Title: Japanese Americans - Wikipedia
Headings: Japanese Americans
Japanese Americans
Contents
History
Immigration
Internment and redress
Cultural profile
Generations
Languages
Education
Schools for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals
Religion
Celebrations
Major celebrations in the United States
Politics
Genetics
Risk for inherited diseases
Japanese Americans by state
Alaska
California
Connecticut
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Virginia
Washington
Neighborhoods and communities
West
Outside the West
Notable people
Politics
Science and technology
Art and literature
Art and architecture
Literature
Music
Sports
Entertainment and media
Works about Japanese Americans
See also
References
Further reading
In Hawaii
External links

Content: Japanese-American history, Japanese-American life before World War II, and Japanese-American life after World War II
Immigration
A street in Seattle's Nihonmachi in 1909
People from Japan began migrating to the US in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These early Issei immigrants came primarily from small towns and rural areas in the southern Japanese prefectures of Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka and most of them settled in either Hawaii or along the West Coast. The Japanese population in the United States grew from 148 in 1880 (mostly students) to 2,039 in 1890 and 24,326 by 1900. In 1907, the Gentlemen's Agreement between the governments of Japan and the United States ended immigration of Japanese unskilled workers, but permitted the immigration of businessmen, students and spouses of Japanese immigrants already in the US. Prior to the Gentlemen's Agreement, about seven out of eight ethnic Japanese in the continental United States were men. By 1924, the ratio had changed to approximately four women to every six men. Japanese immigration to the U.S. effectively ended when Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924 which banned all but a token few Japanese people. The earlier Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted naturalized United States citizenship to free white persons, which excluded the Issei from citizenship. As a result, the Issei were unable to vote and faced additional restrictions such as the inability to own land under many state laws. Due to these restrictions, Japanese immigration to the United States between 1931-1950 only totaled 3,503 which is strikingly low compared to the totals of 46,250 people in 1951–1960, 39,988 in 1961-70, 49,775 in 1971-80, 47,085 in 1981-90, and 67,942 in 1991-2000.