Timeline of Activities

1998 Formation of the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council

  • Brought together, for the first time, the leaders of major Japanese American community groups from across the state.

1999 Creating a California Nikkei Leadership Agenda Symposium – San Jose (July 1999)

Identified four key focus areas:

  • Leadership Development
  • Diversity and Identity
  • Preserving our Japantowns/Cultural Preservation
  • Resource Development

2000 Nikkei 2000 Empowering Our Community for the 21st Century – San Francisco (April 2000)

National Conference addressing:

  • Leadership
  • Inclusive Nikkei Community
  • Preserving and Creating Culture and Nikkei Values
  • Japantown Preservation
  • Political Involvement and Support
  • Family plays a key role in our future
  • Coalition Building and Global Networking
  • Financial Resource Development

Leadership Program to Japan (September 2000)

  • Organized in partnership with the Japanese Foreign Ministry

2001 Senate Bill 307 – Preservation of California’s Historic Japantowns in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles

  • First piece of legislation in the nation to address the preservation of an ethnic community through a cultural preservation planning approach

Spectrum: Broadening the Views of Young Nikkei – Los Angeles (April 2001)

  • National Japanese American Youth conference

Youth and Young Adult Leadership Development Planning Project – Call to Action

Preserving California’s Japantown Legacy

  • California Civil Liberties Public Education Program grant to create historic markers

Leadership Program to Japan (March 2002)

  • Organized in partnership with the Japanese Foreign Ministry

Hapa Issues Forum: Diversity and Inclusion Conference

Proposition 40 and Senate Bill 307

  • Implementation of funding for historic and cultural preservation of Japantowns.

Nikkei Cultural Survival (Ties that Bind 2) – Los Angeles (April 2002)

Identified several focus areas:

  • Leadership Development
  • Connect the Community, Inclusivity
  • Cultural Preservation of Place
  • Preserving Language and Cultural Practices
  • Infrastructure Development

Nikkei Community Internship Program (Summer 2002)

  • 13 college students placed at 9 Japanese American community organizations in Southern California.

Why We Care: A New Generation Looks at U.S.-Japan Relations – Los Angeles (August 2002)

A panel discussion with:

  • The Honorable Taro Kono, Member of Parliament, Japan
  • Dr. Mitchell Maki, Acting Dean, College of Health and Human Services, CSULA
  • Toshiaki Miura, Washington Correspondent, American General Bureau, Asahi Shimbun
  • Eric Akira Tate, Attorney, Morrison & Forrester LLP, President JCCCNC
  • Teresa Watanabe, Journalist, Former Japan Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
  • Irene Hirano, moderator, Executive Director, Japanese American National Museum

2003 Leadership Program to Japan (March 2003)

  • Organized in partnership with the Japanese Foreign Ministry
  • Expanded to areas outside of California

Nikkei Community Internship Program (Summer 2003)

  • 12 college students placed at 8 Japanese American community organizations across California.

Three Japantowns Taiko Concert Series (Fall 2003)

  • October 4 – San Jose
  • October 11 – Los Angeles
  • November 23 – San Francisco

Leadership Program to Japan (March-April 2004)

  • Organized in partnership with the Japanese Foreign Ministry
  • Delegates included Nikkei leaders from California, Hawaii, Houston, Portland, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

Nikkei Community Internship Program (Summer 2004)

  • 13 college students placed at 11 Japanese American community organizations across California.
  • Past and current NCI interns presented and led discussions on the young Nikkei perspective of the community’s future at the California Japanese American Leadership Symposium

California Japanese American Leadership Symposium – Little Tokyo (July 2004)

  • Assessed the current state of the California Japanese American community
  • Cultural and community preservation, youth participation, caring for our elders, and political leadership development were among the focus issues.

California Japantowns Cultural Preservation Planning Symposium (October 2004)

  • Gail Dubrow, Associate Professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington
  • Donna Graves, Arts and Cultural Planner, former Executive Director of Power of Place, Los Angeles
  • Diane Matsuda, Executive Officer of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment

2005 California Japantowns Cultural Preservation Planning Symposium (June 2005)

  • Joe Tasutake, Japanese American Museum of San Jose
  • Gail Dubrow, Associate Professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington
  • Donna Graves, Arts and Cultural Planner, former Executive Director of Power of Place, Los Angeles

California Japantown Landmark (June 2005)

  • Unveiled in San Francisco Japantown at the CCLPEP conference
  • Unveiled in front of Issei Memorial Hall, San Jose the fall of 2005
  • Unveiled at Union Center for the Arts, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles on August 16, 2006

Nikkei Community Internship Program (Summer 2005)

  • 12 college students placed at 11 Japanese American community organizations across California.
  • 50 alumni of NCI at the conclusion of the 2005 program
  • formation of an NCI alumni group.

2006 Preserving California’s Japantowns

California Civil Liberties Public Education Program grant

  • Statewide project ot document historic resources 43 pre-World War II Japantowns
  • Principal researchers: Donna Graves (Arts and Cultural Planner) & Gail Dubrow (University of Minnesota)
  • launched http://www.californiajapantowns.org website

Nikkei Community Internship Program (Summer 2006)

  • 14 college students placed at 11 Nikkei community organizations across California.
  • 5th Anniversary celebrated at a community luncheon at the JCCCNC on August 18th.
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