Japantown, often called J-Town, began as boardinghouses for Japanese men just west of the 1887 Heinlenville Chinatown. Families followed, and by 1941 there were 53 businesses. The local Asahi baseball club beat the visiting Tokyo Giants in 1935. During World War II Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from Japantown and incarcerated in camps; many came back after the war. The future mayor Norman Mineta was among those sent to the camps.
With San Francisco’s Japantown and Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, it is one of the last three historic Japantowns in the country. Fifth Street holds the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin and Wesley United Methodist Church, both founded more than a century ago. The Japanese American Museum of San Jose, San Jose Taiko and the Shuei-do Manju Shop are here, along with a year-round farmers market.