Japantown formed in the late 1800s as a cluster of boardinghouses for Japanese men who had come to the Santa Clara Valley seeking farm labor and other work. It grew up just west of Heinlenville, the Chinatown settlement established in 1887 on the block bounded by Sixth, Seventh, Taylor, and Jackson Streets. The two communities existed side by side -- Japanese and Chinese immigrants drawn to the same corridor of affordable housing near the fields and orchards that employed them. Initially, the residents were overwhelmingly male, single men sending money home. Over time, families formed, businesses opened, and the neighborhood took on the cultural institutions that would define it: churches, language schools, shops selling goods imported from Japan. Two churches founded by Japanese immigrants over a century ago -- Wesley United Methodist Church and San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin -- still stand on Fifth Street today.

The history that Japantown does not discuss loudly is the one shared by every Japanese American community on the West Coast: Executive Order 9066 and the forced internment of 1942. When families returned after the war, many found their businesses gone and their property sold. Rebuilding was slow, quiet, and stubborn. What makes San Jose's Japantown remarkable is that it rebuilt at all. In San Francisco, redevelopment agencies demolished much of the original Japantown in the 1960s and 1970s. In Los Angeles, Little Tokyo shrank under similar pressures. San Jose's neighborhood held on, partly because it was smaller and drew less developer interest, and partly because community organizations fought to preserve it. The Japantown Community Congress, formed in partnership with the city, took on cultural preservation explicitly, backed by California Senate Bill 307.

Walk through Japantown today and you encounter something more complex than a heritage district. The Japanese American Museum of San Jose moved into a new building in 2010. San Jose Taiko, one of the first taiko drumming groups in North America, rehearses and performs here. Nijiya Market stocks Japanese groceries. But Japantown is also home to Mexican, Hawaiian, and Korean restaurants -- a reflection of how neighborhoods evolve even as they preserve a core identity. The last hand-made tofu shop closed in 2017 after seventy-one years, a loss the community mourned. A year-round certified farmers market run by the Japantown Business Association keeps the streets active. In March 2021, the community organized citizen foot patrols in response to a wave of attacks on Asian Americans -- a reminder that the threats to this neighborhood are not only historical.

Fifth Street runs straight from Japantown to the new San Jose City Hall, and this is no accident. The Fifth and Jackson Landmark was designed to be visible from City Hall itself, a beacon and a reminder of the people who helped build the city. It is part of the California Japantown Landmarks Project, which created permanent outdoor monuments in San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles -- connecting the three surviving communities across hundreds of miles. The festivals remain the neighborhood's heartbeat. Obon in July honors ancestors with dance and drumming. Nikkei Matsuri arrives every spring. Aki Matsuri comes in the fall. A newer addition, the Spirit of Japantown Festival, adds another layer. The VTA light rail stops at Japantown/Ayer station, making this one of the most accessible cultural districts in the South Bay. The neighborhood is small enough to walk in an hour and deep enough to occupy an afternoon.