are

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in ranking to constitute the sixth largest Asian American group at around 1,469,637, including those of partial ancestry. According to the 2010 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 272,528,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

with 185,502, New York with 37,780,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

with 35,008,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

with 17,542 and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

with 16,995.

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

has the largest Japanese American population in North America and the city of Gardena holds the densest Japanese American population in the 48 contiguous states.

History

Immigration

People from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

began migrating to the US in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

in 1868. These early

Issei are Japanese immigrants to countries in North America and South America. The term is used mostly by ethnic Japanese. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are (, "two", plus , "generation"); and their grandchildren are ...

immigrants came primarily from small towns and rural areas in the southern Japanese prefectures of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

, Yamaguchi,

Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...

, and

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

and most of them settled in either Hawaii or along the West Coast. The Japanese population in the United States grew from 148 in 1880 (mostly students) to 2,039 in 1890 and 24,326 by 1900. In the earliest years of the 20th century, American officials with no experience in "transliterating...Japanese" often gave Japanese-Americans new names before and during the process of their

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

. In 1907, the

Gentlemen's Agreement A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding wikt:agreement, agreement between two or more parties. It is typically Oral contract, oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspok ...

between the governments of Japan and the United States ended immigration of Japanese unskilled workers, but permitted the immigration of businessmen, students and spouses of Japanese immigrants already in the US. Prior to the Gentlemen's Agreement, about seven out of eight ethnic Japanese in the continental United States were men. By 1924, the ratio had changed to approximately four women to every six men. Japanese immigration to the U.S. effectively ended when Congress passed the

Immigration Act of 1924 The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from every count ...

which banned all but a token few Japanese people. The earlier

Naturalization Act of 1790 The Naturalization Act of 1790 (, enacted March 26, 1790) was a law of the United States Congress that set the first uniform rules for the granting of United States citizenship by naturalization. The law limited naturalization to "free whi ...

restricted naturalized United States citizenship to free white persons, which excluded the Issei from citizenship. As a result, the Issei were unable to vote and faced additional restrictions such as the inability to own land under many state laws. Due to these restrictions, Japanese immigration to the United States between 1931 and 1950 only totaled 3,503 which is strikingly low compared to the totals of 46,250 people in 1951–1960, 39,988 in 1961–70, 49,775 in 1971–80, 47,085 in 1981–90, and 67,942 in 1991–2000. Because no new immigrants from Japan were permitted after 1924, almost all pre-World War II Japanese Americans born after this time were born in the United States. This generation, the

Nisei is a Japanese language, Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the nikkeijin, ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or . The , or Second generation imm ...

, became a distinct cohort from the Issei generation in terms of age, citizenship, and English-language ability, in addition to the usual generational differences. Institutional and interpersonal racism led many of the Nisei to marry other Nisei, resulting in a third distinct generation of Japanese Americans, the

Sansei is a Japanese and North American English term used in parts of the world (mainly in South America and North America) to refer to the children of children born to ethnically Japanese emigrants (''Issei'') in a new country of residence, outside o ...

. Significant Japanese immigration did not occur again until the

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, was a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The ...

ended 40 years of bans against immigration from Japan and other countries. In the last few decades, immigration from Japan has been more like that from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The numbers involve on average 5 to 10 thousand per year, and is similar to the amount of immigration to the US from Germany. This is in stark contrast to the rest of Asia, where better opportunity of life is the primary impetus for immigration.

Internment and redress

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals or citizens residing on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...

were forcibly interned in ten different camps across the Western United States. The internment was based on the race or ancestry, rather than the activities of the interned. Families, including children, were interned together. and 5,000 were able to "voluntarily" relocate outside the exclusion zone; In 1948, the Evacuation Claims Act provided some compensation for property losses, but the act required documentation that many former inmates had lost during their removal and excluded lost opportunities, wages or interest from its calculations. Less than 24,000 filed a claim, and most received only a fraction of the losses they claimed. Four decades later, the

Civil Liberties Act of 1988 The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (, title I, August 10, 1988, , et seq.) is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned by the United States government during World War II and to "di ...

officially acknowledged the "fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights" of the internment. Many Japanese Americans consider the term internment camp a

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

and prefer to refer to the forced relocation of Japanese Americans as imprisonment in concentration camps. Webster's New World Fourth College Edition defines a concentration camp: "A prison camp in which political dissidents, members of minority ethnic groups, etc. are confined."

Cultural profile

Generations

The nomenclature for each of their generations who are citizens or long-term residents of countries other than Japan, used by Japanese Americans and other nationals of Japanese descent are explained here; they are formed by combining one of the

Japanese numbers The are numerals that are used in Japanese. In writing, they are the same as the Chinese numerals, and large numbers follow the Chinese style of grouping by 10,000. Two pronunciations are used: the Sino-Japanese () readings of the Chinese charact ...

corresponding to the

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

with the Japanese word for generation (''sei'' 世). The Japanese American communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like ''Issei'', ''Nisei'', and ''Sansei'', which describe the first, second, and third generations of immigrants. The fourth generation is called ''Yonsei'' (四世), and the fifth is called ''Gosei'' (五世). The term ''

Nikkei Nikkei can refer to: *, abbreviated , Nikkei, a large media corporation in Japan *, abbreviated , Nikkei, a major business newspaper published in Japan *, a Japanese stock market index, published by ''Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' *Nikkei cuisine, a Japan ...

'' (日系) encompasses Japanese immigrants in all countries and of all generations. The ''

kanreki In the Sinosphere, one's sixtieth birthday has traditionally held special significance. Especially when life expectancies were shorter, the sixtieth birthday was seen as a symbolic threshold for reaching old age and having lived a full life. Th ...

'' (還暦), a pre-modern Japanese

rite of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of social status, status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisa ...

to old age at 60, is now being celebrated by increasing numbers of Japanese American ''Nisei.'' Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values; and this traditional Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.

Languages

''Issei'' and many ''nisei'' speak Japanese in addition to English as a second language. In general, later generations of Japanese Americans speak English as their first language, though some do learn Japanese later as a second language. It is taught in private Japanese language schools as early as the second grade. As a courtesy to the large number of Japanese tourists (from Japan), Japanese characters are provided on place signs, public transportation, and civic facilities. The Hawaii media market has a few locally produced Japanese language newspapers and magazines, although these are on the verge of dying out, due to a lack of interest on the part of the local (Hawaii-born) Japanese population. Stores that cater to the tourist industry often have Japanese-speaking personnel. To show their allegiance to the US, many ''nisei'' and ''sansei'' intentionally avoided learning Japanese. But as many of the later generations find their identities in both Japan and America or American society broadens its definition of cultural identity, studying Japanese is becoming more popular than it once was.

Education

Japanese American culture places great value on education and culture. Across generations, children are often instilled with a strong desire to enter the rigors of higher education. In 1966, sociologist

William Petersen William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Gil Grissom in the CBS drama thriller series ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2000–2015), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award an ...

(who coined the term "Model Minority") wrote that Japanese Americans "have established this remarkable record, moreover, by their own almost totally unaided effort. Every attempt to hamper their progress resulted only in enhancing their determination to succeed." The 2000 census reported that 40.8% of Japanese Americans held a college degree.

Schools for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals

A Japanese school opened in Hawaii in 1893 and other Japanese schools for temporary settlers in North America followed.Endo, R. (

Hamline University Hamline University ( ) is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of th ...

). "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community." ''

Bilingual Research Journal The ''Bilingual Research Journal'' is a triannual peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering bilingual and multilingual education theory and practice and language policies in education. It is the only journal specifically dedicated to ...

'', 2013, Vol. 36(3), pp. 278–294 79 In the years prior to World War II, many second generation Japanese American attended the American school by day and the Japanese school in the evening to keep up their Japanese skill as well as English. Other first generation Japanese American parents were worried that their child might go through the same discrimination when going to school so they gave them the choice to either go back to Japan to be educated, or to stay in America with their parents and study both languages. Anti-Japanese sentiment during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

resulted in public efforts to close Japanese-language schools. The 1927 Supreme Court case ''

Farrington v. Tokushige ''Farrington v. Tokushige'', 273 U.S. 284 (1927), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously struck down the Territory of Hawaii's law, making it illegal for schools to teach foreign languages without a permit, as it v ...

