LA Business Journal posted an article today about the influx of Korean business owners snatching up property in the aging and not quite dead Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Most recently, the Little Tokyo Shopping Center, which I can say is probably the largest retail-related building in the area, was bought by Korean-American investors.
So what’s next? While it’s not new that non-Japanese people and businesses have taken stock in Little Tokyo, this will be the first big development aimed at the Korean community who have been moving into the area.
Their plans call for a renovation of the shopping center to accommodate new tenants in three anchor spaces: a Korean market that’s about 30 percent larger than its counterparts in Koreatown; a full-service Korean spa with various herbal steam rooms; and an electronics retailer.
This is a little sad to me. The Mistuwa grocery store (previously Yaohan) has been a staple for the Japanese American community in the area. For as long as I could remember, my grandparents, parents and occasionally me (but only for Japanese pastries because I’m fat like that), have frequented the shopping center for all of their cooking/food needs. Granted, we could most probably do the same with a Korean market, but there’s nothing like having a giant Japanese version of Vons in the neighborhood.
Usually, developments that encroach upon Little Tokyo make me mad — but what can you do when it helps foster another (way larger) Asian community? To me, it’s such a historical area and further proof that the Japanese American population has been around for ages. I know there are other better Japanese neighborhoods around Los Angeles, but where else can you walk around a place where fellow Asians have been frequenting since the early 1900’s?
It’s just another sign that the Little Tokyo as we once knew it has slowly been dying away. Sad… but I hope they share the Korean BBQ.
(Flickr photo credit: Steven Williams)
Other posts you might be interested in:
Blog RSS Blog Comments RSS
Ernie wrote:
And totally already happened in the Japantown in SF. Makes sense as there are fewer immigrants from Japan and they acclimate fully into American culture.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
“Acclimate fully into American culture.”
Hmmm.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 1:46 pm | Permalink
Efren wrote:
joz: Indeed. Come on, Joz, say something.
Besides, up in NorCal, the major JA populations are in San Jose and San Mateo who historically moved there after WW2. The Japantown in San Jose has always been bigger and more sustainable than the ones up here, though it is sad. It reminds me of the barely surviving Manilatown in South of Market here in SF, since most of the Filipino immigrants are elsewhere in the City, with only a small portion there.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 1:57 pm | Permalink
Moye wrote:
I always thought it was the opposite. There are Japanese people moving to the US, but they don’t acclimate to the culture; their move is only temporary before they return to Japan. Of course, this is all based on my personal experiences so I could be totally wrong.
I think the newer generation of Japanese Americans/Japanese immigrants are totally different from those who have been living here before WW2. I always thought that maybe the heyday of Little Tokyo is just disappearing with the generation that built it.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 2:26 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
Alrighty, I wasn’t going to go off on this, but I think I need clarification on Ernie’s comment:
“…there are fewer immigrants from Japan and they acclimate fully into American culture.”
I read it once and assumed you meant that as each generation of Japanese/Japanese Americans passes, then the “need” for an ethic neighborhood like this decreases…
Then I re-read it again and realized you didn’t say anything about Japanese Americans or generations and that I was just jumping to conclusions. Are you implying that (recent) Japanese immigrants come here and acclimate fully into American culture (because America and Japan are similar in certain ways, like economically and technologically)?
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 2:48 pm | Permalink
Grace Chu wrote:
“Makes sense as there are fewer immigrants from Japan and they acclimate fully into American culture.”
Hey do you mean that there isn’t the type of critical mass that slows acclimation into the culture (by allowing an insular community to form)… or do you mean that, because the Japanese, as a group, has been the U.S. longer than other Asian-Americans, they have, over several generations, integrated into the culture.
Either way, I’d agree.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
Chu:
Great minds think alike.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 3:13 pm | Permalink
Little Tokyo to get a little littler | Los Angeles Metblogs wrote:
[...] h/t: Moye at 8Asians: LA Japantown to become KoreaJapantown? [...]
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 4:22 pm | Permalink
The latter. But since you bring up the former, I agree with that point too. But I was inferring the latter.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 5:01 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
Huh, I think the Japantown in SF is still a Japantown. Maybe I am oblivious, but I don’t know of any Korean or Chinese restaurant or stores in Japantown SF.
