Japantown

About Japantown

Japantown is a small neighborhood in the Western Addition, centered on the Japan Center malls and the Peace Pagoda. It is one of three remaining Japantowns in the United States, along with those in Los Angeles and San Jose.

The History

Japanese immigrants began settling in this part of the Western Addition in the years around the 1906 earthquake, and the area grew into a dense community known as Nihonmachi. In 1942, under Executive Order 9066, the federal government forced Japanese American residents into incarceration camps, and the neighborhood emptied. African American workers who had come to the city for wartime jobs moved into the vacated housing. After the war, some Japanese American families returned, but a 1960s redevelopment program cleared many of the original blocks and replaced them with the Japan Center, which opened in 1968. The Peace Pagoda, a five-tiered concrete tower designed by the architect Yoshiro Taniguchi, was built with contributions from the sister city of Osaka and dedicated that year.

What to See and Do

The Japan Center is a pair of indoor malls connected across Webster Street, with bookstores, stationery and ceramics shops, restaurants. The Buchanan Mall, an open-air pedestrian block paved in the style of a Japanese village street, runs north from the malls and holds two origami-fold fountains by the sculptor Ruth Asawa. Kabuki Springs and Spa is a Japanese bathhouse with hot and cold pools, a steam room, and a sauna.