'' protected the Japanese American community's right to have Japanese language private institutions. During the

internment of Japanese Americans United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...

in World War II many Japanese schools were closed. After the war many Japanese schools reopened.Endo, R. (

). "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community." ''

'', 2013, Vol. 36(3), pp. 278–294 80 There are primary school-junior high school Japanese international schools within the United States. Some are classified as ''

nihonjin gakkō , also called Japanese school, is a full-day school outside Japan intended primarily for Japanese citizens living abroad. It is an expatriate school designed for children whose parents are working on diplomatic, business, or education missions ...

'' or Japanese international schools operated by Japanese associations, and some are classified as ''

Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu ''Zaigai kyōiku shisetsu'' ( 在外教育施設 'Overseas educational institution'), or in English, Japanese international school or overseas Japanese school, may refer to one of three types of institutions officially classified by the Ministry ...

'' ( 私立在外教育施設) or overseas branches of Japanese private schools.私立在外教育施設一覧
().

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...

. Retrieved on March 1, 2015. They are:

Seigakuin Atlanta International School was an international school, international, private school, private, Christian school, Christian elementary school located in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, Peachtree Corners, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta, It i ...

, Chicago Futabakai Japanese School, Japanese School of Guam, Nishiyamato Academy of California near Los Angeles, Japanese School of New Jersey, and New York Japanese School. A boarding senior high school,

Keio Academy of New York is a private high school in Purchase, Harrison, New York, in the New York City metropolitan area. It is sponsored by Keio University,Lyman, Rick.THE JAPANESE WAY IN A QUIET NEW YORK SCHOOL, 463 CHILDREN OF \ JAPAN'S CORPORATE ELITE GET A PROPER ...

, is near New York City. It is a ''Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu''. There are also supplementary Japanese educational institutions (''hoshū jugyō kō'') that hold Japanese classes on weekends. They are located in several US cities.北米の補習授業校一覧（平成25年4月15日現在）
"

. Retrieved on May 5, 2014. The supplementary schools target Japanese nationals and second-generation Japanese Americans living in the United States. There are also Japanese heritage schools for third generation and beyond Japanese Americans.Endo, R. (

). "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community." ''

'', 2013, Vol. 36(3), pp. 278–294 81 Rachel Endo of

, the author of "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community," wrote that the heritage schools "generally emphasize learning about Japanese American historical experiences and Japanese culture in more loosely defined terms".Endo, R. (

). "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community." ''

'', 2013, Vol. 36(3), pp. 278–294 82

Tennessee Meiji Gakuin High School (1989–2007) was a Japanese education system boarding high school located in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The school, a part of Meiji Gakuin ( 学校法人明治学院) and affiliated with the Japanese Presbyterian institution Meiji Gakuin Universi ...

(''shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu'') and

International Bilingual School The , later International School of Los Angeles (ISLA), was an international bilingual day school in Palos Verdes Estates, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, serving students in Kindergarten through grade 9.Park, Andrew. "The ABCs ...

(unapproved by the

Japanese Ministry of Education The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001, the former ...

or MEXT) were full-time Japanese schools that were formerly in existence.

Socioeconomic Status / Demographics

In 2023 Japanese Americans had a Median Household Income of $100,611, significantly higher than the Total Population. Japanese Americans also have a very small average household size (2.17), this is in contrast to a lot of other Asian American groups. Japanese Americans have a very high Per Capita Income of $61,568. Japanese American Males and Females have a Median Earning of $86,636 and $71,468, respectively. 60.1% of Japanese Americans work in Management, business, science, and arts occupations. Japanese Americans have a surprisingly low labor force participation rate of 54.6%. This may be because of the communities significantly older population, with the median age being 54.6.

Religion

Japanese Americans practice a wide range of religions, including

Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...

(

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran (founder) S ...

Jōdo-shū Jōdo-shū (浄土宗, "The Pure Land School"), is a Japanese branch of Pure Land Buddhism derived from the teachings of the Kamakura era monk Hōnen (1133–1212). The school is traditionally considered as having been established in 1175 and i ...

Nichiren was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. His teachings form the basis of Nichiren Buddhism, a unique branch of Japanese Mahayana Buddhism based on the '' Lotus Sutra''. Nichiren declared that the '' Lotus Sutra ...

Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...

, and

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

forms),

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

, and Christianity (usually

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, being their majority faith as per recent data). In many ways, due to the longstanding nature of Buddhist and Shinto practices in Japanese society, many of the cultural values and traditions commonly associated with Japanese tradition have been strongly influenced by these religious forms. USA-San Jose-Betsuin Buddhist Church-1

A large number of the Japanese American community continue to practice

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

in some form, and a number of community traditions and festivals continue to center around Buddhist institutions. For example, one of the most popular community festivals is the annual

Obon Festival or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...

, which occurs in the summer, and provides an opportunity to reconnect with their customs and traditions and to pass these traditions and customs to the young. These kinds of festivals are mostly popular in communities with large populations of Japanese Americans, such as

and Hawaii. A reasonable number of Japanese people both in and out of Japan are secular, as Shinto and Buddhism are most often practiced by rituals such as marriages or funerals, and not through faithful worship, as defines religion for many Americans. Most Japanese Americans now practice Christianity. Among mainline denominations the Presbyterians have long been active. The First Japanese Presbyterian Church of San Francisco opened in 1885. Los Angeles Holiness Church was founded by six Japanese men and women in 1921. There is also the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS) formed in the 1950s. It operates Asian American Christian Fellowships (AACF) programs on university campuses, especially in California. The Japanese language ministries are fondly known as "Nichigo" in Japanese American Christian communities. The newest trend includes Asian American members who do not have a Japanese heritage.

Celebrations

An important annual festival for Japanese Americans is the

, which happens in July or August of each year. Across the country, Japanese Americans gather on fair grounds, churches and large civic parking lots and commemorate the memory of their ancestors and their families through folk dances and food. Carnival booths are usually set up so Japanese American children have the opportunity to play together. Japanese American celebrations tend to be more sectarian in nature and focus on the community-sharing aspects.

Politics

Japanese Americans have shown strong support for Democratic candidates in recent elections. Shortly prior to the

2004 US presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Republican President George W. Bush and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney, were re-elected to a second term. They narrowly defeated ...

, Japanese Americans narrowly favored

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

by a 42% to 38% margin over Republican

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

. In the

2008 US presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...

, the National Asian American Survey found that Japanese Americans favored

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

by a 62% to 16% margin over Republican

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

, while 22% were still undecided. In the

2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January: ...

, a majority of Japanese Americans (70%) voted for Barack Obama. In the 2016 presidential election, majority of Japanese Americans (74%) voted for

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

. In pre-election surveys for the 2020 presidential election, 61% to 72% of Japanese Americans planned to vote for

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

Restaurant industry

Circa 2016, the

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan) Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

calculated that people of Japanese ancestry operated about 10% of the Japanese restaurants in the United States; this was because salaries were relatively high in Japan and few cooks of Japanese cuisine had motivations to move to the United States. This meant Americans and immigrants of other ethnic origins, including Chinese Americans, opened restaurants serving Japanese style cuisine.

