Japanese American import cars — and those who work to build, drive, drift or race them — have long been synonymous with Southern California car culture.
A panel on Saturday, August 30 will explore the world of import tuners and the roots of the import car scene, held at the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The panel is part of programming for the museum’s ongoing remote exhibit, “Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community,” at the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery in Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design. Admission to the exhibit is free, but ticket reservations, which can be made via janm.org, are recommended.
George Nakamura’s 1940 “Meteor” hot rod is seen in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
With Brian Omatsu’s 1951 Mercury Coupe, the “Purple Reign” behind him, Kent Matsuoka, of LA, checks out artifacts in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Tod Kaneko’s 1973 Datsun 510 is seen in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Ann Nomura, of Pasadena, looks over artifacts in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Mooneyes MOON Disc for hot rods is seen in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Car club jackets and an image from the Nisei Week parade in Los Angeles by Toyo Miyatake is seen at Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A drifting artifact in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena is seen on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A drawing of the Mako Shark by ArtCenter alum Shinoda which became the design for the 1968 Corvette is seen in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Warren Morimoto’s upholstery Singer sewing machine is seen at in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. Morimoto ran MotoStyle in Long Beach and studied at ArtCenter. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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George Nakamura’s 1940 “Meteor” hot rod is seen in Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit at ArtCenter College of Design’s Mullin Gallery in Pasadena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2022. The Japanese American National Museum exhibit in partner with ArtCenter honors Japanese American car culture. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The exhibit, running through November 12, explores the Japanese American car community in Los Angeles, featuring key players in the scene and car lovers alike. It highlights popular models from hot rods and lowriders, to drift cars and vintage classics, and tells the stories of how Asians and Asian Americans expanded the world of imports in the region.
“Young Asian Americans and Japanese Americans have been at the forefront of championing and legitimizing Japanese imports as popular contemporary cars, within contemporary car culture,” said scholar and author Oliver Wang, who will be moderating Saturday’s panel. Wang curated the “Cruising J-Town” exhibition and wrote its companion book featuring essays and images inspired by the stories and histories found in the display. He had been working on the project for nearly a decade.
“Asian Americans have been such a major part, especially in L.A., of the evolution of car culture within the fabric of American culture and society, and yet this is not deeply acknowledged,” Wang said.
The exhibit and Wang’s book illustrate the history and central role both cars and trucks played in the working lives of Japanese-Americans throughout Los Angeles. Through archival photographs, film and memorabilia, it tells the stories of Nikkei — referring to Japanese emigrants and their descendants — gardeners’ prominence in the local economy, made possible by their work trucks, and fish truck drivers called sakanaya, who brought fresh fish and Japanese goods to the postwar suburbs six days a week. It explores different periods of Japanese American history, from L.A.’s Nikkei car culture history, to WWII, post-war car culture and contemporary movements.
“Cruising J-Town” also features five classic cars: George Nakamura’s 1940s “Meteor” hot rod; Brian Omatsu’s custom 1951 Mercury coupe known as the “Purple Reign;” a 1956 Ford F150 pickup truck owned by Kirk Shimazu; Tod Kaneko’s 1973 Datsun 510, one of the models that launched the import car craze; and a hot pink 1989 Nissan 240SX from professional drift racing driver Nadine Sachiko Toyoda-Hsu.
Iconic L.A. car culture locations — such as the original Ascot Speedway in South L.A., F&K Garage in Little Tokyo, sites of the Mojave dry lake racing scene, Lion’s Drag Strip, and the Irwindale Speedway — are highlighted as well.
At Saturday’s event, panelists will explore how Japanese Americans helped to “legitimize” Japanese import cars to be seen as more “sexy and reliable, popular outside of being utilitarian,” throughout the last four decades, Wang said. Speakers with deep knowledge of import history from the 1970s and on will explore its wide spectrum — from Nikkei community racing and San Gabriel Valley Asians who popularized the Honda Civic and Acura Integra, to the way once-overlooked imports — from manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Acura and Subaru — have transformed into hot sellers with a huge fanbase.
The panel also features Terry Yamaguchi, one of the founders of the Japanese Classic Car Show, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in October.
Panelist Roy Nakano, editor of LACar.com, has personal family and friends’ stories featured in the “Cruising” exhibit. Nakano was excited to tell the story of Doug Endo, who was believed to have owned and built the first tuned Datsun 510 in Gardena, regarded as “the incubator” of that model’s street tuner community.
“There are so many ancillary programs and events that have allowed an opportunity for different segments of the Japanese American car culture to come together — sometimes meeting each other for the first time,” Nakano said. “The ‘Cruising J-Town’ project has really served as a wonderful way for the broad car culture community to meet each other and come together.”
Agreed Wang, “Asian Americans drive — pun intended — this movement, making the import scene what we know today. I hope it might motivate other people and institutions to do similar projects about the ways Asian Americans have been shaped by and laid down their own influence on different areas of popular culture; in the realm of cars, film, music, food, you name it. There are so many blind spots that could have a spotlight on them.”
Saturday’s panel is at the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Center, 100 North Central Avenue in Los Angeles, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for general admission, and free for youth and JANM members.
The full “Cruising J-Town” free exhibit is open at the Mullin Gallery at ArtCenter in Pasadena through Nov. 12.
Staff writer Charlie Vargas contributed to this report.
Originally Published: August 30, 2025 at 6:45 AM PDT
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