Erich Nakano, executive director of Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), says his journey to housing and community development began with three events. An activist whose parents sought to amplify stories about Japanese internment in the United States, Nakano says friends, family and fellow college students all shined lights on a path to working with the community he loved.
The 1970s
In the 1970s, Nakano dropped out of college and began working at a warehouse. It was there that he first met activists fighting evictions and displacement in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.
One of the three remaining Japantowns in the U.S., Little Tokyo was a cultural center for his family. He

A family connection
The second part of his journey came when his parents, Lillian and Bert Nakano, became organizers in a reparation movement for men and women who had been placed in U.S. Japanese internment camps during World War II. After their fathers lost businesses in Hawaii, they’d been relocated to camps in the continental U.S.: Rowher, Arkansas, Heart Mountain, Wyoming and Tule Lake, California.

Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, with compensation for detainees. Nakano says he hopes the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act (HR 40) brings similar results by putting stories in the public eye. "Stories are powerful," he says.
Working across cultures
The third experience that moved Nakano toward LTSC came in the 1980s, when he returned to college

Protecting Little Tokyo
Nakano says he wanted a career rooted in the Japanese American community, protecting Little Tokyo and communities like it. He wanted to continue collaborating with other communities of color. While attending UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, he got an internship with LTSC, and stayed.
As deputy director, he helped develop a small business assistance collaborative and an affordable housing collaborative. Most of the affordable housing LTSC has built was created in partnership with other organizations in communities of color.
"Race and ethnicity is something that’s always there," he says. "Pushing for racial equality is always part of the issues we take up, whether it’s housing or human services."

The pandemic, for example, disparately impacted communities of color, which also saw inequities in vaccine distribution, he says. "Part of what we do is bring that to light, put it on the table, advocate for change and make the change happen ourselves, like organizing community-based vaccine clinics in Little Tokyo to ensure low-income seniors and residents got their shots."
Under Nakono’s leadership, LTSC spun off a development corporation that grew exponentially before being remerged with the organization, recalls Joshua Ishimatsu, director of real estate for LTSC until 2009.

Nakano became LTSC’s executive director in 2019 after the death of longtime Executive Director Dean Matsubayashi. "It was a hard time for the organization," Nakano says. The pandemic followed.
After years in a behind-the-scenes role, Nakano was now front and center. Emphasis on collaboration remains a part of his daily life. "I try to create teams that can collectively address various issues and questions facing the organization," he says. "I rely on the staff who know what is happening on the ground and how to best move things forward."
This month, LTSC announced the expansion of a project with Go For Broke, increasing Little Tokyo’s footprint and bringing more housing, commercial space, open space and walkways. Nakano is optimistic about Little Tokyo’s future – and the nation’s, he says. He hopes significant affordable housing and revitalization packages will pass through Congress, and that the inspiring movement for racial justice over the past year will lead to real change.
And he hopes people of different groups will continue to work together and collaborate for their collective future. "As an activist, I railed against injustice," he says. "At LTSC, we speak out but also work to create justice.
"The destinies of communities of color are interconnected," he adds. "We absolutely have to work together to fight for resources and work for systemic change."