Genetics

Risk for inherited diseases

Studies have looked into the risk factors that are more prone to Japanese Americans, specifically in hundreds of family generations of

(''The generation of people born in North America, Philippines, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan either to at least one Issei or one non-immigrant Japanese parent)'' second-generation pro-bands (''A person serving as the starting point for the genetic study of a family, used in medicine and psychiatry).'' The risk factors for genetic diseases in Japanese Americans include coronary heart disease and diabetes. One study, called the Japanese American Community Diabetes Study that started in 1994 and went through 2003, involved the pro-bands taking part to test whether the increased risk of

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

among Japanese Americans is due to the effects of Japanese Americans having a more westernized lifestyle due to the many differences between the United States of America and Japan. One of the main goals of the study was to create an archive of

DNA sample Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

s which could be used to identify which diseases are more susceptible in Japanese Americans. Concerns with these studies of the risks of inherited diseases in Japanese Americans is that information pertaining to the genetic relationship may not be consistent with the reported biological family information given of Nisei second generation pro-bands. Also, research has been put on concerning

apolipoprotein E Apolipoprotein E (Apo-E) is a protein involved in the metabolism of fats in the body of mammals. A subtype is implicated in Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular diseases. It is encoded in humans by the gene ''APOE''. Apo-E belongs to a family ...

genotypes; this polymorphism has three alleles (*e2, *e3, and *e4) and was determined from research because of its known association with increased cholesterol levels and risk of

coronary heart disease Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), or ischemic heart disease (IHD), is a type of cardiovascular disease, heart disease involving Ischemia, the reduction of blood flow to the cardiac muscle due to a build-up ...

in Japanese Americans. Specifically too, the apolipoprotein *e4 allele is linked to

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

as well. Also, there is increased coronary heart disease in Japanese American men with a

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

in the cholesterol ester transfer protein gene despite having increased levels of HDL. By definition, HDL are plasma high density lipoproteins that show a genetic relationship with coronary heart disease (CHD). The cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) helps the transfer of cholesterol esters from lipoproteins to other lipoproteins in the human body. It plays a fundamental role in the reverse transport of cholesterol to the

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

, which is why a mutation in this can lead to coronary heart disease. Studies have shown that the CETP is linked to increased HDL levels. There is a very common pattern of two different cholesterol ester transfer protein gene mutations (D442G, 5.1%; intron 14G:A, 0.5%) found in about 3,469 Japanese American men. This was based on a program called the Honolulu Heart Program. The mutations correlated with decreased CETP levels (−35%) and increased HDL cholesterol levels (+10% for D442G). The relative risk of CHD was 1.43 in men with mutations (P<0.05), and after research found for CHD risk factors, the relative risk went up to 1.55 (P=0.02); after further adjustments for HDL levels, the relative risk went up again to 1.68 (P=0.008). Genetic CETP deficiency is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, which is due mainly to increased CHD risks in Japanese American men with the D442G mutation and lipoprotein cholesterol levels between 41 and 60 mg/dl. With research and investigations, the possibility of finding "bad genes" denounces the Japanese Americans and will be associated only with Japanese American ancestry, leading to other issues the Japanese Americans had to deal with in the past such as discrimination and prejudice.

Japanese Americans by state

California

In the early 1900s, Japanese Americans established fishing communities on

Terminal Island Terminal Island, historically known as , is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington, Los Angeles, Wilmington and San Pedro, Los Angeles, San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles ...

and in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. By 1923, there were two thousand Japanese fishermen sailing out of Los Angeles Harbor. By the 1930s, legislation was passed that attempted to limit Japanese fishermen. Still, areas such as San Francisco's

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 ...

managed to thrive. Due to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, historically Japanese areas fell into disrepair or became adopted by other minority groups (in the case of Black and Latino populations in Little Tokyo). Boats owned by Japanese Americans were confiscated by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. One of the vessels owned by a Japanese American, the ''Alert'', built in 1930, became YP-264 in December 1941, and was finally struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

in 2014. When Japanese Americans returned from internment, many settled in neighborhoods where they set up their own

community centers A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

to feel accepted. Today, many have been renamed cultural centers and focus on the sharing of Japanese culture with local community members, especially in the sponsorship of

Obon or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ance ...

festivals. The city of Torrance in

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the eas ...

has headquarters of Japanese automakers and offices of other Japanese companies. Because of the abundance of Japanese restaurants and other cultural offerings are in the city, and Willy Blackmore of ''

L.A. Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' wrote that Torrance was "essentially Japan's 48th

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

Colorado

From the early 20th century,

Japanese immigrants The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (, ) or as Nikkeijin (, ), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as ...

to the state often came from rural parts of Japan and the "prosperous

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

". There were roughly 11,000 people of Japanese heritage in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

as of 2005. The history up until 2005 was covered in the book ''Colorado's Japanese Americans: From 1886 to the Present'' by award-winning author and journalist

Bill Hosokawa William Kunpei Hosokawa (, January 30, 1915 – November 9, 2007) was an American writer and journalist. Of Japanese descent, while internment of Japanese Americans, interned at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, he was the editor of the ...

. One of the first documented was engineer Tadaatsu Matsudaira who moved there for health reasons in 1886. The Granada Relocation Center which incarcerated more than 10,000 Japanese Americans from 1942 to 1945, was designated as part of the

National Park System The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all national parks; most national monuments; and other natural, historical, and recreational ...

on March 18, 2022, and is located in southeastern Colorado. Colorado is also home to several rural farms, many multi-generational dating back to the end of

, owned by people of Japanese ancestry.

Connecticut

Two supplementary Japanese language schools are located in Connecticut, each educating the local Japanese population.

The Japanese School of New York , also known as The Greenwich Japanese School (GJS), is a Japanese elementary and junior high school,Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...

in Greater New York City; it had formerly been located in New York City. There is also the Japanese Language School of Greater Hartford, located in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. As of 2015, there is 3,974 Japanese Americans in Connecticut, making up 0.11% of Connecticut's population. Japanese Americans also make up 2.8% of Connecticut's Asian population. 3,391 people speak Japanese at home in Connecticut.

Georgia

The

is located in

Peachtree Corners Peachtree Corners is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, and is the largest city in Gwinnett County with a population of 42,243 as of the 2020 U.S. census. Peachtree Corners is the on ...

Greater Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

Hawaii

Illinois

As of 2011 there is a Japanese community in Arlington Heights, near Chicago. Jay Shimotake, the president of the Mid America Japanese Club, an organization located in Arlington Heights, said "Arlington Heights is a very convenient location, and Japanese people in the business environment know it's a nice location surrounding

O'Hare airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the primary international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop business district. The airport is operated by the ...

."Selvam, Ashok.
Asian population booming in suburbs
." '' Daily Herald'' (

Arlington Heights, Illinois Arlington Heights is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County Illinois, United States. A northwestern Chicago metropolitan area, suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of the city's downtown. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

). March 6, 2011. Retrieved on June 19, 2013. The Chicago Futabakai Japanese School is located in Arlington Heights. The

Mitsuwa Marketplace is a Japanese supermarket chain in America, with locations in California, Illinois, Texas, Hawaii, and New Jersey. History As a subsidiary of Yaohan, ''Yaohan USA'' opened its first supermarket in Fresno in 1979. During its heyday, Yaohan o ...

, a shopping center owned by Japanese, opened around 1981. Many Japanese companies have their US headquarters in nearby

Hoffman Estates Hoffman Estates is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530. The village previously served as the headquarters for Sears and is one of the American headquarter ...

and

Schaumburg Schaumburg is a district (''Landkreis'') of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (clockwise from the north) the districts of Nienburg, Hanover and Hameln-Pyrmont, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (districts of Lippe and Minden-Lübb ...

Massachusetts

There is a Japanese School of Language in Medford. Another, the Amherst Japanese Language School, is in South Hadley, in the 5-college area of the western part of the state. Most Japanese Americans in the state live in Greater Boston, with a high concentration in the town of Brookline. Porter Square, Cambridge has a Japanese-cultural district and shopping plaza.

Michigan

As of April 2013, the largest Japanese national population in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

is in Novi, with 2,666 Japanese residents, and the next largest populations are respectively in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, West Bloomfield Township, Farmington Hills, and

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in northwestern Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a tota ...

. The state has 481 Japanese employment facilities providing 35,554 local jobs. 391 of them are in Southeast Michigan, providing 20,816 jobs, and the 90 in other regions in the state provide 14,738 jobs. The Japanese Direct Investment Survey of the

Consulate-General of Japan, Detroit The is a diplomatic mission of Japan. It is located in Suite 1600 Tower 400 of the GM Renaissance Center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Its jurisdiction includes the states of Michigan and Ohio. The Japanese government proposed opening the con ...

stated that over 2,208 more Japanese residents were employed in the State of Michigan as of October 1, 2012, than had been in 2011.

Missouri

Many Japanese Americans in Missouri live in the St. Louis area and are the descendants of those who were previously interned in camps such as one in Arkansas.

New Jersey

As of March 2011 about 2,500 Japanese Americans combined live in Edgewater and Fort Lee; this is the largest concentration of Japanese Americans in the state. The New Jersey Japanese School is located in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

. Paramus Catholic High School hosts a weekend Japanese school, and Englewood Cliffs has a Japanese school. Other smaller Japanese American populations are also located in the remainder of

Bergen County Bergen County is the List of counties in New Jersey, most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Mitsuwa Marketplace is a Japanese supermarket chain in America, with locations in California, Illinois, Texas, Hawaii, and New Jersey. History As a subsidiary of Yaohan, ''Yaohan USA'' opened its first supermarket in Fresno in 1979. During its heyday, Yaohan o ...

has a location in Edgewater that also houses a mini shopping complex.

