San Francisco Japantown Task Force

DATA SHEET

Place: Japan Center

Address: Adjacent to Post St. (Between Laguna and Webster)

Visual Description:

The Japan Center is a vast, five-acre indoor shopping complex that sprawls over three city blocks bounded by Post, Geary, Laguna, and Fillmore streets. The complex is widely recognized as the main commercial hub of Japantown and is comprised of three separate buildings – the Kintetsu, Miyako, and Kinokuniya malls.  A suspended bridge connects two of the buildings, the Kintetsu and Kinokuniya, over Webster Street (right middle picture); the Peace Plaza, on the other hand, separates the Kintetsu and Miyako malls. The Japan Center contains roughly 90 businesses of all types, including restaurants, specialty shops, and bookstores, many of which provide unique cultural wares and services. At the end of the Kinokuniya mall, tourists can also visit the AMC Kabuki Theatre, which is widely used for local exhibits such as the San Francisco International Film Festival. On the opposite end, visitors can also stay at the Miyako Radisson, a 14-story hotel that features 172 rooms in traditional and modern Japanese décor.

History:

The Japan Center, once known as the Japanese Cultural and Trade Center, officially opened on March 28, 1968 after years of careful planning and development. At the time, the $15 million center comprised a small portion of San Francisco’s redevelopment program, which was designed to ease the devastating effects of internment and “urban renewal” programs that had razed much of Japantown in the 1960’s. The original design for the Japan Center was conceived by Minory Yamasaki, along with the help of Rai Okamoto, a prominent urban planner, and architectural firm Van Bourg, Nakamura and Associates of Berkeley. Another instrumental figure in the development of the Japan Center was Masayuki Tokioka, a Honolulu financier who successfully gathered the resources and business partners to make the center a reality. Initially, the Japan Center was jointly owned by the National-Braemar, a Los Angeles-based Real Estate Company headed by Tokioka, Kintetsu Enterprises of America, and Dream Entertainments, Inc. Currently, Kintetsu Enterprises and Kinokuniya Bookstores of America own the majority of the center.

Significance:

Cultural, Social

Recognition of Significance:

Major tourist attraction; recognized by San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in 1968

Source

Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director, NJAHS; George Yamasaki, former director, National-Braemar

Other Comments: N/A

Prepared By: Young Kim Date Prepared: 9/29/04