JANM’s Discover Nikkei Project Celebrates Twenty Years of Global Community with February 8 Festival

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – Discover Nikkei, a web-based project of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) that promotes connections and understanding among the global Japanese diaspora, will launch a year-long celebration of the online community’s twentieth anniversary with a festival celebrating Nikkei family stories on Saturday, February 8, 2025, from 12 p.m.–7:30 p.m. PST. The event at JANM’s Plaza and Democracy Center will also celebrate the launch of new community features, offered in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese, which will further connect its half-million users. Tickets to Discover Nikkei Fest are available at janm.org/DiscoverNikkeiFest.

The festival includes a free community fair from 12 p.m.–3 p.m. featuring booths from Nikkei organizations, family-friendly crafts, an opportunity drawing, and a rubber stamp rally. 

Discover Nikkei Fest will also include six workshops on collecting and preserving family stories, a panel discussion with guest speakers from around the world, and a reception with musical performances and a variety of foods, snacks, and beverages enjoyed by people of Japanese descent in the US, South America, and around the world. All access tickets that include the workshops, panel, and reception are $15 ($5 youth/students, free for JANM Members). 

The workshops will be offered from 12 p.m.–3 p.m. on topics of journaling, video life history interview tips, Nikkei Genealogy 101, artifact preservation, a poetry workshop, and collecting seniors’ memories. 

At 3:30 p.m., Edgar award-winning author Naomi Hirahara will moderate the panel discussion “Sharing International Nikkei Family Stories” with aerospace engineer and Discover Nikkei contributor Mitch Homma, Australian Nikkei historian and business owner Andrew Hasegawa, Peruvian film director and artist Harumi López Higa, award-winning Argentine singer-songwriter Gus Hokama, and Brazilian journalist Jorge Okubaro. The discussion will be presented in-person and via Zoom with simultaneous translation in English, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese. The in-person event is included in the all-access tickets. The virtual event is free. 

A reception from 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. features musical performances by Hokama, Ryukyoku Matsuri Daiko Los Angeles, and John Azama; Nikkei, a photo booth; and a silent auction, and a chance for participants can connect and reflect after the day’s activities. The menu for the reception is inspired by the intersection of Japanese food traditions and those of different cultures around the world such as Hawai‘i, Peru, and Brazil.

Discover Nikkei’s celebration of its twentieth anniversary will continue throughout 2025 with virtual and hybrid public programs, events, and activities to celebrate the milestone with its global community.

Discover Nikkei Fest is sponsored by The Nippon Foundation, the Port of Long Beach, and Orion, with generous support from Akira and Hisako Nerio Imamura and family. The Media sponsor is The Rafu Shimpo. In-kind donations are provided by Yakult U.S.A. Inc, Morinaga, Aquamar, and Orion Breweries, LTD, Day-Lee Foods, Inc., ITO EN (North America) INC, Bandai Namco, and King’s Hawaiian.

###

About Discover Nikkei

DiscoverNikkei.org is a major online resource that brings together the voices and experiences of Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants), who have created communities throughout the world. The multilingual website—available in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese—documents Nikkei history and culture and provides learning and networking tools for Nikkei around the world. At the same time, it seeks to explore the diverse and ever-changing meaning of the term Nikkei. The site’s rich multimedia content includes excerpts from life history interviews, first-person stories and essays, journalistic profiles, research papers, opinion pieces, short fiction, and listings for events worldwide. Since 2005, Discover Nikkei has published articles by over 1,400 writers from twenty-five countries worldwide. Diverse virtual offerings, including multilingual programs exploring the global Nikkei diaspora, have drawn over 500 attendees from twenty-two countries, and engagement continues to grow. Discover Nikkei is completing work on a major website redesign, along with new features and expanded functionality. Future plans for site development, new content initiatives, public programs, and more are being developed. The establishment, redesign, and maintenance of Discover Nikkei is made possible by the Nippon Foundation. For more information, visit discovernikkei.org or follow us on social media @discovernikkei and @descubranikkei.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over 100 exhibitions onsite while traveling 40 exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.