New York

Oklahoma

The 1990 census recorded 2,385 Japanese Americans in Oklahoma. Historically, they lived in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

Bartlesville Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Caney ...

, and

Ponca City Ponca City () is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the tim ...

and none were interned during World War II.

Oregon

Rhode Island

Rhode Island is the only state celebrating Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day) as a holiday. Every year, the holiday is observed on the second Monday in August. It has been claimed that this holiday is racially-based and negatively affects Japanese American citizens in RI and other states in the U.S., ignoring traumas caused by the history of the internment camp and deaths of between 129,000 and 226,000 civilians and lasting radiation poisoning due to the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is reported that in Rhode Island, some Japanese "are uncomfortable leaving their homes on Victory Day because they fear violence."

Virginia

There are about 5,500 Japanese Americans in

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several County (United States), counties and independent city (United States), independent cities in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. ...

, representing the majority of Japanese Americans in the state and the multi-state Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. A small, but relatively high number of Japanese Americans can be found areas surrounding the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

and

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

Washington

Neighborhoods and communities

West

* Hawaii: * California: **

: ***

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most ...

and Orange County. *** Cerritos,

Hawaiian Gardens Hawaiian Gardens is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the smallest city in the county in area (approximately 1.0 mi2) and was incorporated on April 9, 1964. The population was 14,149 at the 2020 United States ce ...

and adjacent cities. ***

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge o ...

***

Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone * Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi ...

in the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

. *** Fullerton in Orange County. *** Gardena in Los Angeles' South Bay area. ***

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier * Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia * Irvine Island * Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada * Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut Scotland *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotlan ...

in Orange County, California. *** Lomita in the L.A. area. ***

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

– historic Japanese fisheries presence in

. *** Los Angeles, especially the Little Tokyo section. ***

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, California. The city is located in the Colorado Desert arm of the Sonoran Desert, about east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The populat ...

, the Japanese also developed the year-round agricultural industries in the

Coachella Valley The Coachella Valley ( ) is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic promine ...

and

Imperial Valley The Imperial Valley ( or ''Valle Imperial'') of Southern California lies in Imperial and Riverside counties, with an urban area centered on the city of El Centro. The Valley is bordered by the Colorado River to the east and, in part, the S ...

. ***

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

in the Los Angeles'

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

. ***

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

– esp. Blacks Beach. ***

Sawtelle, California Sawtelle is a neighborhood in West Los Angeles, on the Westside (Los Angeles County), Westside of Los Angeles, California. The short-lived City of Sawtelle grew around the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, la ...

, in West Los Angeles. *** Torrance in Los Angeles' South Bay area, the largest Japanese community in North America and the second largest Japanese community in the U.S. ***

Venice, Los Angeles Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...

– historically Japanese fisheries in

Marina Del Rey Marina del Rey ( Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The eponymous harbor is a major boating and water recreation destination of the Greater Los Angeles ar ...

. ***

– site of a former Japanese fishing village in Los Angeles Harbor. Notable for a Japanese-English pidgin spoken there before WWII. It was demolished during the War, after its residents were sent to

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one ...

. **

area: *** University City. ***

Chula Vista Chula Vista ( ; , ) is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh-most populous city in Southern California, the 15th-most populous city in the ...

. *** Japanese community center in

Vista Vista may refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 * VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) a medical records system of the United States ...

in North County, one of two of its kind in Southern California. **

Central Valley, California The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California, United States. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast. It cover ...

region: ***

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the ...

Kern County Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

. *** Butte County. ***

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

, 0.5% of county residents have Japanese ancestry. ***

Livingston, California Livingston is a city in Merced County, California, United States. Livingston is located west-northwest of Atwater, at an elevation of . According to the 2020 census, the city population was 14,172, up from 13,058 in 2010. Livingston's total ...

in Merced County. *** Lodi. ***

Merced Merced (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Mercy") is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California, United States, in the San Joaquin Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 86,333, up ...

. *** Stockton. ***

Sutter County Sutter County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 99,633. The county seat is Yuba City. Sutter County is included in the Yuba City, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Sac ...

. ***

Yuba County Yuba County (; Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a county located in north-central Central Valley, California, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 81,575. Yuba County is included in the Yuba City metropolitan statistical area, ...

. **

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

, the main concentration of ''Nisei'' and ''Sansei'' in the 20th century: *** Alameda County, concentrated and historic populations in the cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Oakland, and Hayward. *** Contra Costa County, concentrated in Walnut Creek. *** San Mateo County, especially Daly City and Pacifica. *** San Jose, has one of the three remaining officially recognized

s in North America. *** Santa Clara County, concentrated in Cupertino, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. ***

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, notably in the Japantown district *** Santa Cruz County. ** Monterey County, especially

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Salt pan (geology), Salt Flats") is a city in the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Monterey County, California, Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is ...

. **

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, and some neighborhoods of Elk Grove, Florin and Walnut Grove. * Washington State: ** Seattle area. ** Bellevue. ** Redmond. ** Tacoma. * Puget Sound region (San Juan Islands) have Japanese fisheries for over a century. * Skagit Valley of Washington. * Yakima Valley, Washington. * Chehalis Valley of Washington. * Oregon: ** Ontario. ** Portland and surrounding area. ** Southern Oregon valleys. ** Willamette Valley. * Idaho: ** Boise Area. ** Caldwell. ** Meridian. ** Nampa. * Arizona: ** Phoenix Area, notably a section of Grand Avenue in Northwest Phoenix, and Maryvale. ** Las Vegas Area, with a reference of Japanese farmers on ''Bonzai Slough'', Arizona near

Needles, California Needles is a city in San Bernardino County, in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California. Situated on the western banks of the Colorado River, Needles is located near the California border with Arizona and Nevada. The city is accessible v ...

. ** Southern Arizona, part of the "exclusion area" for Japanese internment during World War II along with the Pacific coast states. ** Yuma County/Colorado River Valley. * New Mexico **

Gallup, New Mexico Gallup is a city in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States, with a population of 21,899 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A substantial percentage of its population is Native Americans in the United States, Native American, wi ...

, in World War II the city fought to prevent the internment of its 800 Japanese residents. * Colorado **

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, note

Sakura Square Sakura Square (, ''Sakura Sukuea'') is a small plaza located on the north/east side of the intersection of 19th Street and Larimer Street in Denver, Colorado. The square contains busts of Ralph L. Carr, Governor of Colorado from 1939 to 1943, M ...

. ** Greeley. **

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

. * Utah **

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Outside the West

In the Southern,

Midwestern The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

, and Northeastern United States, the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

has the highest number of Japanese Americans, followed by the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the National Capital Region, Greater Washington, or locally as the DMV (short for Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), is the metropolitan area comprising Washing ...

. *

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...

and

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

(the

region). *

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the List of counties in New Jersey, most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Boone County, Kentucky Boone County is a county located on the Ohio River in the northernmost part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 135,968, making it the fourth-most populous county in Kentucky. Its county seat is Burlingt ...

. *

Carmel, Indiana Carmel () is a suburban city in Hamilton County, Indiana, United States, immediately north of Indianapolis. With a population of 99,757 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city spans across Clay Township, Hamilton County, Indi ...

. *

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts. *

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. *

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

. * Chicago, Illinois and suburbs: ** Arlington Heights. **

Buffalo Grove Buffalo Grove is a Village (United States)#Illinois, village in Lake County, Illinois, Lake and Cook County, Illinois, Cook Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of Downtown Chicago and north of ...

Elk Grove Village Elk Grove Village is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 32,812. Located northwest of Chicago along the Golden Corridor, the Village of Elk Grove Village was incorpor ...

. ** Evanston. ** Kane County. **

Naperville Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago located west of the city on the DuPage River. As of the 2020 census, its population was 149,540, making it the state's ...

. **

. ** Skokie. **

Wilmette Wilmette is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Skokie, Northfield, Glenview, and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a populatio ...

. *

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. *

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-Ameri ...

– close to the

Research Triangle The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh an ...

