Living in a transnational community within a multi-ethnic city: making a localised ‘Japan’ in Los Angeles

The aim of this chapter is to describe the formation of the Japanese community in Los Angeles as a localised form of globalisation. During the economic boom period of the 1980s, several overseas Japanese communities were created in major international economic centres, accompanying a huge flow of Japanese capital. The main argument here is that even such transnational communities of expatriates are deeply embedded within a local context, such that their characteristics are determined along an interconnected nexus of local-national-global relations.