Every day the shop is open, Tom and Judy Kumamaru fold, pinch, and stuff by hand hundreds of manju and mochi in the back room of Shuei-do Manju, the way the Ozawa family did before them for 35 years. Down the block, Kogura Gifts is on its third and fourth generation of the Kogura family, selling origami paper and tea sets from a storefront the family has held since 1934, one year after they first opened across the street in 1928. Neither business moved when the construction fences went up. Neither closed when the new soba restaurant opened a few doors away.

That's the part of Japantown's story that doesn't show up in a list of what's new. This is a three-block stretch of Jackson Street where the newest restaurant and the oldest gift shop are working the same sidewalk, and the neighborhood has added legal recognition, hundreds of new neighbors, and a handful of new storefronts without displacing the businesses that have been there since before most of Silicon Valley existed.

A Cultural District, Made Official in 2025

San Jose's Japantown traces its roots to 1900, when Japanese immigrants working the surrounding farms began settling into what's now a compact stretch of shops, markets, and restaurants along Jackson Street. In 2025, the state made that history official, recognizing the neighborhood as a California Cultural District, one of only three surviving historic Japantowns left in the United States alongside San Francisco's and San Jose's own sister community two counties north.

The designation doesn't rezone anything or change what gets built next. What it does is put a name on something residents already understood: that this particular three-block footprint is worth protecting as a functioning neighborhood, not just a historic marker. The Japantown Business Association still runs the weekly farmers market and coordinates the district's storefronts the same way it did before the designation. The difference is that the state now agrees the district is worth naming.

The Shops That Predate the Designation by Nearly a Century

Kogura Gifts is the clearest example of what the Cultural District is meant to protect. The shop opened in 1928 just across the street from its current spot, moved to 217 Jackson in 1934, and has been run by the same family through four generations since. Where the shelves once held radios and sewing machines, the newest technology of an earlier era, they now hold origami paper, chopsticks, and tea sets.

Shuei-do Manju tells a similar story with a different rhythm. The Ozawa family ran the shop for its first 35 years. The Kumamarus have run it for the 38 years since, which means two families have kept the same hand-folded process going for more than seven decades. No machine replicates what they do, which is part of why the shop still draws a line on weekends.

Neither business needed a cultural district designation to survive this long. What the designation does is acknowledge, formally, that shops like these are the reason people still think of Jackson Street as Japantown rather than just another San Jose block.

What Actually Opened This Year

The newest addition to the neighborhood is Minasan, a shop whose name means "everyone," selling local crafts, vintage t-shirts, and vinyl. It has become something of a gathering point for a younger crowd that didn't grow up shopping at Kogura but is discovering the neighborhood anyway.

The most notable new restaurant is Sora Soba, which sources its buckwheat flour from Hokkaido and Nagano to make soba the traditional way. Its owner, Masao Kuribara, also runs the ramen restaurant Hinodeya next door. His great-grandfather opened the original Hinodeya in Hasuda, Saitama Prefecture, in 1885, which makes the family recipe older than the neighborhood it just moved into.

None of these new businesses replaced an older one. They opened in a district that was simultaneously absorbing its largest housing addition in decades.

Five Hundred New Neighbors Behind the Storefronts

While the old shops kept their doors open, a 518-unit apartment complex called Facet and its adjoining Sixth and Jackson retail space rose on the former city Corporation Yard site, at the edge of the historic three blocks. When construction broke ground, business owners along Taylor Street described construction fencing cutting into half their curbside parking, a real strain for shops that depend on customers finding a spot within a block or two.

That construction phase is behind the district now. The buildings are leased and occupied, with studio units in the Japantown submarket running from roughly $3,228 to $5,473 a month and two-bedrooms reaching into the $7,000s, based on listing data updated in late September 2026. That's a meaningful jump in density for a neighborhood that had gone decades without a project this size.

What didn't happen is displacement of the businesses that came before it. Kogura Gifts, Shuei-do Manju, and the rest of Jackson Street's anchors are still running the same storefronts they had before the cranes showed up. The new residents in Facet and Sixth and Jackson now live a short walk from Kogura Gifts, Shuei-do Manju, and the newer arrivals, which puts a fresh set of regulars within reach of every storefront on Jackson Street.

The Calendar Still Runs on Tradition

The Japanese American Museum of San Jose has kept its own rhythm through all of this. Its current exhibit, "House Meeting(s): Opening the Door for Redress in San Jose," walks through the local history of the Japanese American redress movement, and the museum offers free admission during Obon and other community dates throughout the year. Its annual Summer Sake fundraiser, a sake tasting paired with small bites from neighborhood businesses, draws a crowd every year the tickets go on sale.

Nikkei Matsuri, now in its 48th year, still opens every April with food, performances, and exhibits along Jackson Street. The San Jose Buddhist Church's Obon Festival, held July 11 and 12 in 2026, remains the largest Japanese cultural festival the neighborhood hosts, drawing sushi, teriyaki, folk music, and drumming into the same blocks where the shops sell manju and gifts the rest of the year.

What's Actually on the Calendar This Fall

The event that closes out the year is Halloween in Japantown, held every October 31 since 2003, organized by San Jose Taiko. The event typically runs in the mid-afternoon and early evening, with taiko performances near Fifth Street and Wesley United Methodist Church followed by roving drummers moving through the district. Pre-approved businesses and organizations hand out treats along the way, with participants listed for this year including Nijiya Market, Kazoo Restaurant, Kogura Gifts, and the Japanese American Museum itself.

The event grew large enough by 2017 that organizers began closing streets to handle the crowds safely, a change made with support from the Knight Foundation. What started as a safety-conscious alternative to trick-or-treating on residential blocks is now one of the few nights a year when the entire three-block district, old shops and new ones together, opens its doors at the same time.

Jackson Street didn't get quieter this year, and it didn't get replaced either. The gift shop from 1934 and the soba bar that opened this year are working the same three blocks, and the calendar between them still runs on the same festivals it always has.

Whether you're already walking Jackson Street on your way to Shuei-do Manju or you're weighing what it would mean to live inside a historic district that's still adding new neighbors, the Dapkus Real Estate Team knows this stretch of San Jose block by block. Reach out when you're ready to talk about what a home near Japantown actually costs to buy or sell.