. *

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas, Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant, and Ellis County, Texas, Ellis counties with a small part extending into Johnson County, Texas , Johnson county. It ...

(the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area). *

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

metro area. * New York City, according to the Japanese Embassy of the US, over 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry live in the NYC metro area, including

South Shore (Long Island) The South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York, is the area along Long Island's Atlantic Ocean shoreline. Description Though some consider the South Shore to include parts of Queens, particularly the beach communities in the ...

and Hudson Valley;

Fairfield County, Connecticut Fairfield County is a County (United States), county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the List of counties in Connecticut, most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. ...

and

Northern New Jersey North Jersey, also known as Northern New Jersey, comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. As a distinct toponym, North Jersey is a colloquial one rather than an a ...

. *

Northern Indiana Northern Indiana is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern third of the U.S. state of Indiana and borders the states of Illinois to the west, Michigan to the north, and Ohio to the east. Spanning the state's northe ...

has a small, but evident Japanese community. *

Novi, Michigan Novi ( ) is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northwestern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Novi is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census ...

outside Detroit. *

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania with the suburbs of

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States ** Chester County Council, boy scout council in Pennsylvania. * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire ...

. *

Salem, New Jersey Salem is a city in and the county seat of Salem County,New Jersey County Map

and

Cherry Hill, New Jersey Cherry Hill is a Township (New Jersey), township within Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As a suburb of Philadelphia, the township is part of the South Jersey and Delaware Valley regions. Cherry Hill ...

(see Delaware Valley). *

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 United States census ...

and

Ocean City, Maryland Ocean City, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic resort city in Worcester County, Maryland, Worcester County, Maryland, along the East Coast of the United States. The population was 6,844 at the 2020 United States c ...

(see Wicomico County). *

Seabrook Farms, New Jersey Seabrook Farms is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Seabrook, which is in turn located in Upper Deerfield Township, in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Vineland- ...

. *

South Texas South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...

– Rio Grande Valley had Japanese farmers. * Washington, D.C., and suburbs in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and

. *

Yamato Colony, Florida The Yamato Colony was an attempt to create a community of Japanese farmers in what is now Boca Raton, Florida, early in the 20th century. With encouragement from Florida authorities, young Japanese men were recruited to farm in the colony. There ...

in South Florida.

Notable people

Politics

After the

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territories of the United States, organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from Apri ...

's statehood in 1959, Japanese American political empowerment took a step forward with the election of Daniel K. Inouye to Congress.

Spark Matsunaga Spark Masayuki Matsunaga (, October 8, 1916April 15, 1990) was an American politician and attorney who served as United States Senate, United States Senator for Hawaii from 1977 until his death in 1990. Matsunaga also represented Hawaii in the U ...

was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1963, and in 1965,

Patsy Mink Patsy Matsu Mink ( Takemoto; , December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii who served in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years as a member of the Democratic ...

became the first Asian American woman elected to the United States Congress. Inouye, Matsunaga, and Mink's success led to the gradual acceptance of Japanese American leadership on the national stage. Federal level appointments include

Eric Shinseki Eric Ken Shinseki (; , born 28 November 1942) is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States secretary of veterans affairs from 2009 to 2014 and as the 34th chief of staff of the Army from 1999 to 2003. Shinseki ...

and

Norman Y. Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta (, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the cabinet of the United States for US Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. ...

, the first Japanese American military chief of staff and federal

cabinet secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

, respectively. As an expansion of immigration continued in 1920, more restrictions on women were put in place.This also came with the push for more Single women to act as continental brides and come to the United States and more to raise up strong Japanese communities by marrying Japanese settlers who lived there. This push also called for women to be trained to best server the household needs, husband and mostly the empire. Japanese American members of the United States House of Representatives have included Daniel K. Inouye, Spark Matsunaga, Patsy Mink, Norman Mineta,

Bob Matsui Robert Takeo Matsui (, September 17, 1941 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician from the state of California. Matsui was a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party and served in the United States House of Represe ...

Pat Saiki Patricia Hatsue Saiki (''née'' Fukuda; born May 28, 1930) is an American politician and former educator from Hilo, Hawaii. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1991 ...

Mike Honda Michael Makoto Honda (, born June 27, 1941) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in Congress from 2001 to 2017. Initially involved in education in California, he first became active in politics in 1971, when t ...

Doris Matsui Doris Okada Matsui ( ; born Doris Kazue Okada; , September 25, 1944) is an American politician, who has served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from since 2005. She succeeded her husband, Bob Matsui. The district, numb ...

Mazie Hirono Mazie Keiko Hirono (; Japanese name: , ; born November 3, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Hawaii. A member of the ...

Mark Takano Mark Allan Takano ( ; born December 10, 1960) is an American politician and academic who has served in the United States House of Representatives since 2013, representing California's 41st congressional district from 2013 to 2023 and the 39th c ...

Mark Takai Kyle Mark Takai (July 1, 1967 – July 20, 2016) was an American politician from the state of Hawaii who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing , from 2015 to 2016. He served in the Hawaii House of Representatives ...

, and

Jill Tokuda Jill Naomi Tokuda (born March 3, 1976) is an American politician and business owner serving as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district since 2023. Tokuda is one of three Japanese Americans who currently serve in the Hou ...

. Japanese American members of the United States Senate have included Daniel K. Inouye, Samuel I. Hayakawa, Spark Matsunaga, and Mazie Hirono. In 2010, Inouye was sworn in as

President pro tempore of the United States Senate The president pro tempore of the United States Senate (often shortened to president pro tem) is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate, after the Vice President of the United States, vice president. According to Articl ...

making him the highest-ranking Asian-American politician in American history up to that time.

George Ariyoshi George Ryoichi Ariyoshi (, born March 12, 1926) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the third governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. A Democrat, he is Hawaii's longest-serving governor and the first American of Asian descent to ...

served as the governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. He was the first American of Asian descent to be elected governor of a state of the United States.

David Ige David Yutaka Ige (; 伊芸豊, ''Ige Yutaka'', born January 15, 1957) is an American politician and engineer who served as the eighth governor of Hawaii from 2014 to 2022. A Democrat, he served in the Hawaii State Senate from 1994 to 2014 and ...

was the governor of Hawaii from 2014 2022. Kinjiro Matsudaira was elected mayor of

Edmonston, Maryland Edmonston is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 1,617. The community is located from Washington, D.C. Edmonston's ZIP code is 20781. History The present-day Edmonston are ...

in 1927 and 1943. In 1957, Japanese American James Kanno was elected as the first mayor of California's Fountain Valley. Tom Kitayama became

Union City, California Union City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population in the 2020 census was 70,143, up from 69,628 in the 2010 census. It is located approximately south of Oakland, from San Franci ...

's first mayor in 1959, and also served there as mayor in 1962, 1969, and 1974 through 1990. In Norm Mineta became mayor of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

in 1971. Ken Nakaoka became

Gardena, California Gardena is a city located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 61,027 at the 2020 census, up from 58,829 at the 2010 census. Until 2014, the U.S. census cited the City of Gardena as the ...

's mayor in 1972. In 1980,

Eunice Sato Eunice Noda Sato (June 8, 1921 – February 12, 2021) was an American politician. She served as mayor of Long Beach, California from 1980 to 1982. As such she was the first Asian-American female mayor of a major American city, as well as the fir ...

became the first Asian-American female mayor of a major American city when she was elected mayor of

Science and technology

Many Japanese Americans have also gained prominence in science and technology. In 1979, biochemist

Harvey Itano Harvey Akio Itano (, November 3, 1920 – May 8, 2010) was an American biochemist best known for his work on the molecular basis of sickle cell anemia and other diseases. In collaboration with Linus Pauling, Itano used electrophoresis to demonst ...

became the first Japanese American elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. Charles J. Pedersen won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his methods of synthesizing crown ethers.

Yoichiro Nambu was a Japanese-American physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his groundbreaking contributions to theoretical physics, Nambu was the originator of the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking, a concept that revoluti ...

won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum chromodynamics and spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese electronic engineer, inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014. Nakamura specializes in the field of semiconductor technology, and he is a professo ...

won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes.

Syukuro Manabe is a Japanese– American physicist, meteorologist, and climatologist, who pioneered the use of computers to simulate global climate change and natural climate variations. He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Klaus Has ...

won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the "physical modeling of earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming."

