Japantown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japantown is a common name for official Japanese American or Japanese Canadian communities in big cities. Alternatively, Japantowns are called Little Tokyos or Nihonmachis (日本町 or 日本街) or J-towns.
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[edit] North America
Japantowns were created because of the widespread immigration of Japanese to America in the Meiji period. At that time, many Japanese were poor and did not have much money. They thought they would have a better life in the USA. Slowly they began to make small communities all across the US [citation needed] and some parts of Canada.
At one time, there were 43 different Japantowns in California [1] , ranging from several square blocks of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, to one in the small farming community of Marysville in Yuba County. Besides typical businesses, these communities usually had Japanese language schools for the immigrant's children, Buddhist and Christian churches, and sometimes Japanese hospitals. [2] After the World War II internment of the Japanese, most of those communities have declined or disappeared.
There are currently three recognized Japantowns left in the United States, which are facing issues such as commercialization, reconstruction, and dwindling Japanese populations. [3]
[edit] Official Japantowns
- Japantown, San Francisco, California
- Japantown, San Jose, California
- Japantown, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California
[edit] Concentrated and historical Japanese populations
- Gardena, California
- Hawaii
- Novi, Michigan
- Torrance, California
- West Los Angeles, California
- Westchester County, New York
[edit] Outside North America
- Liberdade is the Japanese district in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, after the United States and Canada.
- Düsseldorf (especially the district Oberkassel) has the largest Japanese population in Germany (and Europe). It has the biggest Buddhist temple of Europe as well. The towns surrounding Düsseldorf (e.g. Meerbusch in the west of Düsseldorf) have significant Japanese population as well.
- London has a Japanese community in Leicester Square
- In Bangkok a Japanese population lives in and around Sukhumvit Road, and Phrompong. Many of the apartment complexes are rented solely to Japanese people (although they may be owned by Thais), and there are Japanese grocery shops, restaurants, bars, dry cleaning, clubs, etc. in and around Phrompong.
- About ± 7,000 Japanese lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, they mainly concentrated in Blok M district and the rest lived by surrounding area. This number decreased drastically as the Jakarta Riots of May 1998 happened.
[edit] References
- ^ Donna Graves; Gail Dubrow. Preserving California's Japantowns. Preserving California's Japantowns. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.
- ^ Isami Arifuku Waugh, Ph.D.; Alex Yamato, Raymond Y. Okamura (2004-11-17). A History of Japanese Americans in California HISTORIC SITES. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.
- ^ Kori-Kai Yoshida (2006-06-24). Community Leaders Discuss State of California’s J-Towns. Nichi Bei Times, reprinted at Rafu Shimpo Online. Los Angeles News Publishing Co.. Retrieved on 2006-11-03. “high costs make it difficult for J-Town entities to get any opportunities”
