Quote:
Originally Posted by K.O.N.Y
I was just thinking about chinatown and how nyc has three of them. And than i thought about the Japanese, is there a specific neighborhood where a good portion of them live in the city? I find it weird that a neighborhood like that isn't more prominent in a city like new york
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first of all, i could reasonably argue that there are five, maybe six chinese enclaves in the city that have a sufficiently large concentration of chinese residents and businesses to be considered "chinatowns" (even if unofficially) - manhattan's chinatown, flushing, elmhurst, sunset park, homecrest, and increasingly bensonhurst/bath beach, although that's debatable since the area still has its share of longtime italian residents along with tons of russians moving in as well.
but to get to your main point:
there isn't a single neighborhood in the city that is dominated by japanese
residents the way flushing is with chinese and koreans. you'll find a few japanese foreign students and expats in most of the city's hip, gentrified, or yuppified neighborhoods, but the largest concentrations are in lower manhattan (particularly the east village) and midtown east. the former is especially popular with young japanese foreign students/expats enjoying the downtown hipster lifestyle while the latter tends to be populated by middle-aged businessmen and their families who are only in the country for a temporary work assignment (usually five years), having been sent abroad by their employer back in japan.
to be honest, though, i've met japanese who lived all over manhattan, including some urban pioneers in harlem and inwood. basically, you'll find at least a few of them anywhere young white students and hipsters are willing to live.
as others have mentioned, there is also a japanese presence in the hip or gentrified areas of brooklyn such as williamsburg and, to a lesser extent, western queens (primarily long island city, but also sunnyside, woodside, and jackson heights). none of these enclaves are as large as the japanese presence in the east village or midtown east.
i think the reason why there's a relatively large number of japanese in lower manhattan and the east village in particular is because of the proximity to several universities (nyu, parsons, cooper union) that have long had a large concentration of japanese foreign students. st. marks place is definitely their primary cultural hub, with a decently sized concentration of japanese restaurants, food markets, bars, shops, and other businesses catering to their community. many of these spots opened up during the '90s as the area cleaned itself up and became a more mainstream hangout area for young people, which was attractive to the japanese expats.
the east 40s and 50s also have a bunch of japanese businesses (restaurants, sake bars, bookstores, food markets) that primarily cater to the japanese businessmen who live in the area, but are also patronized by the young hipster types who live downtown, brooklyn, and elsewhere.
there is also a fair-sized concentration of japanese residents, eateries, and other businesses (including the aforementioned japanese shopping center, mitsuwa marketplace) in the fort lee area of northern nj. almost all of the japanese who live in that area are businessmen and their families. they used to have a much larger presence there back in the '80s, but their numbers declined in the '90s due to the japanese recession, as companies could no longer afford to send as many employees abroad. that said, north jersey is the biggest japanese enclave in the suburbs and is still popular with the expats -- for example, many of the japanese baseball players who have played for the yanks or mets have lived in fort lee-area high rises during their time in nyc.
when i was a kid, flushing actually had a moderate sized japanese population. this was back when the korean population in the neighborhood was really small and the chinese were virtually nonexistent. once the koreans moved in en masse, though, the japanese bounced. i don't think there are any japanese left in that part of queens nowadays.
also, when i was a kid i knew of a few japanese who lived in brooklyn. i don't think the japanese community ever became very large over there, and over time it shrunk; now it's growing again due to the hipsters/artists/expats who are following the white hipsters to williamsburg, bushwick, and elsewhere.
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