Michio Kaku Michio Kaku (; ; born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, Science communication, science communicator, futurologist, and writer of popular-science. He is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and ...

is a

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

specializing in

string field theory String field theory (SFT) is a formalism in string theory in which the dynamics of relativistic strings is reformulated in the language of quantum field theory. This is accomplished at the level of perturbation theory by finding a collection of ...

, and a well-known science popularizer.

Ellison Onizuka was an American astronaut, engineer, and U.S. Air Force flight test engineer from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle ''Cha ...

became the first Asian American

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

and was the mission specialist aboard ''Challenger'' at the time of its

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Explosions may also be generated ...

. Immunologist Santa J. Ono became the first Japanese American president of a major research university (the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

). Ono subsequently served as president of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Bell M. Shimada Bell Masayuki Shimada (January 17, 1922 - June 2, 1958) was an American fisheries scientist. He is noted for his study during the 1950s of tuna stocks in the tropical Pacific Ocean and its important effect on the development of the post-World W ...

was a notable

fisheries scientist Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of limnology, oceanography, freshwater biology, marine biology, meteorology, conservation, ...

of the 1950s after whom the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

research ship A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

NOAAS ''Bell M. Shimada'' (R 227) and the

Shimada Seamount Shimada Seamount is a seamount in the Pacific Ocean located southwest of Baja California Sur in Mexico. It is a shallow seamount, reaching a depth of below sea level and is a regular single-peaked mountain with a westerly spur and little relief ...

in the Pacific Ocean were named. In 2018, Lauren Kiyomi Williams became the second ever tenured female mathematician of the

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

mathematics department.

Art and literature

Art and architecture

Artist

Sueo Serisawa Sueo Serisawa (, April 10, 1910September 7, 2004) was a Japanese American who became a modernist of the Los Angeles school. Theme/style Serisawa's painting genres included Impressionism, Modernism, Regionalism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. ...

helped establish the California Impressionist style of painting. Other influential Japanese American artists include

Norio Azuma Norio Azuma (, November 28, 1928 – February 4, 2004) was a Japanese American painter and serigraph artist who worked in a modernist style. Norio Azuma (born 1928, Japan) was a Japanese-American printmaker and visual artist known for his work i ...

Chiura Obata was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher. A self-described "roughneck", Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career ...

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

, Kenjiro Nomura,

George Tsutakawa George Tsutakawa (, February 22, 1910 – December 18, 1997) was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs. Born in Seattle, Washington, he was raised in both the United States and Japan. He att ...

George Nakashima George Katsutoshi Nakashima ( ''Nakashima Katsutoshi'', May 24, 1905 – June 15, 1990) was an American woodworker and architect. In 1983, he accepted the Order of the Sacred Treasure, an honor bestowed by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese ...

, Hideo Noda, and

Ruth Asawa Ruth Aiko Asawa (January 24, 1926 – August 5, 2013) was an American modernist artist known primarily for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. In addition to her three-dimensional work, Asawa created an ext ...

. Architect

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...

designed the original

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

(completed in 1973) and several other large-scale projects.

Gyo Obata Gyo Obata (小圃暁, February 28, 1923 – March 8, 2022) was an American architect, the son of painter Chiura Obata and his wife, Haruko Obata, a floral designer. In 1955, he co-founded the global architectural firm HOK (formerly Hellmuth, ...

designed the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

in Washington, D.C. (completed in 1976) and the pavilion of the

Japanese American National Museum The is located in Los Angeles, California, and dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Founded in 1992, it is located in the Little Tokyo area near downtown. The museum is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affi ...

in Los Angeles (completed in 1992).

Literature

Japanese American recipients of the

American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...

include

Milton Murayama Milton Atsushi Murayama (, April 10, 1923 – July 27, 2016) was an American novelist and playwright. A Nisei, he wrote the 1975 novel '' All I Asking for Is My Body'', which is considered a classic novel of the experiences of Japanese America ...

(1980), Ronald Phillip Tanaka (1982),

Miné Okubo Miné Okubo (;, June 27, 1912 – February 10, 2001) was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book '' Citizen 13660'', a collection of 198 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internm ...

(1984), Keiho Soga (1985), Taisanboku Mori (1985), Sojin Takei (1985), Muin Ozaki (1985), Toshio Mori (1986), Florence Ogawa (1987),

William Minoru Hohri William Minoru Hohri (March 13, 1927 – November 12, 2010) was an American political activist and the lead plaintiff in the National Council for Japanese American Redress lawsuit seeking monetary reparations for the internment of Japanese Ame ...

(1989),

Sesshu Foster Sesshu Foster (born April 5, 1957) is an American poet and novelist. Early life Sesshu Foster is a Japanese-American poet of white and Nisei descent. He grew up on Los Angeles’ East Side, California, and came of age in the primarily Chican ...

(1990 and 2010),

Karen Tei Yamashita Karen Tei Yamashita (born January 8, 1951) is an American writer. Career Yamashita is Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches creative writing and Asian American literature. Her works, several o ...

(1991 and 2011), Sheila Hamanaka (1992),

Lawson Fusao Inada Lawson Fusao Inada (born May 26, 1938) is a Japanese American poet. He was the fifth poet laureate of the state of Oregon. Early life Born May 26, 1938, Inada is a third-generation Japanese American ('' Sansei''). His father, Fusaji, worked as a ...

(1994),

Ronald Takaki Ronald Toshiyuki Takaki (April 12, 1939 – May 26, 2009) was an American academic, historian, ethnographer and author. Born in pre-statehood Hawaii, Takaki studied at the College of Wooster and completed his doctorate in American history at t ...

(1994),

Kimiko Hahn Kimiko Hahn (born July 5, 1955) is an American poet and distinguished professor in the MFA program of Queens College, CUNY. Her works frequently deal with the reinvention of poetic forms and the intersecting of conflicting identities. Biograph ...

(1996),

Lois-Ann Yamanaka Lois-Ann Yamanaka (born September 7, 1961) is an American poet and novelist from Hawaii. Many of her literary works are written in Hawaiian Pidgin, and some of her writing has dealt with controversial ethnic issues. In particular, her works confro ...

(2000),

Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki (born March 12, 1956) is an American-Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels '' My Year of Meats'' (1998), '' All Over Creation'' (2003), '' A Tale for the Time Being'' (2013), an ...

(2004),

Hiroshi Kashiwagi Hiroshi Kashiwagi (November 8, 1922 – October 29, 2019) was a ''Nisei'' (second-generation Japanese American) poet, playwright and actor. For his writing and performance work on stage he is considered an early pioneer of Asian American theatr ...

(2005), Yuko Taniguchi (2008), and Frank Abe (2019).

Hisaye Yamamoto Hisaye Yamamoto (, August 23, 1921 – January 30, 2011) was an American author known for the short story collection ''Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories,'' first published in 1988. Her work confronts issues of the Japanese immigrant experienc ...

received an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1986.

Taro Yashima was a Japanese-American artist and children's book author. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 and assisted the U.S. war effort. Early life Iwamatsu was born September 21, 1908, in Nejime, Kagoshima, Nejime, Kimotsuki District, Kagoshima, ...

won the

Children's Book Award Children's Book Award is a generic term that has been applied to: * Caldecott Medal, Caldecott Medal, annual "most distinguished American picture book for children" * Children's Book Award (UK), from the Federation of Children's Book Groups * Dorot ...

in 1955 for his book ''Crow Boy''.

Cynthia Kadohata Cynthia Kadohata (born July 2, 1956) is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel '' Kira-Kira'' which won the Newbery Medal in 2005. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for ''The ...

won the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

in 2005 and

National Book Award for Young People's Literature The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writer ...

in 2013.

Michi Weglyn Michi Nishiura Weglyn (, November 29, 1926 – April 25, 1999) was an American author. Her book ''Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps'', which was published in 1976, helped fuel a movement leading to reparation ...

and

received the

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

in 1977 and 1994 respectively.

