementary School of Houston The is a Hoshū jugyō kō, supplementary Japanese school in Houston, Texas. Its classes are held at the Westchester Academy for International Studies.

, a supplementary Japanese school, is located in the city. Its classes are held at the

Westchester Academy for International Studies The Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS) is a public charter school in the Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, Texas. It serves grades 6–12 and is an International Baccalaureate continuum school, authorized for ...

.Home pageArchive
. Japanese Language Supplementary School of Houston. Retrieved on March 30, 2014. "借用校： Westchester Academy 901 Yorkchester Houston, Texas, USA 77079" and "連絡先（事務局）火曜 - 金曜日 12651 Briar Forest Dr. Suite 105, Houston, Texas, USA 77077" and the school office is located in the Memorial Ashford Place office building. The school, operated by the Japanese Educational Institute (JEI, ヒューストン日本語教育振興会 ''Hyūsuton Nihongo Kyōiku Shinkō Kai''), is for children between ages 5 and 18 who are Japanese speakers. Many of the students are temporarily residing in the United States. The JEI had been established due to the growth of Japanese businesses in the 1970s.Grubb, p. 16. There is one Japanese-language library in Houston, the Sansui-Kai Center Library (三水会センター・図書館).

Recreation

The Japanfest ( Japan Festival), sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Houston, is annually held at

Hermann Park Hermann Park is a urban park in Houston, Texas, situated at the southern end of the Museum District. The park is located immediately north of the Texas Medical Center and Brays Bayou, east of Rice University, and slightly west of the Third ...

. It is the only outdoor festival of its type permitted to be held at the park. In 2013 almost 2,700 people attended that year's festival. Hermann Park is also home to a

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

supported by businesspeople of Japanese origins.

Institutions

The

Consulate-General of Japan in Houston The is Japan's diplomatic facility in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in Suite 3000 at 2 Houston Center, which is located at 900 Fannin Street in Downtown Houston. The consulate serves Texas and Oklahoma. the consul general is . ...

is located in 2 Houston Center in

. The consulate serves Texas and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Transportation

In 1999

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started o ...

began its services from

George Bush Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 ...

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

near Tokyo. The City of Houston had been pursuing flights to Tokyo since 1969. Continental originally scheduled for the flights to begin on December 30, 1998. Continental obtained the rights after U.S. and Japanese authorities agreed to allow for new services between the two countries. Continental has since merged into

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

. In 2015

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had mo ...

began services from Tokyo Narita to Houston Bush. ANA CEO Osamu Shinobe cited the presence of Japanese companies in the Houston area as one of the reasons his company started Houston services.Koenig, David.
Japan's All Nippon Airways now in 10 North American cities, may add destinations in central US

Archive
. ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' at the ''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

''. June 18, 2015. Retrieved on February 9, 2016. The same article also discusses the size of Houston's Japanese community versus Denver's.

Notable residents

Seito Saibara was a Japanese parliament member, politician, administrator, colonist, and farmer. Apart from his missionary activities, he is credited with having first established the rice industry on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Shinpei Mykawa was a Japanese rice farmer who introduced the cultivation of rice in parts of southeast Texas. The community of Mykawa and Mykawa Road in Houston are named after him. History Mykawa graduated from what would become Hitotsubashi University. At ...

, Hollywood Cemetery

References

*
Table of contents
** ** * Klineberg, Stephen L. and Jie Wu.
DIVERSITY AND TRANSFORMATION AMONG ASIANS IN HOUSTON: Findings from the Kinder Institute’s Houston Area Asian Survey (1995, 2002, 2011)

Archive
.

Kinder Institute for Urban Research Kinder is the German word for "children"; it may also refer to: Businesses *Kinder, a trademark of Ferrero SpA, Ferrero, an Italian confectioner: **Kinder Surprise **Kinder Chocolate bars **Kinder Happy Hippo **Kinder Bueno **Kinder Joy *Kinder M ...

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

. February 2013.

Notes

External links

Japan-America Society of Houston
*
Japanese Association of Greater Houston
(JAGH, グレーターヒューストン日本人会 ''Gurētā Hyūsuton Nihonjin Kai'')

*
Japan Business Association of Houston

International Christian Church of Houston
(Japanese-English Bilingual church 日本語-英語　バイリンガル教会) {{Portal bar, Japan, Texas, United States

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Japanese-American history