I don’t think that many Japanese (relative to let’s say China) emigrate to the U.S. anymore since the standard of living in Japan has always been the highest in Asia.
Posted on 02-Jun-08 at 11:35 pm | Permalink
Grace Chu wrote:
OMG joz we were writing our responses at the same time and I didn’t see yours until today. So (belated) JINX.
Posted on 03-Jun-08 at 7:38 am | Permalink
Bo wrote:
A ‘Little Tokyo’ sprouted up around 8th St and 3rd Ave in New York during the last decade to support the community of young Japanese pseudo-artists taking up residents before returning to Japan after a couple of months/years. There is a larger Japanese community Ft. Lee, NJ and a HUGE Japanese grocery store.
Posted on 03-Jun-08 at 9:24 pm | Permalink
sc wrote:
Hmm…not really a big deal just look at Chinatown in LA, many stories are now Vietnamese or Vietnamese/Chinese owned. I mean the only people living in the Chinatown are are recent immigrants and the elderly like my grandmother. I rather see the area occupied by other Asian Americans rather than it be shuttered due to changes in demographics.
This is really nothing new demographics change all the time, I’m sure many Japanese have moved to Torrance/Garenda that used to live/frequent JTown, just like Chinese have moved to SGV, Rowland Heights area and Irvine, while Koreans from KTown to Diamond Bar, Garden Grove, Cerritos.
Posted on 04-Jun-08 at 10:04 am | Permalink
Fumio wrote:
San Francisco Japantown is under a new ownership. We propose design ideas for the future Japantown. http://www.projectjt.com
Posted on 08-Jul-08 at 5:05 pm | Permalink
Sam Stew wrote:
Dear Sirs:
The declining status of the “Japantowns” in both LA and S.F.
are quite obvious from the economic facts of the late
1980’s to 1990’s.
The average Japanese manufacturing wage has gone
exponentially up from post-WW II (1941 - 1945),
near starvation wages, up to y. 2000 $27.50 [US $/hour],
even exceeding the average US manufacturing wages of
y. 2000 $26.50 [US $/hour] (only exceeded world-wide
by Finland at y. 2000 $28.50 [US $/hour]).
While the post-Korean War average manufacturing wage
has gone up from near ’starvation wages’ up to y. 2000
about $16.50 [US $/hour].
The post-Chairman Dung Shou Pang, PRC manufacturing
wages are at y. 2000 $0.50 [US $/hour].
The huge 1960’s to 1980’s Japanese trade deficit with
the US, has slowly shifted during the late 1980’s,
to the lower average manufacturing
wages of S. Korea, and also during the mid-1990’s
to 2000’s to the PRC. In y. 2007, Japan was at
about ‘balanced trade’ with the US, only exceeded
by annual ‘balanced trade’ between Canada and the
US.
The quite massive [US $/year] US Asian trade deficits,
once in the 1960’s - 1980’s, going to Japanese banks to
re-cycle in the US, are now going to the booming S.
Korean banks, and the PRC opening bank branches
in the US. Japan thus went through a 17 year
recession from 1990 - 2008, itself having to
‘export manufacturing labor’ to Malaysia, and then
to the PRC, to stay cost competitive with ‘Made in
Japan’ exports from Japan.
The economic impact from the above,
has ‘trickled down’ to the Japantowns
in LA and S.F., plus the sansei and
yonsei American-Japanese have chosen
not to live in the Japantowns of their
ancestors, but, like to visit repeatedly
to refresh their history and culture.
In order to keep the 2000’s LA and S.F. Japantowns
a highest priority, historic and cultural jewels, and also
economically viable to serve future generations of
American-Japanese, I think it is rational to convert
them to “Pan-Asian Centers: Japan, S. Korea, PRC,
and Asian-Pacific Islander and other Asian such
as Philippino”, “A Taste of Asia Centers,” or “A
Touch of Asia Centers,” making the Japanese
National Museum in LA, the focal point and anchor
of the ‘Japanese corner’ of the ‘Pan Asian Center.’
Txs,
Sam Stew
A Concerned Citizen
Posted on 26-Jul-08 at 2:14 am | Permalink