Dale Furutani Dale Furutani (born December 1, 1946, in Hilo, Hawaii) is the first Asian American to win major mystery writing awards. He has won the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award and has been nominated for the Agatha Award. His book, ''The Toyotomi B ...

won the

Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Categori ...

and the

Macavity Award The Macavity Awards, established in 1987, are a group of literary awards presented annually to mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "Macavity, mystery cat ...

in 1997. Poet laureate of San Francisco (from 2000 to 2002)

Janice Mirikitani Janice Mirikitani (February 5, 1941 – July 29, 2021) was an American poet and activist who resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of her adult life. She managed the Glide Memorial Church with her husband, Cecil Williams. She was note ...

published three volumes of poems. Lawson Fusao Inada was named poet laureate of the state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

(2006–2010).

Tomie Arai Tomie Arai (born 1949 in New York City) is a public American artist, printmaker, and community activist living and working in New York City. Her works consist of temporary and permanent multimedia site-specific art pieces that deal with topics of ...

's work is part of permanent collection of

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, and the

Museum of Chinese in the Americas The Museum of Chinese in America (; abbreviated MOCA) is a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history. It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education and cultural institution that presents the living history, heritage, culture, and ...

Michiko Kakutani is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life and family Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...

is an American

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning literary critic and former chief book critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (from 1983 to 2017). Karen Tei Yamashita was named the recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2021.

Music

Classical violinist

Midori Gotō , who performs under the mononym Midori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the Tanglewood ...

is a recipient of the prestigious

Avery Fisher Prize The Avery Fisher Prize is an award given to American musicians for outstanding achievement in classical music. Founded by philanthropist Avery Fisher in 1974, it is regarded as one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists. T ...

(2001), while world-renowned violinist

Anne Akiko Meyers Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970, in San Diego) is an American violinist. She has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad. Her album ''Fandango'', was awarded two Latin GRAMMY Latin Grammy's for Best Classical Alb ...

received an Avery Fisher career grant in 1993.

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

-nominated classical violinist Hidetaro Suzuki was the concertmaster of the

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The largest performing arts organization in Indiana, the orchestra was founded in 1930 and is based at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown ...

from 1978 to 2005.

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning singer-songwriter

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

released 14 studio albums and was named the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time by

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

. Other notable Japanese American musicians include singer, actress and Broadway star

Pat Suzuki Pat Suzuki (born Chiyoko Suzuki; September 22, 1930) is an American popular singer and actress, who is best known for her role in the original Broadway production of the musical ''Flower Drum Song'', and her performance of the song " I Enjoy Bei ...

; rapper

Mike Shinoda Michael Kenji Shinoda ( ; born February 11, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, ...

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bass ...

and

Fort Minor Fort Minor was a hip hop side project by American musician Mike Shinoda, who is better known as the rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, producer, and rapper of the rock band Linkin Park. The project's only album, '' The Rising Tied'', was released in ...

; rapper Kikuo Nishi aka "KeyKool" of

The Visionaries Visionaries is an underground hip hop crew from Los Angeles, California. The crew formed in 1995, and have since released four full-length albums on Up Above Records, and their fifth album "V" on their newly re-formed label Visionaries Crew, In ...

;

Hiro Yamamoto Hiro D. Yamamoto (born April 13, 1961) is a Japanese-American bassist who was a founding member of grunge band Soundgarden, along with Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell, in 1984. He left the band in 1989; two years later, Yamamoto started the indepen ...

, original bassist of

Soundgarden Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell switched to rhythm guitar in 1985, replaced on drums initially ...

;

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

player

Jake Shimabukuro Jake Shimabukuro (born November 3, 1976) is a ukulele player and composer from Hawaii known for his fast and complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz, blues, funk, rock, bluegrass, classical, folk, and flamenco. Shimabukuro has wri ...

; guitarist

James Iha (born March 26, 1968) is an American rock musician. He is best known as a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the band's initial breakup in 2000 and rejoined in 2018. Iha has als ...

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...

fame; singer-songwriter

Rachael Yamagata Rachael Amanda Yamagata (born September 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist from Arlington, Virginia. She began her musical career with the band Bumpus before becoming a solo artist and releasing five EPs and four studio album ...

; bilingual singer-songwriter Emi Meyer; and

Trivium The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The trivium is implicit in ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but the term was not used until the Carolin ...

lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist

Matt Heafy Matthew Kiichi Heafy ( ; born January 26, 1986) is a Japanese-American musician, best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for heavy metal band Trivium. He was also the lead vocalist for the band Capharnaum, along with Trivium's former pro ...

. Marc Okubo, guitarist of

Veil of Maya Veil of Maya is an American metalcore band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 2004. The group consists of guitarist Marc Okubo, drummer Sam Applebaum, bassist Danny Hauser and vocalist Lukas Magyar. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records an ...

, is of Japanese descent. Singer-songwriter and composer

Mari Iijima is a Japanese actress and singer. She writes and produces most of her own music, and plays the piano and other instruments. After being signed to JVC Victor in 1982, Mari first became known for her voice-acting role as Lynn Minmay in the anime ...

is a Japanese expat currently living in the United States.

J-Pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

singers

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

and

Joe Inoue is a Japanese rock musician signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Ki/oon Records label. Background and career He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to two Japanese immigrants. It was not until middle school that he became in ...

were both born in the United States but gained their fame in Japan.

Sports

Japanese Americans first made an impact in Olympic sports in the late 1940s and in the 1950s.

Harold Sakata , better known as Harold Sakata, was an American Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestler, and film actor of Japanese descent. He won a silver medal for the United States at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in weightlifting, and late ...

won a weightlifting silver medal in the 1948 Olympics, while Japanese Americans

Tommy Kono Tamio "Tommy" Kono (, June 27, 1930 – April 24, 2016) was an American Olympic weightlifting, weightlifter of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Kono set world records in four different weight classes: light ...

(weightlifting),

Yoshinobu Oyakawa Yoshinobu Oyakawa (, born August 9, 1933) is an American former competition swimmer, 1952 Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in the 100-meter backstroke. He is considered to be the last of the great "straight-arm-pull" backstrokers ...

(100-meter backstroke), and

Ford Konno Ford Hiroshi Konno (, born January 1, 1933) is a Japanese–American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in three events. Konno was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended McKinley High School ...

(1500-meter freestyle) each won gold and set Olympic records in the 1952 Olympics. Also at the 1952 Olympics,

Evelyn Kawamoto Evelyn Tokue Kawamoto (, September 17, 1933 – January 22, 2017), also known by her married name as Evelyn Konno, was an American competition swimming (sport), swimmer, and American record holder, who won bronze medals in the 400-meter indi ...

won two bronze medals in swimming. Konno won another gold and silver swimming medal at the same Olympics and added a silver medal in 1956, while Kono set another Olympic weightlifting record in 1956. Several decades later,

Peter Westbrook Peter Jonathan Westbrook (April 16, 1952 – November 29, 2024) was an American saber fencer. He was a 13-time national and 3-time Pan American Games saber champion, five-time Olympian, and an Olympic bronze medalist. He founded the Peter West ...

won the bronze medal in fencing at the 1984 Olympics.

Eric Sato Eric Anthony Sato (born May 5, 1966) is an American former volleyball player and two-time Olympian. Sato was a member of the United States national volleyball team that won the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He also played in ...

won gold (1988) and bronze (1992) medals in volleyball, while his sister

Liane Sato Liane Lissa Sato (born September 9, 1964) is a retired female volleyball player from the United States and two-time Olympian. Sato won the bronze medal with the United States national team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She also com ...

won bronze in the same sport in 1992.

Bryan Clay Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay (, ''Ishii Tsumoru'', born January 3, 1980) is an American decathlete who was the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World champion in 2005. Biography Clay was born in Austin, Texas and raised ...

(mother from Japan) won the decathlon gold medal in the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

, the silver medal in the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, and was the sport's 2005 world champion.

Apolo Anton Ohno Apolo Anton Ohno (; born May 22, 1982) is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. Ohno was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fa ...

(father from Japan) won eight Olympic medals in short-track speed skating (two gold) in 2002, 2006, and 2010, as well as a world cup championship. Brothers

Kawika Kawika is a Hawaiian name meaning "David". Notable people with the name include: * Kawika Crowley (born 1952), Japanese-American politician * Kawika Kapahulehua (1930–2007), Hawaiian sailor * Kawika Mitchell (born 1979), American football p ...

and

Erik Shoji Erik Thomas Shoji ( ; born August 24, 1989) is an American professional volleyball player who plays as a libero for ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle and the U.S. national team. Shoji was a bronze medalist at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, Paris 2024 a ...

won bronze medals in volleyball in 2016. Erik Shoji won another bronze medal in volleyball in 2024. Michael Norman (mother from Japan) was a member of the gold medal-winning 4 × 400 meters relay at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo, and won an individual gold medal in the 400-meter race at the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the ...

. Swimmers Erica Sullivan and

Jay Litherland Jay Litherland (born August 24, 1995) is an American competition swimmer. He represents DC Trident which is part of the International Swimming League. He won the silver medal in the Men's 400 Individual Medley at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in a tim ...

(both with mothers from Japan) each won silver medals at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Megumi Field Megumi Field (born October 15, 2005) is an American Synchronized swimming, synchronized swimmer who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics, 2024 Olympic Games, winning silver in the team event and placing 10th in the duet. Field began synchronize ...

won a silver medal as a member of the artistic swimming team at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. In figure skating,

Kristi Yamaguchi Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi (born July 12, 1971) is an American former competitive figure skater, author and philanthropist. A former competitor in women's singles, Yamaguchi is the Figure skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics, 1992 Olympic champion, ...

, a fourth-generation Japanese American, won three national championship titles (one in singles, two in pairs), two world titles, and the 1992 Olympic gold medal in singles figure skating.

Rena Inoue is a Japanese-born American retired pair skater. With partner John Baldwin, she is the 2004 and 2006 U.S. National Champion. Inoue previously competed for Japan as both a single skater and pair skater. Inoue and Baldwin are the first skaters ...

, a Japanese immigrant to America who later became a US citizen, competed at the 2006 Olympics in pair skating for the United States.

Kyoko Ina is an American figure skater. With partner John Zimmerman, she is the 2002 World bronze medalist and a three-time (2000–2002) U.S. national champion. The pair also competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics. With previous partner Jason Dungjen, I ...

, who was born in Japan, but raised in the United States, competed for the United States in singles and pairs, and was a multiple national champion and an Olympian with two different partners. Two-time Olympian

Mirai Nagasu is an American former competitive Figure skating, figure skater. She is a Figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Team event, 2018 Olympic Games team event bronze medalist, three-time Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, Four Co ...

won the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the age of 14, becoming the second youngest woman to ever win that title.

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

and

Maia Shibutani Maia Harumi Shibutani (born July 20, 1994) is an American ice dancer. Partnered with her brother Alex Shibutani, she is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2018), a three-time World medalist (silver in 2016, bronze in 2011 and 2017), the 2016 F ...

are two-time national champions in

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

and 2018 Olympic bronze medalists. In distance running, Miki Gorman, Miki (Michiko) Gorman won the Boston Marathon, Boston and New York City Marathon, New York City marathons twice in the 1970s. A former American record holder at the distance, she is the only woman to win both races twice, and is one of only two women to win both marathons in the same year. In professional sports, ''

''-born Wataru Misaka made the New York Knicks roster in 1947 as the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, just months after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Misaka played college basketball for the Utah Utes men's basketball, Utah Utes and led the team to win the 1944 NCAA basketball tournament, 1944 NCAA and 1947 National Invitation Tournament, 1947 NIT championships. He took a two-year hiatus between these titles to serve in the United States Army in the American occupation of Japan. Wally Kaname Yonamine was a professional running back for the San Francisco 49ers in 1947. Lenn Sakata, born in Hawaii, played in the Major League Baseball, MLB from 1977 to 1987. Rex Walters, whose mother was Japanese, played in the NBA from 1993 to 2000. Lindsey Yamasaki was the first Asian American to play in the WNBA and finished off her NCAA career with the third-most career 3-pointers at Stanford University. Hikaru Nakamura became the youngest American ever to earn the titles of National Master (age 10) and International Grandmaster (age 15) in chess. In 2004, at the age of 16, he won the U.S. Chess Championship for the first time. He later won four other times. Collin Morikawa won golf's 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open Championship. Tennis player Naomi Osaka, who moved to the United States aged three, had held U.S. citizenship until she renounced it in 2019 to represent Japan at the

. She was the main torchbearer at the event in Tokyo. Osaka resides in the United States. Kyle Larson, born to an American father and Japanese American mother, won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series.

Entertainment and media

Miyoshi Umeki won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1957. Actors Sessue Hayakawa, Mako Iwamatsu, and Pat Morita were nominated for Academy Awards in 1957, 1966, and 1984 respectively. Steven Okazaki won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for his film ''Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo''. Chris Tashima won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Audrey Marrs won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Kazu Hiro won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 2018 and 2020, winning the second award as an American citizen. Jack Soo, born Goro Suzuki, (''Valentine's Day (TV series), Valentine's Day'' and ''Barney Miller''), George Takei (''Star Trek'' fame) and Pat Morita (''Happy Days'' and ''The Karate Kid (1984 film), The Karate Kid'') helped pioneer acting roles for Asian Americans while playing secondary roles on the small screen during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1976, Morita also starred in ''Mr. T and Tina'', the first American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent. Keiko Yoshida appeared on the 1999–2005 TV show ''Zoom (1999 TV series), ZOOM'' on PBS Kids. Gregg Araki (director of independent films) is also Japanese American. Cary Fukunaga is an Emmy-award-winning filmmaker and writer known for directing and producing the first season of HBO series ''True Detective,'' and for directing the 2021 James Bond film ''No Time to Die''. Karen Fukuhara grew up speaking Japanese as her first language and attended Japanese language schools on Saturdays for 11 years. She got her start in the entertainment industry as a host for Disney Channel's ''Movie Surfers'' before she made her film debut in 2016's ''Suicide Squad (2016 film), Suicide Squad'' as Katana (comics), Tatsu Yamashiro / Katana. Fukuhara has since lent her talent to live-action and animated shows such as ''The Boys (TV series), The Boys'', ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' and ''Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts''. Mackenyu won the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize, 40th Japan Academy Newcomers of the Year Award in 2017 for his appearance on Chihayafuru Part 1. He is the son of actor and martial artist Sonny Chiba. He has portrayed characters in many other adaptations of popular manga series, including JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I (2017), Tokyo Ghoul S (2019), the villain Yukishiro Enishi in Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021), the protagonist Pegasus Seiya in Knights of the Zodiac and Roronoa Zoro in the Netflix series One Piece (2023 TV series). Japanese Americans anchor TV newscasts in markets all over the country. Notable anchors include Tritia Toyota, Adele Arakawa, David Ono, Kent Ninomiya, Lori Matsukawa, and Rob Fukuzaki.

Works about Japanese Americans

In 2010, Tokyo Broadcasting System, TBS produced a five-part, 10-hour fictional Japanese language miniseries, ''Japanese Americans (miniseries), Japanese Americans''. It featured many of the major events and themes of the Issei and Nisei experience, including emigration, racism, picture brides, farming, pressure due to the China and Pacific wars, internment, and the ongoing redefinition of what it means to be Japanese and American.

References

Japanese American Historical Society

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

Japanese American Museum
of

Japanese American Network

Japanese-American's own companies in USA

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525012332/http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/photo_exhibits/yamato.cfm Photo Exhibit of Japanese American community] in Florida
Nikkei Federation

Discover Nikkei

* [https://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_japanese_american.htm The War: Fighting for Democracy: Japanese Americans]
''"The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice"'', a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

* Short radio episode

' from "Lil' Yokohama" by Toshio Mori, 1941. California Legacy Project.
American Life in the 20th Century in Washington State
– University of Washington Digital Collections {{Authority control Japanese diaspora in the United States, * Japanese-American culture in Hawaii, * American people of Japanese descent, * Japanese diaspora by country, American East Asian diaspora in the United States

History

Immigration

Internment and redress

Cultural profile

Generations

Languages

Education

Schools for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals

Socioeconomic Status / Demographics

Religion

Celebrations

Politics

Restaurant industry

Genetics

Risk for inherited diseases

Japanese Americans by state

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Georgia

Hawaii

Illinois

Massachusetts

Michigan

Missouri

New Jersey

New York

Oklahoma

Oregon

Rhode Island

Virginia

Washington

Neighborhoods and communities

West

Outside the West

Notable people

Politics

Science and technology

Art and literature

Art and architecture

Literature

Music

Sports

Entertainment and media

Works about Japanese Americans

See also

References

Further reading

In Hawaii

External links